In the late summer of 1986, a young man named Kerby Allen Bessey vanished from the coastal city of Coos Bay, Oregon, leaving behind a deepening mystery. On August 28th, the 27-year-old was last seen at the Blue Moon Cafï and Lounge on South Broadway Street. At the time of his disappearance, Kerby, a graduate of Marshfield High School, was described as a white male, standing at 5'11' to 6'0' tall and weighing around 165 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes.
He was reportedly wearing a t-shirt, a two-toned blue jacket, and faded blue jeans. A distinctive scar on his abdomen was also noted as a key physical characteristic. That day, he made a 6 a.m. phone call to his mother, telling her he had things to do and would be back late, but he was never heard from again.
The circumstances surrounding Kerby's disappearance are fraught with troubling details. At the time he went missing, he was reportedly involved with a group dealing in large quantities of marijuana and cocaine. There were rumors that he had a drug debt and was fearful of someone from Jackson County. It was even suggested that a $5,000 contract had been put on his life, and he had returned to his hometown of Coos Bay to hide out. Though he often worked on offshore oil rigs, he was recovering from surgery at the time he vanished. Over the years, law enforcement has pursued various leads, including using cadaver dogs to search an area in Myrtle Beach in 2010, but these efforts have not yielded any results.
Decades have passed since Kerby Bessey was last seen, and his case remains unsolved, leaving his family with unanswered questions and a profound sense of loss. In 2016, thirty years after he vanished, family and friends gathered to hold a memorial service for him, a testament to the enduring impact of his absence. His sister has spoken of the difficulty his disappearance has been for their family, expressing a hope that the memorial might bring some measure of peace. The Coos Bay Police Department has stated that they have investigated every tip received over the years, but no trace of Kerby has ever been found. The case is a haunting puzzle of a young man last seen in a local lounge, with a backdrop of rumored danger and drug involvement, leaving a community and a family to wonder what became of Kerby Allen Bessey.Last Seen: Aug 28, 1986
