FROM AN MLIVE.com ARTICLE DATED MAY 28, 2010:
If life really was like TV, the police would pull out a weathered file, talk to a few people and within an hour give Jackson's Doris Baltimore the answer to a question that's troubled her for 37 years.
"What has happened to my son?" she asks.
It's a mystery that has plagued the Baltimore family since May 30, 1973, when 21-year-old Henry L. Baltimore Jr. vanished without a trace from his off-campus apartment at Michigan State University.
It remains the East Lansing Police Department's oldest cold case.
"It is still an open case," Chief Tom Wibert said. "Missing persons cases aren't unusual, but we usually find something. This is highly unusual because there's been nothing for this long. There is no evidence of anything. He just disappeared."
A 1970 Parkside High School graduate, Henry, who would be 58 now, was the first-born son of Doris and Henry L. Baltimore Sr.'s eight children. He was an MSU social science and music honor student likely on his way to becoming a social worker. He worked at the MSU library and was co-drum major of the university's 215-piece marching band.
Older sister Lural Baltimore was getting her master's degree at MSU when Henry came to campus. She went to his apartment the day he vanished to get a final exam paper she had agreed to type for him and found he wasn't home.
"His car was there and all his things were there in their places, but he wasn't there," she said. "I kept calling and his roommates said he went to the library and never came home. The time to turn in the paper came and went and no Henry. I had to call my father. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done."
When he disappeared, Henry was tangled in a court case against Roy Davis, a then 22-year-old Flint man.
Davis and a second man who was never identified were accused of robbing Henry at gunpoint on March 3, 1973, and tying him to his bed in the apartment he shared with George Heath and Paul Lott Jr. of Jackson and Tony Ransom of Detroit, a member of the MSU football team. The gunmen stole a golf bag, watch, clothing and $110 in cash.
Henry waited 10 days to report the crime, doing so only at his father's urging. He told police he had been threatened by Davis and feared for his life.
Davis was charged with armed robbery, but Henry didn't show up in East Lansing's 54th District Court to testify against him at the preliminary examination. A warrant was issued for Henry's arrest.
Two days later, Henry resurfaced, paid a $50 fine and asked police to drop the case. They didn't. Davis was bound over to Ingham County Circuit Court for arraignment on June 1.
By then, Henry had disappeared.
Police first thought maybe Henry went into hiding because he was so frightened. Even now, the family considers that might be a possibility.
"The pressure of the court case may have been too much for him to take," younger brother Lonnie Baltimore said. "He was home the weekend before for Memorial Day and he said he needed to get someplace by himself to get away from that apartment."
A teletype sent out by East Lansing police June 5 said the Henry's disappearance was suspicious, and foul play was suspected. By August, they were quoted in the Citizen Patriot as having "completely run out of clues and information."
In the fall, Davis pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to six months in the Ingham County Jail. Prosecutors offered a plea bargain, partly because Henry could not be found to testify at a trial.
The theory that a frightened Henry dropped out of sight became less and less likely after Davis' court case ended.
Lonnie, who was then 17, tried to investigate what might have happened to the older brother he idolized. He theorizes that Davis may have had a connection to a Baltimore family cousin who also lived in Flint and like Davis had previous brushes with the law.
"If Henry didn't leave on his own and they came back and took him away, well, they know how to get rid of people in Flint so you never find them," Lonnie said.
Davis, who had an alibi from his mother at the time Henry vanished, was never arrested for Henry's disappearance. A 2007 posting on an Internet site dedicated to mysterious cold cases alleged Davis was then living in Louisiana.
The Baltimore family has been forever frustrated by the lack of any news, Doris said. There's always been family concern that because of the era, police then might have falsely considered Henry just another black kid in trouble, Lonnie said.
Police have Henry's dental records. Four years ago, the family submitted DNA for a profile for Henry that's been put on an FBI national missing persons database.
