My Old Friend Is Disturbingly Missing In Brooklyn or Lower East SIde, NYC -- Update: John Has Been Found and Is Safe (1 Viewer)

[rockaction]

Not trying to imply your friend has a drug problem and ghosted everyone for a flop house in NYC, just that by posting his info here you already have several people taking action and spreading the word and that has a multiplier effect and you never know who may cross his path tomorrow.

Bozeman, it’s entirely possible at this point. Thanks for the YouTube video. That’s him in his element.

 

[rockaction]

Prayers that he's found safe and that there is a good outcome here, rock.

that your buddy is found safe and sound.

I can't imagine the agony this must be, Rock. Really sorry and I sure hope there is a positive development soon. Your friend is really fortunate to have a buddy like you.

Thanks, guys. I really do appreciate it. That's all we have at this point, really, are thoughts and prayers. Hoping for a safe landing and/or return.

 

[rockaction]

Prayers coming your way. Hope they find him soon.

for a great outcome.

No words of wisdom, but hoping for good news.

Thoughts, prayers and positive vibes for you and your buddy @rockaction . I really wish there was something more I could offer up to be of assistance in this manner but until I can think of anything—you do have my strongest of prayers.

Oh man. Sorry to hear this. I was like "What's a balloon man" so I googled your friend and read an article about him. I thought he would be older for some reason. Seems like a good and interesting dude. I hope he tuns up and is safe.

Guys, thanks to each and every one of you.

I feel like quoting you all is important. Thanks for stopping by and wishing everybody well. That's so important right now.

 

[rockaction]

Your friend is really fortunate to have a buddy like you.

Thanks, GM. In my youth, it was I that was fortunate to have a friend like him. Got me out of a horrible almost-marriage with a trip down to Florida and when I did some self-actualization on said journey, I realized what I was getting into and stopped. There were no words spoken about it, but he made sure that I went and was a big proponent of me to others. I am indebted to him for a bunch of things, but that was one of the foremost things he did for me.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

I can’t offer much assistance, not local enough, but I do get NY News so hopefully he doesn’t show up on there.

Hoping for the best outcome here and soon. I’m sure it’s a helpless feeling.

 

[facook]

Sincerely praying your friend is found Rock. And also for you for some peace in your soul during this time.

 

[foxco]

Damn sorry to hear about this. Have a couple of friends in Brooklyn and forwarded the info to them, highly unlikely they would have any knowledge or contact but can't hurt. Hoping for best case scenario where he comes up fine.

 

[TheAristocrat]

I can't help but will put my best towards you and yours. It's not much but thinking about you, buddy.

 

[rockaction]

It's not much but thinking about you, buddy.

No sweat, GB. Hey, our stupid fantasy team we talk about on Sunday nights? We won this year. Good job, man! We did it!

 

[rockaction]

I can’t offer much assistance, not local enough, but I do get NY News so hopefully he doesn’t show up on there.

Hoping for the best outcome here and soon. I’m sure it’s a helpless feeling.

Sincerely praying your friend is found Rock. And also for you for some peace in your soul during this time.

Damn sorry to hear about this. Have a couple of friends in Brooklyn and forwarded the info to them, highly unlikely they would have any knowledge or contact but can't hurt. Hoping for best case scenario where he comes up fine.

I can't help but will put my best towards you and yours. It's not much but thinking about you, buddy.

Thanks, you guys. Thanks for the prayers and wishes for everything. I need some peace right about now, facook. Thanks for the thought.

 

[BobbyLayne]

krista, I've posted an imgur photo at https://imgur.com/a/qot6e81

He can be found Googling "John Murdock, Brooklyn, balloons" at Google. There are several articles with pictures of him from the 2015-esque time period.

Thanks for your help no matter how it turns out or what you're able to do or why this happened.

Hey brother man,

Thanks for sharing this. I’m going to print off some hard copies and bring to service tomorrow. Will leave with the greeters to pass out. We worship about 20 blocks or so from there in the next neighborhood over, Clinton Hill. Some of our congregants live in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Praying for John. Praying for his safety and hoping he is OK and will reach out soon. Praying for peace and comfort for his family and everyone who cares about him.

