A sense of unease settled over those who knew Howard Frederick Kley, a 53-year-old senior engineer for Shell Oil, when he failed to meet his business associates on the morning of January 27, 1966. A resident of San Francisco, California, Howard was on a business trip in Coos Bay, Oregon, with plans to travel onward to Seattle, Washington. The last positive sighting of Howard was in the early morning hours of that Thursday, around midnight, in the Starlight Room of the Chandler Hotel in Coos Bay. He and his colleagues had checked into the Dunes Motel on Bayshore Drive and had dinner at the Skyroom Restaurant. When his associates decided to return to their motel, Howard indicated he would join them later. He was last observed in conversation with several women. His failure to appear the next morning was the first indication that something was amiss.
The mystery deepened when Howard's motel room was examined. His luggage was present, but the bed had not been slept in, suggesting he never returned after his evening out. His colleagues, perhaps assuming he had made his own way to their next destination, paid for his room for an additional day before continuing to Seattle without him. Howard, however, was never seen or heard from again. At the time of his disappearance, he was a family man with a wife and two grown daughters back in Lafayette, California. His family reported that he had no history of mental illness, making his sudden vanishing all the more baffling and concerning. He was described as a white male with graying brown hair and blue eyes, and had several distinctive physical features, including a previously broken left index finger that had healed crookedly, a significant scar on his left thumb, and a small black spot on his lower lip. He was also known to wear reading glasses and smoked Chesterfield or L&M cigarettes.
Decades have passed since Howard Kley disappeared, yet his case remains unsolved, leaving a void of unanswered questions for his loved ones. His family has continued to seek answers, even traveling to Coos Bay to post flyers in the hope of jogging someone's memory. They believe he is no longer alive but still desperately wish to know what transpired on that fateful night. The circumstances of his disappearanceï a man on a routine business trip who vanishes without a traceï have left a lasting and painful legacy. The investigation into what happened to Howard Kley after he was last seen at the Chandler Hotel has yielded no definitive answers, and the silence surrounding his fate has been a heavy burden for his family to bear for over half a century.
Last Seen: Jan 26, 1966
