On a summer day in August of 1992, 56-year-old Charles Ray Koller, Sr. was last seen in Bremerton, Washington. A Navy veteran, he was planning a long journey, intending to travel over 2,000 miles by Greyhound bus to visit family in Dallas, Texas. He was known to be a man who sported a distinctive look, often wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. His hair was graying and worn shoulder-length, and he had a beard and goatee at the time he went missing.
He was a musician, with calloused fingertips on his left hand from playing the guitar and mandolin. His journey was set, his destination known, but Charles Koller would never arrive.
The days turned into weeks, and with no word from Charles, concern grew among his loved ones. He never made it to Dallas and has not been seen or heard from since that day in Bremerton. At the time of his disappearance, he was described as being in poor health and was known to be an alcoholic. Standing between 6'0' and 6'1' and weighing around 145 to 160 pounds, he was a man with hazel eyes and a significant number of tattoos. These included a fish on each side of his chest with the words 'sweet' and 'sour,' a sailing ship on his upper right arm, a butterfly on his right shoulder blade, and a rose with 'Mom' and 'Dad' on his right forearm. He also had a flag tattoo on his left upper area, an unknown tattoo on his left forearm, and a star on the bottom of his right thumb.
The Bremerton Police Department opened an investigation into his disappearance, but few details have ever emerged to shed light on what might have happened to him. His case remains an open and unsolved endangered missing person's case. Decades have passed since Charles Koller began his planned bus trip to Texas, a trip that seemingly vanished into thin air. His family was left with only questions and the enduring mystery of his whereabouts. The journey he embarked on that summer day in 1992 became the beginning of a long and painful period of uncertainty, with no answers as to why he never completed it.Last Seen: Aug 9, 1992
