Tyler Goodrich is a 35 year old man who went missing in Nebraska in November 2023.
As some background into Tyler, he was born on April 2, 1988. He was raised in Nebraska. He has three sisters and a younger brother, Jennie, Angie, Jordan, and Felicia.
His father Lonnie spoke to Dateline about his son. “When he was in elementary, our cooks always provided cookies to the kids at lunchtime. So Tyler came home one weekend… and said, ‘Dad, the cooks make us cookies every day. Can we make cookies for the cooks?’” he said. “So we made cookies so Tyler could take them to the cooks just to repay them for their kindness.”
“He was just a good person. I would say he was always a champion of the underdog,” Lonnie said.
“He always had short red hair and freckles,” Lonnie said.. “And back then, he was a little bit more chubby.”
Tyler grew up in Bennet, Nebraska. He attended Bennet Elementary and Palmyra High School where he played golf and basketball along with running cross country.
Tyler’s friend Rachel has spoken to the media about his love of running. “He is really into running. So he’s a marathoner — I would say decorated marathoner,” Rachel said. “He, you know, took good care of himself.”
After he finished school, he moved to Lincoln, twenty minutes away from Bennet.
Tyler came out as gay when he was in his 20’s. Tyler’s friend Amanda Meyer spoke about that time in his life. “That’s probably the only time I’ve really felt Tyler carried a lot of fear is when he decided to let somebody else know,” she said.
“He persevered through everything. He pushed himself. He believed, I think, in excellence. He strove to be his best at things,” Lonnie said. “He wanted to get his master’s degree, got it in 14 weeks and four days — talk about driven,” the proud father recounted. “He always told me he was going to be warden,” Lonnie said. “He said, ‘I will end up being warden someday.’ So maybe that truly was his ultimate goal.”
Tyler considered enlisting in the army but decided against it. He did enlist with the National Guard and as his dad said, he worked at the Nebraska Department of Corrections in Omaha at the time of his disappearance.
Lonnie has said that Tyler was well liked at work. “He was well-liked in the department because everyone knew that Tyler was looking out for them.”
Around 2015, Tyler met a man named Marshall Vogel at a bar. “We met at a bar here in Lincoln, a gay bar. And I remember walking by him, and he was just standing there. We made eye contact,” Marshall said. “That was it for us.”
“Tyler is a very driven person. He is very strong willed, and if he set his mind to something, he was going to do it no matter what it is,” Marshall said.
The couple dated for two years before they got married. “I always knew that I wanted kids and Tyler did, too,” Marshall told Dateline. “We were going to adopt a younger child — foster to adopt.”
But before their license was approved, Marshall said they got a call from the agency. “[They] said, ‘We have a 14-year-old that can be there in three hours,’” Marshall remembered.
Tyler and Marshall decided that it felt right to them to foster the boy.
Marshall said they then began the adoption process about two years ago. And then they got another call. “Our youngest came to live with us before the [first] adoption was final,” Marshall said, adding that their children are half siblings. The adoption for their youngest child was finalized in April. “He was an addition to the family that we didn’t know we needed.”
“Adopting those two boys — he loves those boys,” Lonnie said. “He was big on family.” In fact, the last time father and son saw each other was at a big family gathering just before Halloween. “We always would do a pre-Halloween so the grandkids could come in costume and we’d get to see them. “I’d spoken with him, you know, on the phone and text, but I think that’s the last — I think that’s the last time I had seen him.”
The day that Tyler disappeared was Friday November 3, 2023.
Tyler went to work as usual and was seen by his coworkers. After his shift, he was seen on CCTV at Costco, buying pizza for dinner for the family. This was at around 5.30pm.
Tyler then went home. He parked his car in the garage. He tried to call a friend when he got home and that call went unanswered. He texted with a co-worker confirming a speaking engagement for Saturday.
Marshall and Tyler had been having some marital issues. “Things were tough. We — we both knew that we loved each other very much. It was just maybe our — maybe our marriage wasn’t supposed to be forever,” he said. “We talked about what a perfect night would be. And so Tyler said, ‘A movie night with our kids and pizza and just hanging out.’ And so that’s what we did.” Marshall and Tyler’s eldest son was at work that night, so it ended up being just the couple and their youngest son.
At some point, just before 7.45pm, Marshall and Tyler got into an argument about their relationship. The argument became so heated that Marshall called 911.
