DICKSON CITY, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The Pennsylvania State Police Troop R \u2013 Blooming Grove Station is urging the public to come forward with new information in the decades-old missing person case of Donald Ferry Shafer, a 15-year-old from Dickson City who vanished more than 40 years ago.<\/p>\n
Shafer was last seen in his hometown of Dickson City on March 9, 1981, according to state police and missing persons databases. At the time, he was described as a chronic runaway with a history of trying to travel to see family members out of state, including a sister in Wyoming and connections in New Jersey and Montana.<\/p>\n
Despite efforts by his family to report him missing soon after his disappearance, law enforcement did not formally accept a missing person report until decades later in 2013, according to records cited by The Charley Project.<\/p>\n
Police and those close to the case believe it is possible Shafer may have run off again in 1981, a theory supported by his past behavior. Before he disappeared, friends recall him saying he was headed to a place he called his \u201cfort,\u201d and inviting a cousin to join him \u2014 a trip she declined.<\/p>\n
Investigators have described Shafer as a white male with dark brown hair and brown eyes, standing around 6 feet tall and weighing between 120 and 130 pounds at the time he went missing. He was reportedly wearing a dark sweatshirt, black jeans and sneakers, and carrying a small tan bag from the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch, where he had previously stayed. Some reports also note he may have had a homemade tattoo of a bomb with the letter \u201cD\u201d on his left arm or shoulder.<\/p>\n
To help generate tips, state police have authorized a $5,000 reward for information that leads to a breakthrough in the case. Anyone with details that could assist the investigation is encouraged to contact PSP Blooming Grove at 570-226-5718 or the PSP Tips hotline at 1-800-472-8477. Tips can also be submitted online at p3tips.com. All callers to PSP Tips may be eligible for a cash reward if their information contributes to finding Shafer or solving the case.<\/p>\n
Police emphasize that tip money is not funded by taxpayers and that the reward applies to information resulting in an arrest, recovery of a missing person, or resolution of the investigation. Media Release #4369 states that details are accurate as of the release date and remain subject to updates.<\/p>\n
If you have information on this long-standing mystery, authorities urge you to come forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DICKSON CITY, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The Pennsylvania State Police Troop R \u2013 Blooming Grove Station is urging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-130570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}