The first case was suggested by our Patreon, Carey. It is about the disappearance of Joseph Pichler.
Joseph was best known for his roles in Varsity Blues, Beethoven’s 3rd and Beethoven’s 4th.
Joseph David Wolfgang Pichler was born on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1987 in Bremerton, Washington.
According to imdb, his mother is Kathy Pichler and his siblings are Shawna, AJ and Matthew. There is a medium.com article that says Joseph has four siblings but Shawna, Matthew and AJ seem to be the only ones publicly mentioned.
Joseph went by Joe and he discovered his love for acting early. He landed his first role in a commercial for the Seattle department store ‘Bon Marche’ when he was six.
Kathy said that one day she and Joe were watching the Academy Awards and he said to her ‘I’m going to be there one day, Mom.’
Joseph relocated from Bremerton to Los Angeles as a child to pursue his acting career. In 1996, Joseph landed a role on The Fan with Robert DeNiro and Wesley Snipes.
He appeared in many television shows including:
Touched by an Angel
Promised Land
Lois & Clark
In the House
Mad TV
The last acting job that his parents permitted him to do was in the comedy-drama Children on Their Birthdays in 2002. His mother said at this time “I just wanted him to have some normalcy in his life. He’s a good boy and took it well, but he wasn’t really happy about it.”
‘ We always kept him really grounded,’’ she said. ‘ He’s always been a regular kid with a job a teenager wouldn’t normally have.’’
In 2003, when Joe was around 16, his family wanted to return to Bremerton, Washington. Joe went with them and he graduated from Bremerton High School in 2005.
Joe had braces on his teeth at the time and he told his family that he planned to move back to Los Angeles and resume his acting career once his dental work was complete.
Once he turned 18, he gained access to his trust fund and he moved into his own apartment in Bremerton, He lived across town from his family.
After he graduated, Joe took a full time job as a telephone technician. He was also known to be experimenting with drugs and alcohol, recreationally.
Joe also had a pet guinea pig that he adored.
On Thursday January 5, 2006, (Joe was 18 by this point), he was last heard from at 4.15am. He spoke to a friend at this time on his cell phone.
Joe’s car – a silver 2005 Toyota Corolla – was found on January 9, 2006 near the intersection of Wheaton Way and Sheridan Road in Bremerton, half a mile from Port Madison Narrows.
In the car was a note in which Joe wrote about wishing to be a “stronger brother’’ and asking that his belongings go to a younger brother, his family said. Also included were a few poems. According to imdb, Joe left behind two pages of notes.
Despite the seemingly suicidal note, a friend who saw Joe before he disappeared stated that he was in good spirits at the time. This is contradicted in other reports that say Joe was incoherent and distraught during the final call to his friend.
When his apartment was searched, it was unlocked and the lights were on. This was said to be out of character for Joe.
Police theorized that Joe took his life by jumping off a bridge in the Port Madison Narrows. Authorities used dogs to track Joe’s scent, and they did not track it to the bridge though.
Joe’s family said they did not believe he was suicidal or depressed at the time he vanished and they believe he may have met with foul play.
At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing a white metal Nixon The Rotolog Real Wood Watch on his left wrist, and possibly a brown T-shirt and jeans.
He has a circular tattoo of a red Star Wars emblem on the inside of his right forearm and a small scar across the bridge of his nose.
Kathy has leveled heavy criticism at the police investigation, claiming police searched his car and apartment for ‘three minutes’ and quickly made up their minds that he had committed suicide.
Claims emerged from his family that traces of vomit were found in the passenger seat of the car, and that they were not tested for DNA.”
Robbie Davis, the lead detective on the case, told the Associated Press that “There’s a good indication that it might have been a suicide, but we don’t know that,” adding that there was no reason to suspect foul play. His body has never been found.”
If he is alive, Joe would be 38 years old today. At the time he vanished, he was 6’2 and weighed 170lbs.
He is allergic to dust mites, cats, dogs, birds and many other things found outdoors. He normally carries an albuterol inhaler for his allergies, but did not have it with him at this disappearance.
The second case we are going to discuss is that of Richard James Edwards, also known as Richey Edwards, Richey James or Richey Manic.
Richey was a Welsh musician who was part of the band Manic Street Preachers.
Richey was born on 22 December 1967. He was born and raised in Blackwood, Wales and his parents were Graham and Sherry Edwards. He had one younger sibling Rachel. She was born in 1969. The two were said to be close.
Rachel would later speak to GQ Magazine:
It sounds like a cliché but it was a very happy family, a very happy upbringing. I know Richard is on record as having said the same thing. He was two years older than me and my overwhelming memory of our childhood is that he was very supportive of me. When I was at school I used to have a lot of anxiety, particularly around schoolwork. When I went on to comprehensive school, he’d already been there for a couple of years. At the end of each day we’d walk our dog Snoopy, I’d talk to him about my homework and he’d help me. He’d allay my fears, which, I suppose in retrospect, is ironic given the anxiety that he suffered years later.
Richey’s parents were devout Methodists and they ran a hairdressing salon. Richey was said to be a ‘quiet, acne-ridden kid.’
Richey attended Oakdale Comprehensive School and that is where he met his future Manic Street Preachers bandmates. After he graduated from that school, he attended the University of Wales in Swansea and graduated in 1989 with a degree in political history.
Richey worked initially as a roadie and a driver for the band. After he graduated in 1989, he was accepted as the band’s fourth member and main spokesman.
Richey became the main lyricist for the band. He is said to have written about 80% of the lyrics for their third album ‘The Holy Bible.’
Richey suffered from severe depression and was very open about his struggles. He regularly self-harmed – he stubbed out cigarettes on his limbs and he cut himself. He also suffered from insomnia, anorexia and alcoholism.