While he was on the phone, Tyler left their house on foot. He took his Samsung phone and wallet with him. He was wearing grey shorts, a zip up sweatshirt and running shoes. He also was wearing his Samsung watch.
Tyler was seen on CCTV at 7.41pm, running.
Police arrived at the house at 8pm.
Dateline spoke with Investigator Jeremy Schwarz of the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, who confirmed that authorities were called to Tyler and Marshall’s residence that evening to respond to a domestic disturbance. “A 911 call was placed by Marshall Vogel to the Lincoln Police Department,” he said. “And referenced an argument between he and his spouse, Tyler.” The call was received at 7:47 p.m. on the evening of November 3, 2023. “We dispatched two patrol deputies to the residence to take a report of a domestic disturbance between Tyler and Marshall,” the investigator detailed. “And as a result of that, those deputies made contact with Marshall.”
Marshall told police that he had made an audio recording of the argument.
“It’s an audio recording of an argument, or I would more describe it as a conversation between Tyler and Marshall,” Investigator Schwarz said.
“When deputies arrived, Tyler was not present at the residence, and the deputies attempted to locate Tyler in and around the property,” Investigator Schwarz said. The two deputies left about half an hour later.
Police have said they checked Tyler’s movements from earlier on the day that he disappeared.
“The folks at Costco were great and they provided us video surveillance of Tyler at Costco, confirming what we already know was he was picking up pizza for his family.” That occurred at about 5:30 p.m. The investigator also noted that Tyler did not seem to be in any distress on the security video from Costco. “He was dressed well and did not look disheveled or unkempt. He was just a dad picking up a pizza and going home,” Investigator Schwarz said. “He immediately went home, and that pizza was shared with his family.”
I believe that Tyler’s Snapchat last shared his location at around 7.45pm that night. It said he was in the area of SW 10th & W. Van Dorn.
The following day, at 9.35am on November 4, Marshall called police to let them know that Tyler had not returned home.
“So Saturday and Sunday, immediately following the report by Marshall, law enforcement works side by side with the family,” Investigator Schwarz said.
Tyler’s family were very worried immediately. According to Lonnie, his son was very connected online and would never go very long without talking to someone. “Tyler couldn’t be off his phone for five minutes,” he said. And there has been zero communication since Friday, November 3. “No mention of him, no — no sightings, no anything,” Lonnie said.
His family said that Tyler has never done anything like this before. His friend Rachel agreed that Tyler would not leave without telling anyone of his plans.
“He had signed up for a pretty big marathon in Lincoln the weekend he went missing. So he went missing on Friday night and that Sunday was the Good Life Halfsy, which is a really big deal, um, in Lincoln,” Rachel said. “It’s a team event, so I believe there’s three or four other runners, like, on your team. And obviously he didn’t — he didn’t make it.” She also said that Tyler didn’t like to let people down and that he would always show up as promised.
By Sunday November 5, a full blown search had started.
They checked trails Tyler was known to frequent, but no luck. “Nothing. Not a shoe, not a shirt, not a phone, not a — not anything,” Lonnie said. “Nobody has ever used his credit card or debit card or –. None of that has ever surfaced. There’s nothing.”
“We were trying to connect with law enforcement as well, just so that they knew we were doing this. You know, they were great. They came out and kind of actually showed us how to conduct a search,” Rachel said. “You know, what to do if we found any evidence.”
They also worked with the Lincoln Parks and Rec department, who helped them create a virtual map that marked off which quadrants have been searched in the parks. “When you got done searching a certain area, you could click the link and almost, like, highlight the area you had just walked, that quadrant. And what that did was that helped us show what parts had been searched and then what hadn’t been searched,” Rachel explained. “And then we shared that information with the sheriff’s office so they knew, ‘Hey, we don’t need to cover this portion of Wilderness Park because this group of 100 had just done that.’”
Rachel created a missing persons poster for Tyler.
“We worked with a local sign company. So there’s yard signs everywhere. I mean, we went a lot door to door,” Rachel said. “Handing them out, posting them on companies, you know, anywhere we could.” They’ve heard from people around the country — as far as San Francisco even — that Tyler’s poster made it that far. “We have a trucking company in town and they put those posters in every truck for them to have, but also to hand out if they can leave at hubs,” Lonnie added.
