The Strange Disappearance of Craig Frear
He walked into a wooded area and hasn’t been seen since. When Craig Frear left his house early on Sunday, June 27, 2004, his parents thought he was going to work. The 17-year-old had been working many shifts a week at the Price Chopper grocery store in his hometown of Glenville, New York, for a few months when his mother saw him carrying his uniform shirt out to his car. Still, when Veronica Frear went to the Price Chopper a few hours later to get some groceries, her son wasn’t there.
Mistake
Veronica left the Price Chopper and went to look for her son. She found him at the workplace of a friend. She asked him why he wasn’t working, and Craig told her it was all a mistake and that he was about to leave for work. Veronica believed her son and went home. Later, she sent Craig’s dad, Bill, to the grocery store to see if Craig was there. Not at all. Craig was fired from Price Chopper more than a month ago because he didn’t show up for his scheduled shifts. Instead of telling his parents, he just kept acting like he was still working.
Craig had a new girlfriend, so Veronica called her house to find out if he had gone there. At first, his girlfriend said she hadn’t seen Craig that day, but Veronica knew she was lying. When she called back a second time, his girlfriend told her that he was there. Veronica called her son and told him she knew he was fired from his job and that he needed to come home right away. Craig agreed.
Lived In
Craig’s girlfriend lived in an apartment complex called Cambridge Manor in Scotia, New York, which was about 10 minutes from Craig’s house in Glenville. Craig left the apartment around 2:00 pm after telling his girlfriend and her mother that he had to go home. Through the window, his girlfriend’s mother watched as Craig walked to his car, which was parked far away from the apartment. He stopped suddenly, turned around, and went in the opposite direction.
Craig’s dad had been driving around looking for him, so he probably saw him. Bill had seen his son’s car and was standing next to it when Craig left his girlfriend’s apartment. Craig saw Bill’s son, but Bill never did. Craig quickly went in the opposite direction, most likely to avoid a public fight.
A group of teenagers saw Craig walking along the railroad tracks behind the Cambridge Manor apartments a few minutes later. Teens called out to him, but he told them to be quiet with a hand gesture and kept going. Craig was never seen again, and no one knew where he was going.
No Trace
When Craig didn’t come home that afternoon, Veronica and Bob began to worry. After talking to his girlfriend’s mom and finding out that he had gone into the woods behind the apartment complex, they were worried that he might have hurt himself there. Around 5 pm, they started looking for Craig in the area, but they couldn’t find him. As it got dark, Veronica called the police to say that her son had gone missing.
Veronica told the police that it wasn’t like Craig to leave without telling anyone, but she admitted that she had confronted him earlier that day about how he was lying about being employed. At first, it seemed like Craig just needed some time alone to figure out what he wanted to tell his parents. But as the days went by and he didn’t say anything, investigators realized something was wrong.
Craig had just finished his junior year of high school at Scotia-Glenville before he disappeared. He did well in school and was well-known among his peers. He was chosen to be one of the captains of the varsity soccer team for the next school year, and many colleges wanted to get him to play soccer for them. He came from a good family and was known to be a good kid. He didn’t have any criminal records or behavior problems, and he seemed to get along with everyone.
Craig’s parents had noticed that in the weeks before he went missing, he was acting in a strange way. He seemed a little down, and instead of going out with his friends like he usually did, he spent most of his time at home. He also stopped going to work, but he kept acting like he worked many shifts every week.
Search
Investigators searched the woods near the Cambridge Manor apartments and the Mohawk River many times, but they never found any clues about where Craig was. Even though he was last seen walking near some railroad tracks, detectives found no evidence that he had been hit by a train and do not think he was trying to kill himself.
Detectives don’t think Craig planned to run away. It was clear he was trying to avoid a fight with his dad, but it’s likely he planned to go back to his car after he had some time to think. When he went into the woods, he had nothing with him except his car keys. He left his phone, wallet, and about $40 cash behind. Soon before he disappeared, he lost his driver’s license and hadn’t gotten a new one yet, so he had no way to prove who he was.
One of Craig’s former coworkers went ahead and told police that he thought he saw Craig a long time after he disappeared. He said that Craig was in the passenger seat of a car that was stopped at a traffic light on Route 50 near the Glenville Price Chopper. He couldn’t describe the car, which turned left onto Sheffield Road, but the person he saw was definitely Craig. Investigators were unable to confirm the sighting, but if it was Craig, it would mean that he stayed in the Glenville area for at least a few days after he was reported missing.
Disappeared
Since Craig went missing years ago, there have been a lot of rumors about the case, but not much physical proof. Some people think that Craig just ran away to start a new life somewhere else, but his family and investigators don’t think this is likely. Craig was close to his parents and siblings, and he was excited to finish high school and start college. They are sure that Craig didn’t have a reason to leave.
Some people thought that Craig’s father had hurt him, but detectives found no evidence to back up this claim. Bill, like everyone else who was close to Craig, took a polygraph test early on in the investigation and passed it without any problems. Bill was devastated when his son went missing, and he died in 2017 without ever knowing what happened.
Investigators have done more than 70 searches in and around the area where Craig was last seen. The most recent search took place in June 2021 and covered an area south of the railroad tracks where Craig was seen walking. Search dogs have also been used to look over the route Craig would have taken home and other places where he was known to hang out, but so far nothing has been found that shows where Craig is.
Investigators think Craig was trying to avoid someone at the Price Chopper. He didn’t feel comfortable telling his parents about it, so he decided it would be easier to just act like he was still working there. Several rumors said that Craig had a relationship with someone there, but investigators couldn’t find proof of this. They also didn’t find any evidence that Craig did anything wrong, so it doesn’t look like drugs had anything to do with his disappearance.
Detectives are still not sure what happened to Craig, but they do not think he will be found alive. They think that if he were still alive, he would have gotten in touch with his family by now. The fact that he hasn’t means that he is likely dead. Even though it’s been 17 years, his case is still open and the New York State Police are working hard to find out what happened.
She has never given up looking for her son. In a recent TV interview, she said that she still can’t sleep because she thinks about what she could have done differently that might have led to a different outcome. She and Craig’s brother Matthew have been very involved with organisations that help find missing people, and they continue to do everything they can to make sure people don’t forget that Craig is still missing.
Craig Frear went missing in 2004 when he was 17 years old. He has brown eyes and red hair, and he was 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighed 190 pounds when he went missing. Last seen, he was wearing jeans, a white T-shirt, and three-stripe white Adidas shoes. He also wore a St. Christopher medal on a gold chain. If you know anything about Craig, please call the New York State Police at 518-630-1700 or 800-448-3847 (toll-free).