The Disappearance of Michael Lee Pickering, April 1971

1970 graduation photo. Accessed from NamUs.

On Friday, April 16, 1971, Michael Pickering, 20, told his family that he was hitchhiking to San Francisco, and that he would return in a few days. However, he never returned to his home in Victorville, San Bernardino County, CA. He has never been seen or heard from again. Few details are available in his case.

Michael is a white male who also goes by the nickname "Zappa." At the time of his disappearance he was 6'0 to 6'1 and 130 to 140 lbs. He has blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair, which appears in photos to be wavy to curly in texture. His right ear is reportedly deformed. It is unknown what he was wearing when he was last seen.

A photo of Michael as a child. Accessed from NamUs.

Michael is classified on the Doe Network as Endangered Missing. His date of birth is December 14, 1950. If alive today he would be 74 years old. He seems to have graduated from high school in 1970.

Michael's DNA is available for comparison, while his dentals and fingerprints are not. There are 29 UIDs on his NamUs exclusion list, three of which were found in California in the 2010s, with the remaining 26 being recovered in Virginia. 

Michael is not listed in the CA DOJ's missing persons database, and there is no profile for him on the Charley Project. His NamUs case, #MP26804, was created on November 17, 2014 and last updated April 27, 2018. According to the same site, the "Date Reported" is November 12, 2014, five days before the NamUs profile was created.

A photo of Michael from when he was younger. Accessed from NamUs.

As is always the case with missing persons who were reported years after their disappearance (unless it's specifically noted), it is possible that he was originally reported missing earlier in time, closer in proximity to when he went missing, but that the original report was lost/destroyed so a new one was filed; or he simply wasn't actually reported missing at all until 2014.

Anyone with information in Michael's case is urged to contact Investigator Robert Hunter of the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner at (909) 387-2978 or by emailing bhunter@sbcsd.org. The agency case number is 071404352.

Sources

NamUs

WebSleuths 

Doe Network

Count Every Mystery blog 

National Missing Person Directory