On January 20, 1996, 55-year-old Gene Autry Derringer was last seen in Greenwood, Indiana, in the company of a friend and coworker named Joseph Nowicki. That day, Derringer had reportedly acquired a dark-colored Chevrolet pickup truck. Nowicki had driven him to a residence in Beech Grove, Indiana, to get the truck and then followed him back to Derringer's home on South Peterman Road in Greenwood.
The last time Nowicki claimed to have seen Derringer, he was intoxicated and sitting in the passenger seat of this truck while an unidentified woman was in the driver's seat. Nowicki described the woman as white, between thirty and forty years old, and wearing eyeglasses. This mysterious woman and the dark-colored pickup truck were never identified. Derringer, a divorced father of four who worked as a maintenance employee for Southport High School, was not known to spend nights away from his home.
Concern grew for Derringer's welfare when he could not be reached for several days. On January 28, one of his sons went to his home to check on him and made a grim discovery. After forcing entry into the deserted house, he found bloodstains on the bedroom walls and on the mattress, which had been turned over in an apparent attempt to hide them. Investigators also discovered a bullet lodged in the wall behind Derringer's bed. The blood was later determined to be Derringer's type. While his personal vehicles were all accounted for, two of his handguns were missing from the residence. Ten days after he was last seen, on January 30, Derringer's driver's license was found near a potato chip stand at a gas station in Indianapolis.
The investigation into Gene Derringer's disappearance has been fraught with troubling details and suspicious connections. The man last seen with him, Joseph Nowicki, had an extensive and violent criminal history, including convictions for shooting his sister and brother-in-law, as well as a murder conviction from 1973. Years after Derringer vanished, Nowicki's name would surface again in connection with another missing person case, that of 19-year-old Brookley Louks in 2002. While investigators considered Nowicki a person of interest in Derringer's case, they also stated they had other more likely suspects. Nowicki passed away in 2003 before he could be charged in the Louks case. In 2002, one of Derringer's surviving sons had him declared legally dead. Despite the disturbing evidence found at his home and the suspicious circumstances of his disappearance, no one has ever been charged in connection with the case, and Gene Autry Derringer has never been found, leaving his family with unanswered questions.Last Seen: Jan 20, 1996