Investigator Schwarz confirmed that authorities have pulled out all the stops in the search for Tyler. “We used the Nebraska State Patrol, they used their helicopter. So we were able to mutual aid with a partnering agency, and they used their helicopter. We also have access to drones in our agency, so we had used our drones to go up and try to locate Tyler. We had used canines, but all with no success,” he said. “Through searches with the family, searching nearby areas, and through aerial surveillance, we just were not able to locate Tyler.”
He also confirmed that “no personal items have been found” that they believe belong to Tyler.
Police also looked into Tyler’s online presence. “Our lives are connected in so many ways to the digital world. And so that is one of the first places where we started — is we started going after Tyler’s digital footprint, and that can be anything and everything from cellular devices to social media to financial records, anything,” Investigator Schwarz said. “His digital footprint at this point in time, right now, has gone dark.”
On Monday November 6, police served a search warrant at Tyler and Marshall’s home. By this point, Marshall had retained an attorney named Sandy Pollack. Sandy instructed Marshall to ‘give no more statements to law enforcement.’
Police said nothing of note was found in the home.
There is an article from ketv.com from November 7 and it talks about Marshall’s cooperation in the case.
As of right now, deputies said Goodrich’s husband is no longer giving information to the sheriff’s office. Investigators didn’t say whether Vogel is a suspect at this time.
Vogel’s defense attorney responded to that claim Tuesday afternoon, saying it is absolutely false that Mr. Vogel and his family are no longer cooperating with the investigation.
The FBI was briefed on the case on Thursday November 9. On this day, Marshall and the couple’s two children were interviewed again.
On Monday November 13, police backtracked on their previous statements and said that Marshall was being “100% cooperative” in the case.
In December, after Tyler had been missing for around 6 weeks, both police and the family spoke about the CCTV footage of Tyler running.
“It is the belief that that person on the video is Tyler running from the residence,” Investigator Schwarz said. “Right now, based on everything we know, that person is Tyler.”
“There was a Blink camera that they had in the back of their house — that Lonnie has seen, I’ve seen, it’s now been public — of what we believe is Tyler leaving the house,” Rachel said.
Lonnie has said that he isn’t certain the person in the footage is Tyler.
“It’s really grainy video. I mean, we all agreed that we wish it was way more clear of a video,” Rachel offered. “It’s very, very short — maybe a few seconds of someone leaving the back of the house. And that’s about the extent of the video.”
According to Lonnie, Tyler and Marshall have a big property. “Leaving in that direction would take you towards the barn and the animals,” Lonnie said. “But once you go beyond there, it’s — it’s terrible.”
He said the terrain is difficult to walk through, especially in the dark. “Essentially to get out of that area, you’d have to cross through those tree lines and they’re not, I mean, I walked them more than once and they’re not ones that you just walk through, because you get caught by the thorny locust trees and the briars,” Lonnie said.
Police have reviewed other camera and footage from neighbors from the night of November 3.
“The remaining video that we’ve captured does not show Tyler,” Investigator Schwarz said.
Marshall has told the media that law enforcement had regular access to the family property to conduct searches.
“They could come and go as they please,” Marshall said.. “We’ve all listened to enough Datelines. And so they could do anything that they needed to — to figure out where he was, what happened, all of that. And I knew one of the first things they needed to do was rule me out. They were all over the place, and I wouldn’t change any of that.”
Though, Marshall said, he faced plenty of speculation early on. “The beginning of it was really rough and really terrible,” he said. “Everyone — they always suspect the spouse.” But, Marshall said, “I do know that the Sheriff’s department was just doing their job.”
Investigator Schwarz confirmed in late December that Marshall and the family had been completely cooperative.
“There’s a lot of emotions and — that are driving a lot of what was happening in that first 96 hours. I will tell you, once we were able to work through that situation and talk with Marshall and his attorney, we have had nothing but cooperation,” Investigator Schwarz said. “And that has not changed at all.”
Tyler’s family and friends have spoken about the support they received during searches.
“He loved working for the Department of Corrections. Like, that was very clear. He loved his job,” Rachel said. “His coworkers have been amazing, helped with a ton of the searches and leading those efforts.”
Tyler’s old military friends have been helping search, as well. “[He] was a veteran and proud of it,” Rachel said. “And, you know, still is really close to the lot of the people he met in the military, which has been apparent throughout the searches.”