@rockaction keep your head in a good space.

 

[rockaction]

BL, thank you so much. I don’t know what to say — what it could possibly mean to him that you’re doing that. Thank you and Godspeed to you too.

Much love.

 

[Raging weasel]

I have no way of helping but hope it all turns out well for your friend and you.

 

[Corporation]

Hey GB @rockaction I'm not close to that area but I'll lift up prayers that your friend is found safe and sound, and for peace and comfort for his family and friends while he is missing. Hope you get positive news on this soon.

 

[Don Quixote]

Sorry to hear about your friend. Wish I knew some contacts in that area to help. Hoping for the best.

 

[rockaction]

I have no way of helping but hope it all turns out well for your friend and you.

Hey GB @rockaction I'm not close to that area but I'll lift up prayers that your friend is found safe and sound, and for peace and comfort for his family and friends while he is missing. Hope you get positive news on this soon.

Sorry to hear about your friend. Wish I knew some contacts in that area to help. Hoping for the best.

Thanks to my music mate and fantasy football league mates for the well wishes. It is appreciated. It is not lost on me that a moment of your time is precious and I appreciate your thoughts.

 

[Ilov80s]

Thanks to my music mate and fantasy football league mates for the well wishes. It is appreciated. It is not lost on me that a moment of your time is precious and I appreciate your thoughts.

Love you man, let me know if you need to talk about this. I have nothing helpful to say but I am here to listen if you need it.

 

[rockaction]

Love you man, let me know if you need to talk about this. I have nothing helpful to say but I am here to listen if you need it.

Love you back and that’s as helpful as you could be or anything you could say. Means a lot coming from you.

I’m okay. I’ve sort of got a weird optimism that he’s going through a rough time and chose to disappear. The police not filing a missing persons report both sucks and gives me hope. If they were on the case, I’d be a basket case myself. I haven’t seen John since 2012 or 13. Lots can change over a decade. I can only hope he’s okay.

 

[The Dreaded Marco]

Sorry to hear this. I hope your friend is ok and safe. Best wishes to all that know and love him.

 

[rockaction]

Do what you can, any old haunts your friend might be hanging out? Best of luck to your friend, his family and yourself.

Fingers crossed. Hope he's as OK as can be.

Just noticed I hadn't acknowledged these well wishes. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.

Dez, I have thought of that. John used to be a balloon animalist at a transgender revue bar called Lucky Cheng's in the Village. That has since closed. I remember hanging out in two bars where he was a regular back in 2012 on my own, but I can't remember those places' names. It's really a dynamic world in NYC, and places open and close all the time. I don't know where to begin to forget, if you know what I'm saying.

But thanks for the thought and the wishes.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Do you know why the cops won't list him as missing?

 

[AAABatteries]

So sorry to hear rock - I hope they find your friend safe soon.

I know nothing of the area you mentioned he was last seen but is it possible there’s cameras that maybe picked something up?

 

[rockaction]

Do you know why the cops won't list him as missing?

No. It was in the second facebook screenshot that my friend passed along to me. It was simply stated as a lamentable fact.

I am not close enough to the epicenter of this at this stage in my life to have real insider knowledge of anything. A friend called last night out of the blue and told me about this. He's more in the center than I am, and he's on the outside of it, too. John had apparently grown up, as we all do, and his contacts had changed in emphasis. Whereas in 2007-8 we talked all the time, I didn't know he was living in Florida now. It's just the way life goes.

 

[rockaction]

So sorry to hear rock - I hope they find they friend safe soon.

I know nothing of the area you mentioned he was last seen but is it possible there’s cameras that maybe picked something up?

Thanks, AAA. It's possible, but I think that if the police aren't looking, nobody really else is checking their security cameras for things of that nature. If something tragic happened, one would hope a camera caught it and people paid it due attention, but if it's either off camera or the camera hadn't recorded anything of note, I don't think they'll go after people with security cameras to rewind footage to find him or anything.

 

[rockaction]

I'm actually in more of a hurry-up-and-wait pattern on this than anything else. I don't expect news soon, and I won't really be the first person to hear about it when or if they find out what happened. I'm sort of waiting on the peripheral like everybody else.

