Perry Corlew Missing Person Case

Jan 05, 2011

May 26, 2023

Perry

Corlew

70

18

74 inches

76 inches

155 lbs

165 lbs

White / Caucasian

Male

On a chilly evening in Grayling, Michigan, the life of 18-year-old Perry Otto Corlew took an unexpected and mysterious turn. It was March 15, 1974, and at approximately 8:30 p.m., Perry was involved in a minor car accident in front of the local Rialto Theater. He was driving a vehicle he had only recently acquired. Perhaps out of panic or fear of the consequences, the young male chose not to wait for law enforcement and instead fled the scene. This decision marked the last time anyone is known to have seen him. About an hour and a half later, a truck driver reported a car left abandoned on the side of I-75, located about 15 miles south of Grayling. Responding officers from Crawford and Roscommon counties discovered it was Perry's vehicle. The engine was still running, the headlights were on, and the driver's side door was ajar, yet Perry was gone. The scene was eerily still, with no footprints in the snow to suggest which way he might have gone and no witnesses to what had transpired. In the weeks, months, and years that followed, the mystery of Perry's disappearance only deepened, punctuated by moments of hope and strange, unverified leads. Authorities initially considered that Perry may have left on his own accord, with police reports speculating he could have traveled to another part of Michigan or even to Florida. Friends of Perry also recalled him speaking of ambitions to move to California. A particularly poignant moment for his family came in 1978, when his parents were watching a national news broadcast and were convinced they saw their son standing in an unemployment line. They pursued the lead with determination, but the footage had been shot by a freelance photographer, and its location could not be confirmed, leaving the family with more questions than answers. Another puzzling incident occurred in 1992 when Perry's brother, Michael, received a peculiar phone call. The caller mimicked cartoon character voices, a playful habit that Michael and Perry had shared. After asking Michael for his opinion on the voices, the caller hung up without giving a name. Despite the passage of time, efforts to find Perry Corlew have not been entirely abandoned. The case was officially reopened in 1992 by local police with the involvement of the FBI. During this renewed investigation, an age-progressed photograph was created and circulated, showing what Perry might have looked like at the age of 40, in the hope that it might jog someone's memory. Over the years, DNA samples from his parents, brother, and sister have been submitted to national databases, a modern tool that was unavailable at the time of his disappearance. The overview of the case remains a collection of unsettling and unanswered questions. An 18-year-old man, after a minor traffic incident, vanishes from the side of a highway, leaving his car running and his door open. The complete absence of physical evidence at the scene, combined with the lack of any confirmed contact since, has left a void in the lives of his family and a lingering mystery in the small Michigan community.

Mar 15, 1974

Grayling

Michigan

Crawford County

21323

Crawford County Sheriff's Office

Grayling

Michigan

Crawford County

49738

200 W. Michigan Ave, Michigan

9893486341

County

Law Enforcement

http://www.crawfordsheriff.org/

200435-74

Crawford County Sheriff's Office

Brown

Green

Green

07/10/2026