"There's not been a day since he's been missing that I don't think about Henry," Lonnie said. "When I go to bed at night, I say a prayer."
It's the family's dream to someday have closure.
"I have dreams that one day Henry will walk back into this house while my mother is still alive," Lural said. "My gut level feeling, though, is that I just can't imagine he's been gone all this time and not said something or did something to let us know he's OK."
The case today
• The 1973 case of the disappearance of Jackson's Henry L. Baltimore Jr. is still open and considered active by the East Lansing Police Department. Anyone with information about the fate or whereabouts of the 1970 Parkside High School graduate and then 21-year-old high-stepping drum major of the Michigan State University Marching Band is asked to call 517-351-4220 or e-mail Police Chief Tom Wibert at [email protected].
• More information on Baltimore and his disappearance can be found on the web at www.michigandoes.com/MP/HenryBaltimoreJr.html and www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4852516.
• The MSU Black Alumni Association and professor Carl Taylor are establishing through the MSU Endowment Fund a scholarship in Baltimore's name.
• After hearing nothing of Henry for years, the pending 40th reunion of Parkside's class of 1970 has brought a strange message to the Baltimore family. An Internet notice informing classmates of the reunion allegedly brought a response from someone saying, "I used to be Henry Baltimore." Sisters Lural Baltimore and Yvonne Baltimore-Brown have tried to find out whether this e-mail exists and who may have received it, but have had no luck.
The family today
• Doris Baltimore, 80, still lives (NOW DECEASED) in the family home on Euclid Avenue. A longtime nurse's aide with Foote Hospital, now Allegiance Health, and the Jackson Medical Care Facility, she still volunteers for the hospital's respite care program and is active in Second Baptist Church. She has 19 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
• Henry L. Baltimore Sr., who worked at the Jackson Post Office for 28 years as a bulk mail technician, died in 1990. The couple was married 41 years.
• Bobby Baltimore died at age 43 in 2000 from a medical condition.
• Thomas Baltimore died at age 49 in 2003 from a medical condition.
If life really was like TV, the police would pull out a weathered file, talk to a few people and within an hour give Jackson's Doris Baltimore the answer to a question that's troubled her for 37 years.
"What has happened to my son?" she asks.
It's a mystery that has plagued the Baltimore family since May 30, 1973, when 21-year-old Henry L. Baltimore Jr. vanished without a trace from his off-campus apartment at Michigan State University.
It remains the East Lansing Police Department's oldest cold case.
"It is still an open case," Chief Tom Wibert said. "Missing persons cases aren't unusual, but we usually find something. This is highly unusual because there's been nothing for this long. There is no evidence of anything. He just disappeared."
A 1970 Parkside High School graduate, Henry, who would be 58 now, was the first-born son of Doris and Henry L. Baltimore Sr.'s eight children. He was an MSU social science and music honor student likely on his way to becoming a social worker. He worked at the MSU library and was co-drum major of the university's 215-piece marching band.
Older sister Lural Baltimore was getting her master's degree at MSU when Henry came to campus. She went to his apartment the day he vanished to get a final exam paper she had agreed to type for him and found he wasn't home.
"His car was there and all his things were there in their places, but he wasn't there," she said. "I kept calling and his roommates said he went to the library and never came home. The time to turn in the paper came and went and no Henry. I had to call my father. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done."
When he disappeared, Henry was tangled in a court case against Roy Davis, a then 22-year-old Flint man.
Davis and a second man who was never identified were accused of robbing Henry at gunpoint on March 3, 1973, and tying him to his bed in the apartment he shared with George Heath and Paul Lott Jr. of Jackson and Tony Ransom of Detroit, a member of the MSU football team. The gunmen stole a golf bag, watch, clothing and $110 in cash.
Henry waited 10 days to report the crime, doing so only at his father's urging. He told police he had been threatened by Davis and feared for his life.
