Daren Arnold Wood was 24 years old when he was last known to be in Elgin, Illinois, on July 11, 2017. Public missing-person listings describe him as a White/Caucasian male, about 5 feet 5 inches tall and 160 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. His NamUs case number is MP41087, and his case is associated with the Elgin Police Department. Online case summaries place his last known location around Bluff City Boulevard and St. Charles Street, an area that became the starting point for a search that has now stretched across years.
The circumstances described in public postings are deeply human and painful. Daren was reportedly experiencing homelessness at the time he disappeared, and the wording preserved in NamUs-derived summaries indicates that loved ones were trying to find him so they could help him stabilize his life, offering him a place to stay and support while he got back on his feet. Another later public account says Daren had stopped by his mother’s east-side Elgin home in July 2017 and said he would be back in two days, but he did not return. That detail adds a heartbreaking sense of expectation to the case: those who cared about him were not only looking for a missing adult, but waiting for a son and loved one who had said he was coming back.
Available descriptions of Daren at the time provide important identifying details that may help someone remember seeing him. Illinois Missing Persons lists scars or marks including one on his left eyelid, small scars on his hands and arms, a scar on one leg from tree-service work, and a scar on his nose from his cat. The same listing notes a star tattoo on his left forearm and a cross tattoo on his left hand near the thumb. He was reportedly wearing a black T-shirt with a design on the back, light blue jeans, black sunglasses, black-and-white tennis shoes with red on the tongue, a gold watch he had received from his biological father, and what was believed to be a silver chain necklace. These details speak not just to a physical description, but to the personal pieces of a young man’s life: work scars, tattoos, a watch with family meaning, and even the mention of a cat connected to him.
In the years since Daren vanished, his case has remained listed in missing-person databases and public awareness pages. Illinois Missing Persons continues to list him among missing people from Elgin and identifies the case as a NamUs cold case. A public podcast listing about Elgin-area missing-person cases states that investigators have spent years working the case, including cross-referencing it against unidentified remains in NamUs, but that Daren’s family still has not received closure. There has also been at least one publicly mentioned tip placing him in Rochelle, Illinois, but that reported lead did not result in him being found.
Daren’s disappearance is the story of a 24-year-old man last seen in Elgin on July 11, 2017, near Bluff City Boulevard and St. Charles Street, while he was unhoused and while his family was trying to bring him into safer, steadier circumstances. He was known by identifiable scars, tattoos, clothing, and personal items, but the most important part of the case remains the absence felt by those who expected him to return. The public record does not provide a clear resolution, and the available online sources continue to present his case as unresolved. In overview, Daren Arnold Wood’s case began with a young man in a vulnerable moment, a family trying to help, and a promise that he would come back; it has continued as a long search for answers, with investigators, databases, public listings, and loved ones still tied to the same central hope that someone, somewhere, knows what happened after he was last seen in Elgin.
Last Seen: Jul 11, 2017
