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Missing: Lee Young


JonathanVonErich

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Lee Roy Young

Missing

Gender: Male

DOB: 11/22/33

Height: 6’1”

Weight: 206 lbs.

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Gray

mis_lee_young1.jpg

This is a very interesting case. What happened to Lee Young ?? After more than 22 years he is still missing. At the time of his disappearance he was investigating a major drug cartel based in Columbia. His wife claims that the files he was working on were missing when they found his car. Was he killed because he knew too much ??

On May 5th, 1990, a deputy sheriff came across of a burning car in the desert 100 miles south of Phoenix, Arizona.The car belonged to 56-year-old bank-executive Lee Young. Lee’s job was to investigate a possible fraud case against his bank in Scottsdale. If Lee had been murdered and his body dumped in the desert, there was one obvious motive; Lee always wore a very distinctive and very expensive Rolex watch, and always carried large amounts of cash to buy jewelry, which he sold in his spare time. When police opened the trunk to Lee’s burned-out car, they found jewelry worth thousands of dollars. His Rolex had been taken, but why was the rest of the jewelry left behind? Lee’s wife, Connie Young: “The only thing missing out of the trunk of that car, that I am aware, is the briefcase that carried his files. So that makes me believe that robbery wasn’t the motive. It was case-related.”

The robbery theory seemed less likely, but another motive took its place. Lee had recently contacted Federal drug agents because he suspected that his bank was being used by a money-laundering ring. Lee had focused his investigation on a major drug cartel in Columbia. The case was still ongoing at the time of his disappearance. Police pieced together Lee’s movements before he disappeared. He left a restaurant in Scottsdale around 12:30 p.m. and was never seen again. However, Lee or someone else used his car phone later that afternoon. A single call came in over Young’s car phone and three calls were dialed out. One went to a phone booth, the others to a woman who denied ever talking to Lee on the telephone. Det. Scott Reed, Scottsdale, Ariz. Police Dept: “I don’t know for a fact that Lee made these calls. In fact, it’s possible that Lee was taken down prior to two o’clock Friday afternoon and that the three calls made after two o’clock were made by somebody else.”

Critical information is still missing in this case: Who made the phone calls? Who burned the car? Did Lee Young die in a robbery gone wrong? Or did his investigation into a money laundering operation for a drug cartel get him killed? Connie Young hopes that someone saw her husband’s plum-colored Lincoln Town Car between the time he left the restaurant on May 4, 1990, and the time the car was found in flames the next day. She also hopes someone might have seen his copper-faced Rolex watch. It has diamonds encircling the face and on the band.

22 years after he disappeared, Lee Young is still missing. If you have any information you can contact the investigators working on the case: http://coldcase@scottsdaleaz.gov

Unsolved Mysteries segment about the case:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiDDvxqfNzA

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The best lead to go on seems to be with the woman who denied speaking with Young.

Needless to say, there was a reason her number was contacted twice whether it's true she actually spoke to anyone or not.

Who did she know who might have been expected to be contacted her number?

When a phone booth is called, we know we have a plan in action.

I'm wondering where the heck Young was expected to be after he left the restaurant. It may seem to be of no consequence, but jeez, it's informative to know the victim's routine!

From an investigative standpoint, I'm very, very bothered that Young's body wasn't in the vehicle because if the crime to be covered up is murder, then where is the body?

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You're right about the phone calls, the fact two phone calls was made to the same woman is very interesting. This wasn't a coincidence, there's something behind it. The fact the body wasn't in the car is really mind-boggling. What do you think happened ??

I'm wondering what was the Drug cartel mr. Young was investigating at the time. At the time of Young's disappearance there were many Cartels based in Columbia ( in 1990 Pablo Escobar was hiding from authorities and many people in Columbia wanted to replace him, leading to the birth of many Cartels ). I feel like he was killed because of his investigation into the Cartel, but who knows ?? He could have staged the entire thing; unlikely, but still a possibility. Very strange case.

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I prefer to have more info. because I'm hesitant to point the finger at a potential victim, but I'll go ahead and say that I'm leaning toward Young having arranged his disappearance.

In this situation, I can't rationalize that we have a burned out vehicle, and no body, and still no body.

Also, those phone calls bother me. I find it contradictory that a perp would call a phone booth, yet call a private number twice.

The call to the phone booth was obviously pre-arranged, so was it was either luck that the car had a phone, or the perp already knew the car had one.

It would be helpful to know precisely when- and in what order- those phone calls went out, and whether either of the numbers had ever been called before.

I wonder if they checked phone records from Young's home and employment. They certainly should have, and I'd be stunned if they didn't.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Good mystery...I vote cartel. I think random robbery gone bad would have taken the car to a chop shop. If the bank were involved, they'd have known about the jewelry in the trunk. Cartel paid someone well enough to just do the job and go.

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  • 5 years later...

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