Davis was charged with armed robbery, but Henry didn't show up in East Lansing's 54th District Court to testify against him at the preliminary examination. A warrant was issued for Henry's arrest.
Two days later, Henry resurfaced, paid a $50 fine and asked police to drop the case. They didn't. Davis was bound over to Ingham County Circuit Court for arraignment on June 1.
By then, Henry had disappeared.
Police first thought maybe Henry went into hiding because he was so frightened. Even now, the family considers that might be a possibility.
"The pressure of the court case may have been too much for him to take," younger brother Lonnie Baltimore said. "He was home the weekend before for Memorial Day and he said he needed to get someplace by himself to get away from that apartment."
A teletype sent out by East Lansing police June 5 said the Henry's disappearance was suspicious, and foul play was suspected. By August, they were quoted in the Citizen Patriot as having "completely run out of clues and information."
In the fall, Davis pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to six months in the Ingham County Jail. Prosecutors offered a plea bargain, partly because Henry could not be found to testify at a trial.
The theory that a frightened Henry dropped out of sight became less and less likely after Davis' court case ended.
Lonnie, who was then 17, tried to investigate what might have happened to the older brother he idolized. He theorizes that Davis may have had a connection to a Baltimore family cousin who also lived in Flint and like Davis had previous brushes with the law.
"If Henry didn't leave on his own and they came back and took him away, well, they know how to get rid of people in Flint so you never find them," Lonnie said.
Davis, who had an alibi from his mother at the time Henry vanished, was never arrested for Henry's disappearance. A 2007 posting on an Internet site dedicated to mysterious cold cases alleged Davis was then living in Louisiana.
The Baltimore family has been forever frustrated by the lack of any news, Doris said. There's always been family concern that because of the era, police then might have falsely considered Henry just another black kid in trouble, Lonnie said.
Police have Henry's dental records. Four years ago, the family submitted DNA for a profile for Henry that's been put on an FBI national missing persons database.
"There's not been a day since he's been missing that I don't think about Henry," Lonnie said. "When I go to bed at night, I say a prayer."
It's the family's dream to someday have closure.
"I have dreams that one day Henry will walk back into this house while my mother is still alive," Lural said. "My gut level feeling, though, is that I just can't imagine he's been gone all this time and not said something or did something to let us know he's OK."
The case today
• The 1973 case of the disappearance of Jackson's Henry L. Baltimore Jr. is still open and considered active by the East Lansing Police Department. Anyone with information about the fate or whereabouts of the 1970 Parkside High School graduate and then 21-year-old high-stepping drum major of the Michigan State University Marching Band is asked to call 517-351-4220 or e-mail Police Chief Tom Wibert at [email protected].
• More information on Baltimore and his disappearance can be found on the web at www.michigandoes.com/MP/HenryBaltimoreJr.html and www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4852516.
• The MSU Black Alumni Association and professor Carl Taylor are establishing through the MSU Endowment Fund a scholarship in Baltimore's name.
• After hearing nothing of Henry for years, the pending 40th reunion of Parkside's class of 1970 has brought a strange message to the Baltimore family. An Internet notice informing classmates of the reunion allegedly brought a response from someone saying, "I used to be Henry Baltimore." Sisters Lural Baltimore and Yvonne Baltimore-Brown have tried to find out whether this e-mail exists and who may have received it, but have had no luck.
The family today
• Doris Baltimore, 80, still lives (NOW DECEASED) in the family home on Euclid Avenue. A longtime nurse's aide with Foote Hospital, now Allegiance Health, and the Jackson Medical Care Facility, she still volunteers for the hospital's respite care program and is active in Second Baptist Church. She has 19 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
• Henry L. Baltimore Sr., who worked at the Jackson Post Office for 28 years as a bulk mail technician, died in 1990. The couple was married 41 years.
• Bobby Baltimore died at age 43 in 2000 from a medical condition.
• Thomas Baltimore died at age 49 in 2003 from a medical condition.