 

[AAABatteries]

Has anyone tried checking with other balloon artists? Would seem like a small group of folks that may know each other.

And apologies if this has been mentioned but has anyone approached a local news organization to see if they would do a special interest story?

 

[rockaction]

Has anyone tried checking with other balloon artists? Would seem like a small group of folks that may know each other.

And apologies if this has been mentioned but has anyone approached a local news organization to see if they would do a special interest story?

I'd imagine John was known by fellow artists rather than by other balloon animal vendors. That's my gut feeling. I think he always branded himself as a sort of comedic/artsy/jack-of-all-trades type of person that did performance art in the more beatnik areas of NYC. I remember his balloons running the gamut from the childlike butterfly to the sociopolitical and very adult.

But I don't know the answer to either of those. I think approaching a local news organization would be a great idea, but I'm sort of out of the loop in terms of suggesting things to people. I don't even know the people who he was in contact with daily. I just...I can't do much other than this. That's a really solid suggestion. I'm just not sure the local NYC news even flinches at a missing person. But he's got enough of a backstory to allow for a human interest profile to catch eyeballs. I just can't really influence where this is going.

 

[rockaction]

I'd love to have been in touch with him daily and be able to do these things, but we're both close to fifty and one has different contacts at different periods of one's life, you know? I wouldn't say we drifted apart as there really was no fall out or disagreement or even agreement or anything, we just ceased talking to each other regularly. It's amazing how life sort of goes that way as you get older. Can't say that I fully understand the dynamics of ceasing communication, but it happens.

 

[FairWarning]

Here is a list of NYC newspapers (local to the neighborhood). It’s a little dated, but one of these community papers may help - https://nberke.medium.com/80-nyc-local-news-outlets-that-need-your-support-f0f70722bf08

 

[rockaction]

Here is a list of NYC newspapers (local to the neighborhood). It’s a little dated, but one of these community papers may help - https://nberke.medium.com/80-nyc-local-news-outlets-that-need-your-support-f0f70722bf08

That's a treasure trove of a list, GB. Will see what I can do to pass that along to the appropriate people. That's just awesome.

 

[FairWarning]

Here is a list of NYC newspapers (local to the neighborhood). It’s a little dated, but one of these community papers may help - https://nberke.medium.com/80-nyc-local-news-outlets-that-need-your-support-f0f70722bf08

A lot of these people are on Twitter, maybe you can find a couple and DM the info.

 

[rockaction]

Actually, I'm going to tell my friend that told me about John's disappearance about this thread. Maybe some of the ideas will inspire him to get in touch with the people that know he's missing. I hesitate to contact his family because it seems ghoulish and inappropriate for me to contact them out of the blue during this time. Maybe my friend was closer with the family than I was. I don't know. These are such great ideas and such good resources that they shouldn't go to waste. I'm really playing this as it lays right now. I'll wait for him this morning.

 

[FairWarning]

There is a homeless poster from Philly on a gambling site I go to occasionally, the street life is its own little community. Someone out there knows, Rock.

 

[Skipdog77]

I've got nothing useful to add, but I hope everything turns out ok for your friend and you, Rock.

 

[dickey moe]

Rock, sorry to hear about your friend and I hope he is found soon. Praying for him...

 

[General Malaise]

Is there anybody in the area that can post this on Nextdoor? If that was mentioned prior, please disregard. I'm not a heavy ND user but as it's very neighborhood specific perhaps a smaller network might be of some utility? The one we use has listed missing persons before and the support and eyeballs has helped locate some missing folks. Just a thought.

 

[rockaction]

If that was mentioned prior, please disregard.

It's a new suggestion. What I'm going to do this morning is see if I can't get a hold of my friend who told me about this and see who he heard about this from or if he knows any way to get in touch with the people that have alerted everyone to his status. If not, then I might try to contact his family or those people that are immediately close with him. I'm not sure how that will go over (I am not sure how his family is coping with this) but perhaps anything is better than the horror of him missing. I don't really know at this point what to do. I'm not in a panic or hysterical or anything, I'm just really unsure about who to contact and how to contact them, and also whether or not a guy on a fantasy football web site (a web site that we know is awesome) who is an old, degenerate friend won't earn scorn for his efforts rather than being seen as helpful.

