In the early summer of 2019, a sense of quiet concern began to grow among the family of John Franklin Godfrey. A resident of Sitka, Alaska, 61-year-old John was known to travel throughout the scenic but remote areas of the state. He had recently spent time in Pelican and Gustavus before making his way to Juneau. It was from Juneau, on June 24, 2019, that he was last seen.
In the days and weeks that followed, the silence from John became deafening for his loved ones, who had not heard from him since the end of June. This lack of communication was out of character, prompting his family to report him as a missing person and setting in motion an investigation into his sudden and unexplained disappearance.
The Juneau Police Department took the lead in the investigation into John's whereabouts. Described as a White male with brown hair and brown eyes, standing at 5'11' and weighing approximately 170 pounds, his physical description was shared in the hopes that someone might recall seeing him. Despite these efforts, very few details surrounding the circumstances of his disappearance have ever been made public. The case was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System in March of the following year, a national repository for missing persons cases. The Alaska State Troopers also became involved, with their Missing Persons Clearinghouse assisting in the efforts to locate him.
As time stretched on with no word from John, his case became one of many lingering, unresolved disappearances in the vast state of Alaska. His disappearance was noted in a 2019 initiative to create an updated missing persons registry for the state, which highlighted the significant number of individuals who have vanished without a trace in and around Juneau over the decades. The lack of available information in John's case has made the search for answers particularly challenging for both law enforcement and his family. The overview of this case is one of profound uncertainty; a man from Sitka travels through several Alaskan towns, is last seen in the capital city, and then vanishes, leaving behind a family desperate for answers and an investigation with few leads to follow. The Juneau Police Department continues to list him as a missing person and encourages anyone with information to come forward.Last Seen: Jun 24, 2019