FROM AN MLIVE.com ARTICLE DATED MAY 28, 2010:
If life really was like TV, the police would pull out a weathered file, talk to a few people and within an hour give Jackson's Doris Baltimore the answer to a question that's troubled her for 37 years.
"What has happened to my son?" she asks.
It's a mystery that has plagued the Baltimore family since May 30, 1973, when 21-year-old Henry L. Baltimore Jr. vanished without a trace from his off-campus apartment at Michigan State University.
It remains the East Lansing Police Department's oldest cold case.
"It is still an open case," Chief Tom Wibert said. "Missing persons cases aren't unusual, but we usually find something. This is highly unusual because there's been nothing for this long. There is no evidence of anything. He just disappeared."
A 1970 Parkside High School graduate, Henry, who would be 58 now, was the first-born son of Doris and Henry L. Baltimore Sr.'s eight children. He was an MSU social science and music honor student likely on his way to becoming a social worker. He worked at the MSU library and was co-drum major of the university's 215-piece marching band.
Older sister Lural Baltimore was getting her master's degree at MSU when Henry came to campus. She went to his apartment the day he vanished to get a final exam paper she had agreed to type for him and found he wasn't home.
"His car was there and all his things were there in their places, but he wasn't there," she said. "I kept calling and his roommates said he went to the library and never came home. The time to turn in the paper came and went and no Henry. I had to call my father. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done."
When he disappeared, Henry was tangled in a court case against Roy Davis, a then 22-year-old Flint man.
Davis and a second man who was never identified were accused of robbing Henry at gunpoint on March 3, 1973, and tying him to his bed in the apartment he shared with George Heath and Paul Lott Jr. of Jackson and Tony Ransom of Detroit, a member of the MSU football team. The gunmen stole a golf bag, watch, clothing and $110 in cash.
Henry waited 10 days to report the crime, doing so only at his father's urging. He told police he had been threatened by Davis and feared for his life.
Davis was charged with armed robbery, but Henry didn't show up in East Lansing's 54th District Court to testify against him at the preliminary examination. A warrant was issued for Henry's arrest.
Two days later, Henry resurfaced, paid a $50 fine and asked police to drop the case. They didn't. Davis was bound over to Ingham County Circuit Court for arraignment on June 1.
By then, Henry had disappeared.
Police first thought maybe Henry went into hiding because he was so frightened. Even now, the family considers that might be a possibility.
"The pressure of the court case may have been too much for him to take," younger brother Lonnie Baltimore said. "He was home the weekend before for Memorial Day and he said he needed to get someplace by himself to get away from that apartment."
A teletype sent out by East Lansing police June 5 said the Henry's disappearance was suspicious, and foul play was suspected. By August, they were quoted in the Citizen Patriot as having "completely run out of clues and information."
In the fall, Davis pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to six months in the Ingham County Jail. Prosecutors offered a plea bargain, partly because Henry could not be found to testify at a trial.
The theory that a frightened Henry dropped out of sight became less and less likely after Davis' court case ended.
Lonnie, who was then 17, tried to investigate what might have happened to the older brother he idolized. He theorizes that Davis may have had a connection to a Baltimore family cousin who also lived in Flint and like Davis had previous brushes with the law.
"If Henry didn't leave on his own and they came back and took him away, well, they know how to get rid of people in Flint so you never find them," Lonnie said.
Davis, who had an alibi from his mother at the time Henry vanished, was never arrested for Henry's disappearance. A 2007 posting on an Internet site dedicated to mysterious cold cases alleged Davis was then living in Louisiana.
The Baltimore family has been forever frustrated by the lack of any news, Doris said. There's always been family concern that because of the era, police then might have falsely considered Henry just another black kid in trouble, Lonnie said.
Police have Henry's dental records. Four years ago, the family submitted DNA for a profile for Henry that's been put on an FBI national missing persons database.
