James Aaron Barksdale was 39 years old when he was last seen on January 1, 2020, in Kansas City, Missouri. He is identified in public missing-person listings as a Black male, 5 feet 9 inches tall and about 160 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. At the time he disappeared, he reportedly had a goatee, and one of the distinguishing details recorded for him was a chipped front tooth. The available public record is sparse, but it places James in Kansas City at the start of 2020 and then marks a painful break: after that day, he was not heard from again.
The circumstances surrounding James’s disappearance have not been widely detailed in public sources. The Charley Project’s case entry states that he was last seen in Kansas City on January 1, 2020, that he has never been heard from again, and that few details are available in the case. A social media missing-person post circulating awareness for James listed the same core identifiers: his name, age at the time, Kansas City as the place he was missing from, January 1, 2020 as the date he had been missing since, and his physical description, including black hair, brown eyes, 5 feet 9 inches in height, 160 pounds in weight, and a chipped front tooth.
The Kansas City Police Department is listed as the investigating agency, with the public contact number 816-234-5000. In Missouri, missing-person information made available through the Missouri State Highway Patrol is derived from the National Crime Information Center through the investigating agency and is updated through official channels; the Missouri State Highway Patrol also describes its Missing Persons Unit as the state clearinghouse that compiles, exchanges, and disseminates information to help locate missing people. That framework matters in James’s case because the publicly available facts are limited, and any meaningful development would likely need to come through law enforcement, family, or a verified case update.
The public record leaves many unanswered questions about what James was doing before he disappeared, who last spoke with him, what he may have been wearing, whether he had plans that day, or whether there were known circumstances that raised concern immediately. What remains visible is the essential human outline of the case: a 39-year-old man vanished from Kansas City, leaving behind identifying details that could help someone recognize him and a family or community without the answers they deserve. NamUs describes its national system as a centralized repository and resource center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed persons cases, intended to help investigators and families work toward resolution; James’s case stands within that broader effort to keep missing people from being forgotten. In overview, James Aaron Barksdale’s disappearance is a limited-information missing-person case from Kansas City, Missouri, beginning on January 1, 2020, involving a 39-year-old Black male with black hair, brown eyes, a goatee at the time, and a chipped front tooth, with the Kansas City Police Department identified as the agency to contact with information.
Last Seen: Jan 1, 2020
