James Bernard Liedtka was 28 years old when he disappeared from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in the early morning hours of November 4, 2018. He is listed as a male, Asian, with black hair and brown eyes, standing about 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing roughly 160 to 170 pounds. That night began as a social evening on Water Street, a busy area in Eau Claire, where James had gone out with friends.
Online missing-person listings describe him as a UW-Stout student, and other reporting has described him as a veteran, placing him at a point in life where he was connected to school, family, friends, and a future that should have continued beyond that night.
As the evening moved into the early morning, James became separated from the people he had been with. He had phone contact with one of them at about 12:25 a.m. on Sunday, November 4, 2018, which became one of the last known direct points of contact before he vanished. Before the final confirmed sighting, he had reportedly been at Shenanigans and then Pioneer Bar while out with the group. The most widely reported and official detail is that surveillance video captured James at approximately 1:13 a.m., walking eastbound on Water Street in the 300-400 block area behind the Pickle Tavern, heading toward the bike trail. He was alone in that footage, and that image of him walking away into the early morning became the last confirmed sighting of him.
At the time he disappeared, James was reported to be wearing a short-sleeved maroon T-shirt, light blue jeans with ripped knees, and a baseball cap. Charley Project’s case summary describes the shirt as maroon with a circular design on the front, and official Wisconsin missing-person materials list the same general clothing, along with his physical description. These details matter because they are among the few concrete identifiers tied to his last known movements: a young man, dressed casually for a night out, seen walking by himself near Water Street and the bike trail, and then never returning to the routines and people who expected to hear from him again.
After James was reported missing, Eau Claire police investigated the area and the circumstances around his disappearance. A February 2019 local report, citing the Eau Claire Police Department, stated that James was reported missing on Monday, November 5, 2018. According to that report, telephone records showed his last phone activity on November 4, 2018, at 8:25 p.m., and GPS information provided to police led investigators to the 1100 block of Menomonie Street near the Chippewa River. Police reviewed surveillance footage from six businesses in the Water Street area and said James appeared to be alone throughout the footage in which he was seen. Investigators also searched his financial records, interviewed friends, relatives, and witnesses, and searched his residences in Menomonie and Eau Claire, but reported that they did not find signs that he was having problems with anyone or that anything suspicious was involved in his disappearance.
Search efforts included both land and water searches. The Eau Claire Police Department reported four ground searches and three water searches, with the Eau Claire Fire Department and Bruce’s Legacy assisting in water searches using sonar and imaging equipment. Those searches focused on areas connected to his last known movements and the phone-location information near the Chippewa River. Despite those efforts, public case summaries continue to state that James has not been seen or heard from since he vanished after leaving the Water Street area. The continued absence of confirmed answers has left his family and community with a painful uncertainty, where every known detail remains important because even a small piece of information could help clarify what happened after he walked toward the bike trail.
James Liedtka’s case is the story of a 28-year-old man who went out with friends in Eau Claire, became separated from them in the early morning hours of November 4, 2018, and was last captured on surveillance walking alone behind the Pickle Tavern toward the bike trail near Water Street. He was a UW-Stout student, remembered in public accounts as a veteran, and he was wearing a maroon T-shirt, ripped light blue jeans, and a baseball cap when he disappeared. Investigators reviewed video, phone activity, financial records, residences, and witness accounts, and conducted multiple searches on land and in the water, yet the public record still centers on the same final image: James walking eastbound in the 300-400 block of Water Street at 1:13 a.m., with no confirmed contact afterward. The overview of the case is a deeply troubling disappearance from a well-known Eau Claire nightlife area, marked by a clear last sighting, extensive investigative work, no public resolution in the sources reviewed, and an enduring need for information about what happened to James Bernard Liedtka after he was last seen.Last Seen: Nov 4, 2018
