Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 3, 1994 TAG: 9401030024
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
\ Fifteen years ago on New Year's Day, Jan Schoechle left his Sturbridge Square apartment, telling his roommate he was going for a walk.
He hasn't been seen since.
It is the Blacksburg Police Department's longest-active missing-person case. About once a year, Schoechle's Social Security number is fed into a national police computer to see if anything turns up.
The most common theories: Schoechle (pronounced Sheckley), a Virginia Tech engineering student, either pulled off the perfect disappearance or killed himself.
Schoechle's disappearance still puzzles police and family members.
Schoechle, 23 in 1979, declined his roommate's offer of breakfast and left their apartment wearing a medium-weight coat, denim jeans and boots and carrying a duffel bag. His roommate left town for a few days and returned to find the coat and bag back at the apartment. Schoechle also had left $70 in cash and had paid all of his bills.
A missing-person report was filed Jan. 3, 1979.
Schoechle had left his paperwork in a place in his room where it would quickly be found. All of his identification, except a Tech ID, was left behind.
Did he simply drop out of society? Commit suicide? Or was he the victim of foul play?
Lt. Walter Mosby, a sergeant at the time, handled the case for then-Chief Robert Broyles.
Mosby said he occasionally reflects on the case, wondering what happened to Schoechle. "Yeah, it's one of those. You may never know whether he's in hiding or what may have happened."
Mosby said the department's evidence technician still is holding the file, and checks are made when information comes in that could relate to the case - such as an unidentified body found elsewhere. Police also entered Schoechle's missing gun into police information networks as stolen.
Schoechle - described by friends as a devout Bible student who became concerned about the morality of his generation - had black hair, a mustache and a close-cut beard, and often wore glasses and contact lenses at the same time. Police notified ophthalmologists across the state, because his prescription was so strong as to be unusual.
One friend told police: "He was always trying to think up the perfect mystery and . . . would be capable of disappearing for seven years and then returning."
It's been more than twice that long.
"I'd say the chances are just as good that he's alive as he's dead," Mosby said. "It's not hard to hide oneself in the United States."
Blacksburg police conducted ground and air searches for Schoechle in the days after his disappearance.
"We took the state police helicopter. . . . I always felt that the following fall, the hunters down in that area would find him," Capt. William Brown said.
But others thought they had seen or heard from Schoechle. In the Blacksburg Kroger. Standing near the New River in Pearisburg, looking lost. Calling a real estate agent about a house in the country and using his middle name, Beecher, as his surname. On a flight to Hawaii. And one friend told police he received a religious tract in the mail that he believed was from Schoechle.
The tract arrived in 1983 with a scribbled note: "Do you remember me?"
As the case got older and the trail colder, Schoechle's name slipped from news reports. But his father, George Schoechle, fought hard to keep the case alive, staying in regular contact with Blacksburg police, local media, religious organizations, legislators and anyone else he thought could help.
He kept up an exhaustive search for his son for years.
"They mentioned him on the `Donahue' program, and a girl called who had been on a plane to Hawaii. . . . She said this young man was on the plane, and she was sure it was Jan," said George Schoechle's wife, Bernice Schoechle.
The woman recalled that the young man had returned from the plane's bathroom remarking that the "lavatory was a fire hazard," Bernice Schoechle said. That sounded like something her stepson - an electronics buff - would say.
George Schoechle was unsuccessful in getting a copy of the airplane's seating arrangement for that flight, his wife said. Later, she and her husband went to Maui in search of Jan, visiting a Christian retreat there.
"[George Schoechle] was desperately hoping that this was Jan, because he would be all right," Bernice Schoechle said.
The Schoechles left Jan Schoechle's bank account open. It was never touched.
Eventually, George Schoechle had his son declared dead.
George Schoechle died in 1987.
Bernice Schoechle said during a telephone interview last week that she thinks of her stepson often, especially at this time of year when the telephone rings.
"I still keep thinking . . . maybe he'll show up," she said from her home in Falls Church.
She recalled that her stepson had remarked that it might be fun to disappear. She is still curious about what happened to him, but she doesn't know what she can do that her late husband had not already tried.
"You know, you always keep wondering . . . maybe he will come back," Bernice Schoechle said. "I don't know, what does one do at this stage of the game?"
by CNB