“It’s just been incredible to know that he has developed such a far outreaching of supporters for him,” Lonnie said. “And it’s been beautiful in that aspect.”
Marshall also spoke about the support he and the kids had received. “It has been great to see all of the volunteers, all of the friends that Tyler works with, his family, and just, I mean, complete strangers going out and looking for him,” he said. “I’m truly grateful for everything that they have done and the sheriff’s department has done. Tyler knows that I would be here protecting our kids, and it was nice knowing that I could do that and there were people out there helping me.”
On December 22, 2023, Marshall made the following statement on social media:
Tyler was sometimes physically and emotionally abusive towards me. After years of this we were discussing divorce. His father, Lonnie Goodrich, was aware of Tyler’s abuse towards me. I had retained an attorney and was reviewing the Complaint for Dissolution. There are recordings that document Tyler was becoming increasingly verbally abusive to me and the boys and he told me he would “ruin my life”. He had removed his wedding ring.
On the evening of November 3rd, I told Tyler that I would be filing for divorce. Tyler’s response prompted me to call 911. Tyler was aware that I was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, he was yelling at me to “hang-up”. I told the dispatcher that I thought he was leaving in his car but he instead ran out of the garage on foot. Tyler had a domestic violence arrest during a past relationship, he avoided consequences from that arrest through a diversion program. This time, I think he was trying to avoid consequences by running away before the Deputies arrived. His family was aware of his history of violence in relationships.
When Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office (LSO) responded to my 911 call, I answered their questions and gave them permission to search the house and property. They found no sign of Tyler. The deputies stayed while I packed mine and the boys’ things for the night, gathered the dogs and left the house. Because I expected him to return that evening, the boys and I did not spend the night at home. I didn’t go looking for him that night, assuming he’d return home overnight. When he didn’t, I called around looking for him but no one knew where he was. At that point I called 911 and reported him missing and then called his dad.
LSO responded to my call. I consented to a search of the house and property, I showed them Tyler’s computer and I gave them the hard drive from our home security system. Tyler was the only one who had access to the security system so I was not able to view or show them the recordings. They later viewed the video of Tyler running from the garage and shared that publicly. Over the following days and weeks, I consented to multiple searches of the house and property and another family home and property in the neighborhood. I’ve assisted them by providing all of the known passwords for the family’s devices so they could review our digital footprints.
Since Tyler ran away, I’ve been focused on the boys and keeping them safe and cared for. Members of my family participated in searches, I’ve purchased signs, at the request of his family I answered questions of a private investigator and I’ve provided all information LSO asked me for. His sister, Felicia and I worked with a professional dog tracker at our property and neighborhood. The tracker concluded Tyler ran from the garage, hid in the tree lines east of us and ends on the street, as if he got in a car. I have limited contact with Lonnie and his family after they falsely accused me of not properly caring for the boys. His mother, Shelly Goodrich, who we had a limited relationship with because of her alcoholism, made recorded threats against me, “I’ll f**king hunt you down” she said.
I believe LSO, friends and family were trying to create an environment where Tyler would return. I didn’t make any public statements or correct the misinformation that was being put out. I supported that strategy and kept the actual details of why Tyler ran away from going public. That strategy has not worked, Tyler has not returned. Due to the increasing public comments about my children, I’m no longer willing to stay silent. Neither I or my children had anything to do with Tyler’s disappearance, he ran away to avoid the deputies.
Although he won’t be returning to our marriage, I hope that he’s safe and does return to deal with the circumstances he has caused. I appreciate the extraordinary effort the deputies of the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office and the volunteers have put into finding Tyler. Thank you to my family, friends and colleagues, your support means everything to me. It’s a difficult time for my family but I hope you have a blessed Christmas.
Marshall Vogel
12/22/2023
Tyler’s family spoke at Christmas time about their loss.
“There’s a huge hole this Christmas,” Angie said.
“(He would) bring 10 pounds of meat and cheese,” Jordan said. “(Tyler) always had the most food all around. A good family man.”
“It’s been hard,” Jennie said. “It’s been exhausting.”
“As much as we don’t want to think about the sadness, we’re going to be telling stories that remind us of the happy times,” Angie said. “How much he made all of us feel loved, how much he loved our children.”
Tyler’s friends and family have made statements about what they believed has happened to him.
