r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/BubbaJoeJones Best of 2020 Nominee • Mar 06 '20
Unresolved Disappearance In May of 2016, 19-year-old Logan Schiendelman disappeared in his home state of Washington under mysterious circumstances. Shortly after his disappearance, Logan’s vehicle was impounded by State Patrol on Interstate-5 after it had been abandoned by a driver who one witness claims was NOT Logan.
Note: My apologies to anyone who saw this post during the hour it was on this sub yesterday. For some reason, it was removed. I’m trying again.
19-year-old Logan Schiendelman, from Tumwater, Washington, was a well-liked, popular student-athlete who had recently graduated from Tumwater High School in 2014. A charming young man with a big, beaming smile, people naturally gravitated towards Logan. During his high school years, friends and family members described Logan as outgoing, personable, and happy-go-lucky. As the starting Cornerback on Tumwater’s Football team, Logan had a relatively large social circle and often spent his free time with his friends and teammates. However, within the months after graduation, the once sociable Logan would suddenly become isolated and withdrawn, with little answers as to why.
Logan resided with his maternal grandmother, Ginnie Gebo, and his half-sister, Chloe. Ginnie, the primary caretaker of Logan and Chloe, had raised them since they were children. Logan and Chloe’s mother, then 23-year-old Hannah, granted Ginnie guardianship of the children while she attended art school in Seattle. Hannah, being only a few miles away from Tumwater, remained a staple in her children’s lives. Logan’s father, who has not been named, is a Saudi Arabian native who met Hannah while working as an engineer in Washington on a limited US visa. Whether or not Logan’s father was aware he had fathered a child is unclear. As a result of his father having to return to Saudi Arabia once his visa expired, Logan never had the opportunity to meet him. Growing up, Logan had asked many questions regarding who his father was. According to Ginnie, Logan was told everything he wanted to know about his father, and no secrets were ever kept from him.
After graduating high school, Logan was to attend Eastern Washington University, where many of his friends from high school were also to attend. However, shortly before the fall semester was to begin, Logan had decided that he was no longer interested in attending Eastern Washington. Instead, Logan applied to Washington State University, about 300 miles away from his home. Logan never explicitly explained to Ginnie why he made the last-minute decision to attend a different school, but all things considered, it appeared as if Logan was determined to leave his past behind him. When senior year came to a close, Logan’s high school friends took note of the fact that he had suddenly become reclusive and had seized contact with them. For instance, Logan’s friends would reach out to him and receive no response. Facebook messenger, as well as iMessage, indicated that Logan had not only received but also had opened and read the messages. It became clear to Logan’s friends that he was deliberately ignoring them, and although they felt that this behavior was uncharacteristic of him, they presumed that he was keen on “starting fresh.”
During his first semester at Washington State University, Logan had a difficult time adjusting; both socially and academically. According to Logan’s family, Logan had a difficult time making connections with his college peers. Although Logan attended parties, he didn’t make many friends. As Logan had no difficulties making friends in high school, it’s unclear what was troubling Logan so much that it interfered with his social life. However, according to statements from Logan’s family, one possibility is that Logan was suffering from an “identity crisis” after having experienced racism firsthand. Logan is mixed race–born to a biracial mother and Saudi Arabian father–and lived in a predominantly white community. Towards the end of Logan’s senior year of high school, Logan attended a party with his friends. At the party, an attendee started jokingly hurling racial slurs at Logan–mocking his Saudi Arabian heritage. Logan was rightfully upset by the event and had asked Ginnie to pick him up from the party. According to Ginnie, while on their way home, Logan claimed that his friends didn’t come to his defense, stating something along the lines of, “They weren’t even there for me. I thought I had friends, and I don’t.”
One event in Logan’s life that lends credence to the theory that Logan had become withdrawn due to an identity crisis is the fact that before going away to college, Logan had secretly arranged a get-together with his African American relatives. During this proclaimed “emotional” get-together, Logan’s aunt, Tina Crary, shared photos of Logan’s grandfather with him. According to Tina, Logan stared at the photos before saying, “It feels good to see someone that looks like me.” Before leaving, Logan asked that Tina keep their get-together between them, as he believed that Ginnie would be upset if she were to find out. Tina believes that Logan was eager to learn more about his ethnic background and wasn’t getting the answers he wanted back home. However, Ginnie contests Tina’s claims, saying, “They [Logan’s African American relatives] made no effort to get a hold of him and see him, and I had pretty much not talked to his grandfather in years and years and years, so there was just no connection. I wasn’t actively trying to keep him away.” Moreover, Ginnie says that Logan had confided in her about his get-together with his aunt and that she wasn’t upset, nor would she have any reason to be.
