Mystery man still missing after a year
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

Jeffrey Howard

Family members of the missing Jeffrey Scott Howard are hoping for this Christmas miracle: Their loved one shows up somewhere, remembering who he is after suffering from amnesia for the past year.

The last time Howard was seen was around 2:30 a.m. Dec. 21, 2006, when his wife, Thuc, spoke to him. In a missing person report filed with police, Thuc said her husband had complained of having a headache. When she woke up at around 5 a.m., he was gone. So was his burgundy 2003 Hyundai Elantra. No one has reported seeing her husband or his car since.

Howard was reportedly under stress at the time of his disappearance, taking exams to get licensed in real estate and as a mortgage broker, getting ready to start a new job and helping care for his newborn infant.

He passed his tests. The results came after he was reported missing. His daughter has had her first birthday and lots of other firsts without her dad. His family is surviving and doing okay, said his father, Stan Howard.

Over the past year everything anyone could think of has been done to find Jeffrey Howard. Police have searched by ground and air. Friends with planes have searched by air. Family members have driven thousands of miles searching for him and his car. Posters have been put up wherever they thought Howard could possibly be, including ranger stations at state and national parks. Mexican officials have also searched for him and his car. His family even worked with a well-known psychic for awhile.

"The psychic didn't turn out. Every time she talked to us she described a different place he was. Maybe that means he's alive," Stan Howard said.

Whatever it meant, it wasn't helpful, he said, because the psychic couldn't even pin down his location to a particular state.

Missing persons organizations, television shows and data bases have been contacted to make sure everyone has all the information they need, including photos, dental records, fingerprints and DNA.

It's a mystery, Stan Howard said; no one has any clue at all. But they still have hope. They hope he has amnesia and will show up alive somewhere, he said. "There's not been any closure."

This year Howard's mother and father came from their home in Arizona to Thousand Oaks and had Thanksgiving dinner with their son's wife and their granddaughter- just like they did a year ago, the last time they saw their son.

"He was upbeat last year. We didn't have any idea what was going to happen," Stan Howard said.

Then his son disappeared, and Stan describes Christmas and the following months as "very bad times for us."

With posters up everywhere, sometimes people come out of the woodwork.

One woman told a beauty salon owner she was once a psychic for the FBI and she knew where Jeffrey Howard was. She ended up talking to a family member and insisted the missing man was in Carson City, Nev.; she drew a map to where she said he was. The family drove to Nevada and searched for Howard according to the psychic's instructions. They spoke with people the woman told them to seek out. There was no sign of Howard. The family went to police and left a flier, but nothing ever came of it.

Detectives have tracked Jeffrey Howard's financial dealings. There appears to be no record of anyone using items such as his ATM or credit cards. He's described as a white male, 6 feet tall, with a medium build, brown hair and green eyes. His car's California license plate is 5KRP048.

"We don't know if he was carjacked, or kidnapped or what happened to him. We just don't know," his father said.

Anyone with information about Howard is asked to call Thousand Oaks detectives at (805) 494-8201.