Joseph Allen 'Joey' Hartsoe II, a 22-year-old male, vanished from his home in Collinsville, Illinois, in late 2013. His family reported him missing on December 1, 2013, initiating a search that would last through the winter months. Hartsoe was a student at Southwestern Illinois College at the time of his disappearance. For weeks, his whereabouts remained unknown as investigators and loved ones sought answers regarding his sudden absence.
The search came to a tragic conclusion on February
10, 2014, when Hartsoe's body was discovered in St. Louis, Missouri. He was found lying in the snow near railroad tracks at 3001 North Wharf Street, an industrial area along the riverfront. Authorities pronounced him dead at the scene, marking the end of the months-long missing person case and the beginning of a death investigation. The specific circumstances of how he arrived at that location or the exact cause of his death were not immediately publicized in detail, but the case was classified by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department as a homicide.
Years after the discovery, Hartsoe's death remained an open investigation with no arrests reported. In February 2018, law enforcement highlighted his case as one of several unsolved homicides in the St. Louis area, hoping to generate new leads from the public. CrimeStoppers offered a reward for information leading to an arrest, but the case has lingered without a named suspect or criminal charges filed against any individuals. To this day, the events leading to his death on the snowy tracks remain unresolved.