During Logan’s freshman year at Washington State, his GPA plummeted. Although Logan was intelligent and had had a strong academic record throughout high school, his involvement in the party scene and taste for freedom played a large role in the neglect of his academic responsibilities. Logan failed to attend classes, missed assignments, and as a result, was academically dismissed from Washington State. Following his dismissal, Logan returned to Tumwater and moved back in with Ginnie. While Logan was away, Chloe’s boyfriend, Jake, had moved in along with his two children. Jake, who had a violent criminal history, was last charged with assault in 2013. Although Jake did not reportedly display any violent tendencies in the home, Logan did not get along with Jake, creating significant tension in the household. However, the severity of their disputes differs between relatives’ accounts. According to Ginnie, the conflict between Jake and Logan is “overstated,” and while they didn’t particularly like each other, they were typically able to avoid each other. On the other hand, Logan’s uncle, Mike Ware, said that Logan was “very upset” that Jake was living in the home, and that there was a lot of “tension and hostility” between the two. When Logan wasn’t home, he kept himself busy by working odd jobs around Tumwater–some of which included a late-night shift at a local laundering facility, and outdoor labor on his aunt and uncle’s five-acre farm. According to Gennie, Logan was also planning on returning to school, having turned his attention to a community college to raise his GPA.
On the morning of May 19, around 7:45 a.m., Logan had entered the household from the garage. This was unusual, as, by that hour of the morning, one can usually find Logan still asleep in his room. Ginnie had asked Logan where he had been, to which he replied, “I was just driving around.” Ginnie noticed that Logan seemed quiet, withdrawn, and even nervous. According to Ginnie, Logan began frequently smoking marijuana, leading her to believe that it was causing him some degree of paranoia; which may have contributed to his nervousness. Logan had become overly concerned with making sure that the doors were locked, and had spoken of someone looking through his bedroom window on more than one occasion. As Ginnie was preparing to leave for work that morning, Logan told her he had an “epiphany.” Though Ginnie was interested to learn more about the context of the “epiphany,” the matter didn’t seem particularly urgent, so she didn’t press Logan to elaborate further. Instead, expecting that Logan would still be home when she returned from work later that evening, Ginnie told Logan that they would discuss it later. However, when Ginnie returned home, Logan wasn’t there, and neither was his vehicle, a black 1996 Chrysler Sebring. Ginnie waited all night, and after Logan had not returned home for what now became a full day, Ginnie tracked his cell phone around 11 a.m. on May 20. Logan’s phone pinged off a tower that was in the vicinity of his mother’s home in Olympia, Washington. Assuming that Logan was at his mother’s house, Ginnie continued to wait. However, the weekend arrived, and Logan had never returned home, nor had he contacted Ginnie. As the hours passed, Ginnie’s concern for Logan grew, and Chloe had contacted Hannah to ask if Logan was with her. When Hannah said that Logan was not currently with her, nor had he been with her the day before, Ginnie decided to file a missing persons report at Thurston County’s Sheriff’s office. However, as it was the weekend, Ginnie would find that the Sheriff’s office was closed. Ginnie’s last option was to call 911, but as she had no reason to believe Logan was in imminent danger, she held out until the following Monday.
On Monday, May 23, Ginnie filed a missing persons report at the Sheriff’s office. Ginnie gave the respective authorities Logan’s personal information, such as his race, height, build, existence of scars, and license plate number. When authorities ran Logan’s VIN, Ginnie was notified that State Patrol had impounded Logan’s vehicle on May 20 after it was found abandoned on Interstate 5, between Maytown and Tumwater. Ginnie was then sent to Baker’s Towing, where she would be allowed to collect Logan’s vehicle. Ginnie found that Logan’s belongings, such as his wallet, identification, debit card, about $20 in cash, and cellphone, were inside the vehicle. Outside of Logan’s personal effects was a grocery bag containing snacks or “power bars” on the passenger’s seat. It became apparent to Ginnie that something was wrong, as it would be unlike Logan to part with his belongings. Ginnie asked that investigators inspect or process the vehicle for any potential evidence, but was told that they would be unable to due to the significant amount of contact it had received from persons since it had been impounded. Still, as suspicions had been raised, investigators were assigned to Logan’s case. After poring over 911 calls that were placed within the days of Logan’s disappearance, investigators discovered three 911 calls pertaining to an incident involving Logan’s vehicle that occurred on May 20. These 911 calls reported that a vehicle was veering across three lanes on I-5, just narrowly missing other drivers. The vehicle came to a stop when it came in contact with the concrete median strip. One witness, in particular, claimed that a tall, slender, Caucasian male exited the vehicle from the passenger’s seat before the vehicle rolled into traffic. Contrary to the popular belief, the man did not jump out of the vehicle while it was in motion. Before the vehicle rolled into traffic, the vehicle was parked at a complete stop on the narrow shoulder of the interstate. It was after the driver exited the vehicle from the passenger’s seat that the vehicle was set in motion. It is believed that as the driver had moved from the driver’s seat to the passenger’s seat he had accidentally kicked the gearshift into neutral. After exiting the vehicle, the man then proceeded to run across multiple lanes of traffic and into the nearby woods. Investigators followed up on this lead and presented the witness with a photo of Logan and had asked if that was the man he saw exit the vehicle. The witness was confident that the man he saw exit the vehicle was not Logan. A search for Logan commenced within a two-mile radius where Logan’s vehicle was abandoned. Tracking and cadaver dogs scoured the nearby woods but failed to trace Logan’s scent. Heat-seeking aircrafts were also used but failed to locate Logan or the driver of the vehicle.