 

[simey]

and also whether or not a guy on a fantasy football web site (a web site that we know is awesome) who is an old, degenerate friend won't earn scorn for his efforts rather than being seen as helpful.

If I were his parent, sibling, or an immediate close friend, and you came forward trying to help, I would appreciate your efforts, and I would think to myself that my loved one (John) made some great friends along the way that truly care about him.

 

[Redwes25]

I will definitely keep an eye out in my parts of BK and can email my friends as well.

 

[rockaction]

If I were his parent, sibling, or an immediate close friend, and you came forward trying to help, I would appreciate your efforts, and I would think to myself that my loved one (John) made some great friends along the way that truly care about him.

Thanks, simey. That's what I would like to think they'd think. I would imagine they would. I just have no way to get in touch with them. I tried looking up "Andrews" in "Middletown, New Jersey." I don't know the father's or mother's first names, or if I did, I've forgotten. I know his sister's name but never knew how to spell it. I think it's "Kerry."

The names are so common. What it's going to take, I think, is to reach out via Facebook (I know, argh) to people that might know him best in that manner. I'm thinking of two people in particular that might know a way to get in touch.

 

[rockaction]

I will definitely keep an eye out in my parts of BK and can email my friends as well.

Thanks so much, Redwes. It means a lot.

 

[facook]

If that was mentioned prior, please disregard.

It's a new suggestion. What I'm going to do this morning is see if I can't get a hold of my friend who told me about this and see who he heard about this from or if he knows any way to get in touch with the people that have alerted everyone to his status. If not, then I might try to contact his family or those people that are immediately close with him. I'm not sure how that will go over (I am not sure how his family is coping with this) but perhaps anything is better than the horror of him missing. I don't really know at this point what to do. I'm not in a panic or hysterical or anything, I'm just really unsure about who to contact and how to contact them, and also whether or not a guy on a fantasy football web site (a web site that we know is awesome) who is an old, degenerate friend won't earn scorn for his efforts rather than being seen as helpful.

As someone that has reached out to people in trauma/times of trouble, what I can unequivocally offer is that the hurting person prefers to hear from someone who cares saying "I have no idea how to help, I just care enough to reach out" over not hearing from that person. As the reacher-outer it feels so powerless. But the hurting person feels seen/heard/loved. It matters.

[I'd suggest you have felt this in this very thread, as a hurting person even though you are not in center of the storm.]

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Part of the problem I see is that it's not a crime to not want to be found. Without evidence of a crime or an alteration in usual behavior or a medical issue, it's hard to get the ball rolling. A police report with a case number opens many doors and resources.

Not knowing sucks.

 

[FairWarning]

Part of the problem I see is that it's not a crime to not want to be found. Without evidence of a crime or an alteration in usual behavior or a medical issue, it's hard to get the ball rolling. A police report with a case number opens many doors and resources.

Not knowing sucks.

The poster I know would be like this. He’s from a well-off family and college educated. He would rather be homeless than admitting failure to family and friends.

 

[Godsbrother]

Sorry to hear Rock. I hope all is okay with your friend.

 

[Sand]

Rock, I sincerely hope your buddy turns up. Hopefully he was picked up by a supermodel who loves balloons and has been holed up in her penthouse.

Stroker

Yeah, definitely don't want the story on this.

 

[In The Zone]

Sorry Rock. Prayers for your friend and his family. Hopeful for a good outcome.

 

[HellToupee]

Hoping for a positive outcome

 

[rockaction]

Yeah, definitely don't want the story on this

It's the shortening on an unusual last Polish name.

Thanks again for the well wishes everybody. I'll have some sort of update soon, I think. So thanks for the continued wishes and prayers.

 

[Sand]

Yeah, definitely don't want the story on this

It's the shortening on an unusual last Polish name.

Riiight.... That sounds plausible.

Seriously, I hope you find your friend.