Lonnie told the media he does not believe his son is out there alive. “I know him too well. Tyler could never do this to us. He could not do it to his friends, to his coworkers, to his family,” Lonnie said. “My son is dead. He is not missing. His body is missing.”
“I just had a birthday. My wife just had a birthday. Tyler would have never missed those occasions,” Lonnie said. “He wouldn’t have missed Thanksgiving. He wouldn’t miss Christmas Eve. And he will miss it this year.”
“I think most of us believe somebody hurt Tyler,” Rachel said. “We don’t know why. We don’t know if it was a random act.” Lonnie agrees. “I believe that someone took his life and I believe they took his life on the 3rd when he didn’t come back home,” he said. “Somebody did it. Somebody knows.”
“This is something that nobody would ever even imagine they were going to experience,” Marshall said. “And so it has been hard because you miss them and you love them.”
“Two things have to happen: His body has to be recovered or somebody has to confess,” Lonnie said. “Somebody has to give out the information that they have so that we can have closure. And I pray for that. I mean, every day, every night, a hundred times a day.”
Tyler is about 6’1” and 185 lbs., with “a runner’s-style body. Pale skin, a lot of freckles, and red hair,” as Rachel described. “That was probably his most striking feature.” He has tattoos and had a red beard at the time of his disappearance.
There is another recent case of a man missing out of Nebraska. Jake Clark has been missing since December 17, 2023. Despite him being missing for almost a month now, there is not too much information available.
Around January 5, the Platte County Sheriff released a statement.
Attempt to Locate: Jake Antonio Clark, DOB: 5/28/86 of Omaha, Nebraska.
On the night of 12/17/23 at approximately 2108 hrs, a Platte County Sheriff’s Deputy performed a traffic stop on a vehicle (1999 green Buick Century) operated by Clark due to having no plates or valid intrasits. Clark was allowed to proceed on his way after the traffic stop.
On the morning of 12/18/23 at approximately 0517 hrs, a Platte County Sheriff’s Deputy received a complaint of Clark’s vehicle parked in the lane of traffic on a rural road in Platte County. The Sheriff’s Deputy responded to the location of the vehicle and found Clark not to be in the area. The vehicle was found running, headlights on, interior dome light on, trunk open, and driver’s side window broken out. A duffel bag believed to belong to Clark was located on the roadway 100 yards from the vehicle. Attempts to locate Clark by phone to check his welfare have been unsuccessful and goes to voicemail. Attempts to ping Clark’s phone have also been unsuccessful as it is believed that his phone is off.
The Sheriff’s Office has been in contact with Clarks family who also have not heard from him. If you have contact with Clark for any reason or know of any associates of his, contact Lt. Kevin Schuller or Inv. Dane Jensen at the Platte County Sheriff’s Office at 402-564-3229.
There is a third man missing from the general area. His name is David Schulz and he went missing from Sac County, Iowa on November 21, 2023.
He disappeared while transporting a shipment of baby pigs from Eagle Grove to Sac City.
David was last seen at 7pm on November 20.
David reportedly showed up late in his semi-trailer truck to pick up his shipment at the hog confinement in Eagle Grove, Iowa. He left the farm with the hogs around 10:50 pm.
David was supposed to transport his shipment to the Wiechman Pig Company’s hog buying station in Sac City, Iowa, but David never made it to Wiechman’s and hasn’t been heard from since.
David was last seen on a Iowa Department of Transportation camera at MM126 Truck Stop, east of Fort Dodge on Highway 20, where he stayed for 16 minutes at around 11.15pm.
He was then seen by a DOT camera on Highway 20 west of the MM 126 truck stop heading west. This was the last time he was seen.
Cell phone data from November 21, 2023 shows that David subsequently traveled west across the highway before arriving at the intersection of Highway 20 and 71 Junction around 12:18 am.
At 3:04 pm on November 21, 2023, David’s vehicle, a red Peterbilt semi-trailer truck with white stripes, was found abandoned on County Road N-14 in northeastern Sac County, Iowa. The truck was turned off with the key in the ignition, left in the middle of the northbound lane near the intersection with D-15.
David’s cellphone and wallet, which contained his driver license and $2,000 in cash, were found inside the truck. The truck was reportedly seen parked at the location since at least 12:40 am, still filled with the hogs.
Authorities recovered a jacket, a towel, a cell phone charger, and a pocket knife in a ditch on the opposite side of the road.
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