In an article with the BBC, Richey is quoted as saying “When I cut myself I feel so much better. All the little things that might have been annoying me suddenly seem so trivial because I’m concentrating on the pain. I’m not a person who can scream and shout so this is my only outlet. It’s all done very logically.”
“In terms of the s-word,” he explained, “That does not enter my mind. And it never has done, in terms of an attempt. Because I am stronger than that.”
In May 1991, a journalist questioned Richey about how serious he was about his art and music. Richey responded by carving the words ‘4 Real’ into his arm with a razor blade. The injury required 18 stitches.
Between 1993 until his disappearance in 1995, Richey had been dating a woman named Jo Whiley. They two had an on-again, off-again relationship.
In 1994, Richey checked himself into rehab, which meant that he missed out on some promo work with his band. In September 1994, Richey was released from rehab and he toured with the band for what would be his final time. His last appearance with the band was in London on 21 December, 1994.
Richey gave his final interview to a Japanese magazine on 23 January, 1995.
Richey disappeared on 1 February, 1995. He was due to fly to the US with a bandmate that day to promote the band’s album. He had been staying at the Embassy Hotel on Bayswater Road in London.
Prior to this day, Richey had been withdrawing £200 a day from his bank account, which totalled £2,800 by the day of the scheduled flight (equivalent to around £5,500 today – this is around $7.5k US).
The night before he vanished, Richey gave a friend a book called ‘Novel with Cocaine.
He told his friend to read the introduction. That part of the book involved the author staying in a mental asylum before vanishing.
While Richey was still at the Embassy Hotel, he removed some books and videos from his bags. A copy of the play Equus was amongst what he took out.
Info about Equus:
Equus is a 1973 play by Peter Shaffer about a boy named Alan Strang who has a religious and sexual obsession with horses and blinds six of them. A psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, is tasked with treating him, and as he delves into the boy’s mind, he begins to question his own sterile, “normal” life. The play is a psychological drama that explores themes of passion, faith, worship, and repression, blending realism with surrealism to confront the contradictions of the human condition.
Richey placed the belongings in a box with a note that said ‘I love you.’ He wrapped up the box like a gift and decorated it with pictures and quotes. He addressed the package to his now ex-girlfriend Jo – the two had broken up for good a few weeks prior.
On 1 February, 2005, Richey collected his wallet, car keys, fluoxetine (Prozac) and his passport. He checked out of the Embassy Hotel at 7am. He left behind his toiletries, a packaged suitcase, a full bathtub and some more of his Prozac. He drove to his apartment in Cardiff, Wales – around a 3 hour drive.
When he got to his apartment, he dumped his passport and his Prozac.
His parents, Graham and Sherry, issued public appeals for Richey to let them know he was safe.
Over the next few weeks, Richey was spotted at both a passport office and a bus station in Newport, Wales. This is around a 30 minute drive from his apartment in Cardiff.
A fan spoke with Richey at that time. This person was unaware that Richey was missing. The two were said to have discussed a mutual friend, before Richey left the area.
On 7 February, 2005, a taxi driver alleged that he picked Richey up from the King’s Hotel in Newport. The driver said he drove Richey to multiple locations, including his hometown of Blackwood. The driver said that Richey spoke in a Cockney accent but would occasionally switch to a Welsh one and that he asked if he could lie down on the back seat. He also asked the driver to avoid main roads.
When the driver arrived at the Blackwood bus station, Richey apparently said ‘This is not the place’ and asked to be taken to Pontypool train station. This was an additional 20 minute drive away.
The person thought to be Richey got out of the taxi at the Severn View Service Station in Gloucestershire and paid the £68 fare in cash.
On 14 February, 2005, two weeks after he vanished, Richey’s car, a Vauxhall Cavalier, was ticketed at the Severn View service station. By 17 February, the car was reported as abandoned.
Police said that the battery of the vehicle was dead and that there was evidence it had been lived in.
The service station overlooked the Severn Bridge, a well known suicide spot.
The “Severn Bridge” is the original suspension bridge crossing the River Severn between England and Wales, opened in 1966.
A toll bridge receipt was also found amongst Richey’s belongings and the timestamp indicated he was at the bridge at around 2.55am.
After no trace of Richey could be found, the band went on hiatus.
They resumed playing live in December 1995, almost a year after Richey was last seen.
In March 1997, a fan told authorities that she had seen Richey in Goa, India at a commune. Some sightings at a market in Goa were also reported.
A man also reported seeing Richey at a bar in the Canary Islands, and said that ‘Richey’ fled when he was confronted.
Richey’s family refused to believe that he was dead. By 2008 though, they requested a Grant of Probate which meant that they could settle Richey’s affairs and estate. His personal estate was valued at £455,990, which was reduced after liabilities to a net value of £377,548 – around $500K US today. The document issued by the Probate Registry of Wales named his parents as his executors and stated that he had “died on or since” February 1 1995. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan police said that though they had retained an open missing person’s file on Richey, the coroner’s declaration now meant the case was closed.
By 2020, both of Richey’s parents had passed away. His sister Rachel spoke to the media and said “I’m never going to find out what happened. That is perpetual. It is a perpetual loss rather than a bereavement where you experience a grieving process. As I mentioned earlier, both of my parents are now dead. It’s only me left to carry on the search for new information about what happened to my brother.”
It is said that his bandmates have been placing a quarter of the royalties earned by Manic Street Preachers in an account for him, should he resurface.
His bandmate Nicky Wire said “I have no problems with him coming back. Coming round and drinking tea like he always did. But with the press, I’d be very nervous for the boy.”
SOURCE LIST
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Pichler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richey_Edwards
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0681665/bio
https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/music/sites/manic-street-preachers/pages/richey.shtml
https://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,,239956,00.html