30 January 2010

 

The disappearance of Phil Agre

Years ago, I regularly read the Red Rock Eater News Service, a mailing list run by Phil Agre, then a professor at UCLA. He was smart and opinionated, and his enthusiasm for cheap-but-good fineline pens helped me during my days as a full-time editor.

I found out today that he has been missing since sometime in late 2008 or early 2009, which is particularly worrisome because of his bipolar disorder. I did not know him at all, but his disappearance is strange, especially because it hadn't been at all publicized until three months ago. It seems he had been behaving erratically before his disappearance.

I've known a few people who have vanished in a similar fashion, and those cases did not end well. I hope things are different in Agre's case.

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# 6:48 PM

Comments:

I certainly hope Mr Agre is found safe - but then I remembered someone else about whose disappearance you wrote: Daniel Hughes. What was the outcome in the Daniel Hughes case?
# posted by Blogger Jann : 31 January, 2010 14:01
 
Sadly, that was one of the worst case scenarios I was talking about. His remains were found on the lower slopes of Mt. Seymour in July, not too far from where he left his bicycle a few weeks earlier.
# posted by Blogger Derek : 31 January, 2010 14:10
 
Very sad.
# posted by Blogger Jann : 31 January, 2010 14:16
 
The UCLA missing report says that Philip Agre was found.

"Philip Agre was located by LA County Sheriff’s Department on January 16, 2010 and is in good health and is
self sufficient." - https://www.ucpd.ucla.edu/2009/09-2490.pdf

Sorry about Daniel.
# posted by Anonymous Ashish : 02 February, 2010 02:11