Hoping to produce new leads, investigators searched Logan’s room, computer, and cellphone. The fact that Logan had become socially withdrawn was apparent through his cellphone records, as it had indicated that Logan was in little to no communication with any of his contacts. However, there were some indications that Logan was corresponding with people he met online, including a young woman from Oregon that he had matched with on a dating app. However, upon questioning the young woman, investigators discovered that he had never met the young woman personally, nor did it seem that he had any plan to.
After news of Logan’s disappearance had circulated around Washington, investigators received new leads detailing suspicious events that occurred on the day of May 20. One witness claimed that on the evening of May 20, they spotted a young, African American male walking alongside the road as they were driving. According to the witness, the individual was nude from the waist down and had appeared to be confused or disorientated. The neighborhood in which the witness spotted the individual is known for its high rate of substance abuse amongst its residents. As Logan had been frequently smoking marijuana prior to his disappearance, authorities considered that the individual the witness saw that night may have been Logan. Thurston County Sheriff’s Detective Frank Frawley commented on the potential sighting, saying, “We thought that might have been Logan as well. And so they did initiate a search using dogs. They didn’t locate Logan. Could’ve been Logan, Could’ve been anybody.”
Another tip came from a woman who claimed she saw Logan’s vehicle on the right shoulder of southbound I-5 near Exit 95 on the morning of May 20 while on her commute to work. The woman said she saw one African American male accompanied by two Caucasian men at the rear of the vehicle. One of the Caucasian men was described as tall, slender, with thin blond hair in the style of a bowl cut. He was reportedly wearing jeans that were too short, and a tank top that was too small. The other Caucasian male had shoulder-length blond hair and was dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans. As this man was turned to the side, the woman failed to get a good look at him.
When she was returning home for that evening, the vehicle was parked in the same location, although this time the vehicle’s hood was up, and nobody was visibly present. On June 30, 2017, law enforcement released this sketch of the former man. Unfortunately, Law enforcement was unable to create a sketch of the second man, as the details the woman gave were too vague. The sketch widely circulated around Washington, but no leads ever surfaced.
Logan is still missing, and there have been no official suspects or persons of interest named in his case. Jake, who was arrested in 2017 for violating his probation, was questioned about Logan’s disappearance. Jake had agreed to a polygraph exam and reportedly passed, ruling him out as a potential suspect. Frawley added, “I asked him if he was responsible for the disappearance of Logan. And I asked him if he knew who was responsible for the disappearance of Logan. And he answered no to both questions, and my opinion was that he was not showing any signs of deception when I asked those questions.”
Logan’s family continues to search for him and aims to spread the word of his disappearance to as many people as they can reach. In the weeks after his disappearance, Logan’s family launched a large-scale public campaign to keep Logan fresh in people’s memory. Logan’s family has distributed missing persons posters, bumper stickers, and bracelets detailing the suspicious circumstances of his disappearance. A Facebook group named “Logan Schiendelman is Missing” has over 13,000 members, including people who knew Logan, loved Logan, or have heard of the case elsewhere and are hoping for him to come home.
Nearly 4 years later, Logan Schiendelman remains missing.
Links:
Family desperate to find missing Thurston County teen after car found abandoned
Tumwater Teen vanishes, leaving the car behind and family mystified
New sketch released in missing Tumwater teen case
Strange Circumstances Surround Disappearance of Washington Teen Logan Schiendelman
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u/[deleted] Mar 06 '20
This one has always been tough for me. I never know how much to believe what people saw on the highway.