"There's not been a day since he's been missing that I don't think about Henry," Lonnie said. "When I go to bed at night, I say a prayer."
It's the family's dream to someday have closure.
"I have dreams that one day Henry will walk back into this house while my mother is still alive," Lural said. "My gut level feeling, though, is that I just can't imagine he's been gone all this time and not said something or did something to let us know he's OK."
The case today
• The 1973 case of the disappearance of Jackson's Henry L. Baltimore Jr. is still open and considered active by the East Lansing Police Department. Anyone with information about the fate or whereabouts of the 1970 Parkside High School graduate and then 21-year-old high-stepping drum major of the Michigan State University Marching Band is asked to call 517-351-4220 or e-mail Police Chief Tom Wibert at [email protected].
• More information on Baltimore and his disappearance can be found on the web at www.michigandoes.com/MP/HenryBaltimoreJr.html and www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4852516.
• The MSU Black Alumni Association and professor Carl Taylor are establishing through the MSU Endowment Fund a scholarship in Baltimore's name.
• After hearing nothing of Henry for years, the pending 40th reunion of Parkside's class of 1970 has brought a strange message to the Baltimore family. An Internet notice informing classmates of the reunion allegedly brought a response from someone saying, "I used to be Henry Baltimore." Sisters Lural Baltimore and Yvonne Baltimore-Brown have tried to find out whether this e-mail exists and who may have received it, but have had no luck.
The family today
• Doris Baltimore, 80, still lives (NOW DECEASED) in the family home on Euclid Avenue. A longtime nurse's aide with Foote Hospital, now Allegiance Health, and the Jackson Medical Care Facility, she still volunteers for the hospital's respite care program and is active in Second Baptist Church. She has 19 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
• Henry L. Baltimore Sr., who worked at the Jackson Post Office for 28 years as a bulk mail technician, died in 1990. The couple was married 41 years.
• Bobby Baltimore died at age 43 in 2000 from a medical condition.
• Thomas Baltimore died at age 49 in 2003 from a medical condition.
If life really was like TV, the police would pull out a weathered file, talk to a few people and within an hour give Jackson's Doris Baltimore the answer to a question that's troubled her for 37 years.
"What has happened to my son?" she asks.
It's a mystery that has plagued the Baltimore family since May 30, 1973, when 21-year-old Henry L. Baltimore Jr. vanished without a trace from his off-campus apartment at Michigan State University.
It remains the East Lansing Police Department's oldest cold case.
"It is still an open case," Chief Tom Wibert said. "Missing persons cases aren't unusual, but we usually find something. This is highly unusual because there's been nothing for this long. There is no evidence of anything. He just disappeared."
A 1970 Parkside High School graduate, Henry, who would be 58 now, was the first-born son of Doris and Henry L. Baltimore Sr.'s eight children. He was an MSU social science and music honor student likely on his way to becoming a social worker. He worked at the MSU library and was co-drum major of the university's 215-piece marching band.
Older sister Lural Baltimore was getting her master's degree at MSU when Henry came to campus. She went to his apartment the day he vanished to get a final exam paper she had agreed to type for him and found he wasn't home.
"His car was there and all his things were there in their places, but he wasn't there," she said. "I kept calling and his roommates said he went to the library and never came home. The time to turn in the paper came and went and no Henry. I had to call my father. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done."
When he disappeared, Henry was tangled in a court case against Roy Davis, a then 22-year-old Flint man.
Davis and a second man who was never identified were accused of robbing Henry at gunpoint on March 3, 1973, and tying him to his bed in the apartment he shared with George Heath and Paul Lott Jr. of Jackson and Tony Ransom of Detroit, a member of the MSU football team. The gunmen stole a golf bag, watch, clothing and $110 in cash.
Henry waited 10 days to report the crime, doing so only at his father's urging. He told police he had been threatened by Davis and feared for his life.
