The Disappearance of Steven William Downes, February 1976

Photo of Steven Downes published in the Feb. 6, 1976 edition of the San Francisco Examiner.

Steven William Downes was last seen on the afternoon of Sunday, February 1, 1976, when he was seen swimming at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. According to friends, Steven was only wearing gray shorts when he was last seen. He lived on Greenview Court in San Francisco at the time. Very few details are available in his case.

Steven was a 22-year-old white male who was 6'0 to 6'1 and 160 lbs. He has brown hair, green eyes, and freckles. A photo of him posted in the SF Examiner shortly after he went missing shows him with chin to shoulder length hair, as well as a beard and mustache. His facial hair is curly, and his head hair is wavy in texture. His date of birth is February 8, 1953; if alive today he would be 72 years old.

A less recent photo of Steven. From NamUs.

Steven's dental x-rays are not available for comparison, while the availability of other identifiers, such as his fingerprints or DNA, is unknown. There are 27 exclusions on his NamUs page, including Vacaville John Doe 1979 and Malheur County (OR) John Doe 1977. His NamUs case, #MP33012, was created and last updated on March 20, 2016 and July 15, 2024, respectively.

Anyone with information regarding Steven is urged to contact the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) at (415) 553-0123. The agency case number is 76-3037334. The SFPD Missing Persons page also provides the email SFPDMissingPersonsUnit@sfgov.org as a point of contact. Any little piece of information counts.

Furthermore, according to the CA DOJ's missing persons database, "If you think you know the whereabouts of any person, BEFORE TAKING ANY ACTION, please contact the law enforcement agency listed in the record, or the California Department of Justice at 1-800-222-FIND (24 hour nationwide toll-free Hotline) or (916) 210-3119, or email us [CA DOJ] at missing.persons@doj.ca.gov." According to the same site, individuals seeking to contact CA DOJ regarding a missing person can use the email form here.

Sources

NamUs 

CA DOJ

WebSleuths 

Doe Network

Charley Project 

SF Examiner 2/6/76 

Note: While this write-up was originally published on July 6, 2025, I regularly revisit cases, fix any typos or formatting errors, check for updates, ensure that I have exhausted all sources, etc. When edits are extensive, I re-post the write-up entirely. This post was last updated on December  25, 2025.