54 year old Richard A. Cole was a Bangor, Maine man whose life was rooted in the greater Bangor area, even as he was reported to have been living a transient lifestyle. Online case information from NamUs lists him as a White/Caucasian male, with blond or strawberry-colored hair, blue eyes, approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall, and about 150 pounds. His NamUs case identifies Bangor, in Penobscot County, as the location connected to his disappearance, with a date of last contact of December 1,
2019. The case information also notes that he was known to frequent Together Place in Bangor, a community location that appears in public missing-person summaries as part of the places associated with his routine.
The public timeline contains an important distinction: Richard reportedly had not been seen in person since November 7, 2019, but he last spoke with a family member by telephone on December 1, 2019. Some public summaries specify that the family member was his daughter. That phone call became the last confirmed contact connected to him, leaving those who cared about him with uncertainty and concern. Police later described him as someone who kept to himself and had been experiencing homelessness in the greater Bangor area, which may have made it more difficult for others to recognize quickly that something was wrong or to identify a precise last location.
Richard was reported missing to the Bangor Police Department in early January 2020, and the Bangor Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division became involved in investigating his disappearance. Public reporting from 2020 stated that police were still searching for him and hoping for fresh leads, while also describing the case as open at that time. Investigators released identifying details to help the public recognize him, including his blond hair, blue eyes, approximate height and weight, and Bangor-area ties. NamUs also lists distinctive physical features, including scars on his right arm, chest, knee, and right palm, details that could be meaningful if someone encountered him or had information about where he may have gone.
As the search continued, the public information available remained limited and careful. There were no detailed public accounts of a confirmed destination, vehicle, travel plan, or known incident immediately explaining why Richard disappeared from contact. Instead, the case has been framed around the last known patterns of his life: a man in Bangor, known to spend time around Together Place, known to keep largely to himself, and then no longer seen after early November 2019, with the final known phone contact occurring on December 1, 2019. For his family and community, that kind of disappearance leaves a painful absence because the known facts stop abruptly, without the closure that loved ones deserve.
The Maine State Police missing-persons page explains that the state’s public list is not a complete list of all missing people in Maine and points to NamUs as the system used to help track and manage missing-person case files through the Office of Chief Medical Examiner. Richard’s case appears in NamUs as MP64225, with the Bangor Police Department listed as the investigating agency. In overview, Richard A. Cole’s disappearance is the case of a Bangor man whose last confirmed contact came by phone on December 1, 2019, after he had reportedly not been seen in person since November 7, 2019; he was known in the Bangor area, especially around Together Place, and authorities sought public assistance using his physical description and identifying scars, while the public record offers few answers about what happened after that final contact.Last Seen: Dec 1, 2019