Davis was charged with armed robbery, but Henry didn't show up in East Lansing's 54th District Court to testify against him at the preliminary examination. A warrant was issued for Henry's arrest.
Two days later, Henry resurfaced, paid a $50 fine and asked police to drop the case. They didn't. Davis was bound over to Ingham County Circuit Court for arraignment on June 1.
By then, Henry had disappeared.
Police first thought maybe Henry went into hiding because he was so frightened. Even now, the family considers that might be a possibility.
"The pressure of the court case may have been too much for him to take," younger brother Lonnie Baltimore said. "He was home the weekend before for Memorial Day and he said he needed to get someplace by himself to get away from that apartment."
A teletype sent out by East Lansing police June 5 said the Henry's disappearance was suspicious, and foul play was suspected. By August, they were quoted in the Citizen Patriot as having "completely run out of clues and information."
In the fall, Davis pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to six months in the Ingham County Jail. Prosecutors offered a plea bargain, partly because Henry could not be found to testify at a trial.
The theory that a frightened Henry dropped out of sight became less and less likely after Davis' court case ended.
Lonnie, who was then 17, tried to investigate what might have happened to the older brother he idolized. He theorizes that Davis may have had a connection to a Baltimore family cousin who also lived in Flint and like Davis had previous brushes with the law.
"If Henry didn't leave on his own and they came back and took him away, well, they know how to get rid of people in Flint so you never find them," Lonnie said.
Davis, who had an alibi from his mother at the time Henry vanished, was never arrested for Henry's disappearance. A 2007 posting on an Internet site dedicated to mysterious cold cases alleged Davis was then living in Louisiana.
The Baltimore family has been forever frustrated by the lack of any news, Doris said. There's always been family concern that because of the era, police then might have falsely considered Henry just another black kid in trouble, Lonnie said.
Police have Henry's dental records. Four years ago, the family submitted DNA for a profile for Henry that's been put on an FBI national missing persons database.
"There's not been a day since he's been missing that I don't think about Henry," Lonnie said. "When I go to bed at night, I say a prayer."
It's the family's dream to someday have closure.
"I have dreams that one day Henry will walk back into this house while my mother is still alive," Lural said. "My gut level feeling, though, is that I just can't imagine he's been gone all this time and not said something or did something to let us know he's OK."
The case today
• The 1973 case of the disappearance of Jackson's Henry L. Baltimore Jr. is still open and considered active by the East Lansing Police Department. Anyone with information about the fate or whereabouts of the 1970 Parkside High School graduate and then 21-year-old high-stepping drum major of the Michigan State University Marching Band is asked to call 517-351-4220 or e-mail Police Chief Tom Wibert at [email protected].
• More information on Baltimore and his disappearance can be found on the web at www.michigandoes.com/MP/HenryBaltimoreJr.html and www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4852516.
• The MSU Black Alumni Association and professor Carl Taylor are establishing through the MSU Endowment Fund a scholarship in Baltimore's name.
• After hearing nothing of Henry for years, the pending 40th reunion of Parkside's class of 1970 has brought a strange message to the Baltimore family. An Internet notice informing classmates of the reunion allegedly brought a response from someone saying, "I used to be Henry Baltimore." Sisters Lural Baltimore and Yvonne Baltimore-Brown have tried to find out whether this e-mail exists and who may have received it, but have had no luck.
The family today
• Doris Baltimore, 80, still lives (NOW DECEASED) in the family home on Euclid Avenue. A longtime nurse's aide with Foote Hospital, now Allegiance Health, and the Jackson Medical Care Facility, she still volunteers for the hospital's respite care program and is active in Second Baptist Church. She has 19 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
• Henry L. Baltimore Sr., who worked at the Jackson Post Office for 28 years as a bulk mail technician, died in 1990. The couple was married 41 years.
• Bobby Baltimore died at age 43 in 2000 from a medical condition.
• Thomas Baltimore died at age 49 in 2003 from a medical condition.
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