Stanley, N.Y. - The family of an
Ontario County man who’s been missing for five months fear he may be dead.
“I hope to God we’re wrong,” says Jessica Chase.
“But this is just not in his nature.”
Adam Chase was last seen leaving his home on Mott Street in Stanley at 11 a.m. on June 14th.
“He left without his car, he left without his phone,” says his mother Silvia Chase. She says her son never walked anywhere. “He wouldn’t walk at all he’d drive across the street.”
Police continue to call this a missing person’s case, nothing more. At a press conference Wednesday, Chases’ mother made a tearful plea for her son to contact her. On Thursday she told 13WHAM News what she wanted to say is what she fears in her heart.
“There are just so many things that don’t add up,” she says.
Such as the text messages. Three days after Adam Chase disappeared, his parents each received a text message.
Reporter: What did it say?
Silvia Chase: I’m okay, I’m staying with a friend.
Instead of being relieved Silvia Chase was left with nagging doubt. “My son never texts - he always called or left a voice mail,” she says.
Sheriff’s deputies say Chase left after a fight with his wife Rose. She says that was before noon. His family says they didn’t hear he was gone until 7 hours later.
“It worries me because none of us heard from him since the 13th, and he went missing the 14th,” says his sister Jessica Chase. “There’s just so much time unaccounted for.”
In spite of that, investigators remain convinced Chase remains in the Canandaigua area. “It is still an investigation of a missing person, there is no evidence to support any other theory,” says Sheriff Phil Povero.
He adds investigators have developed information that validates the authenticity of the text messages.
The family of the missing man sees it differently. “I don’t know who had his phone but those messages weren’t sent from him,” says Silvia Chase.
Asked what troubles her about the possibility of a missing phone, Jessica Chase says “I don’t think he’s alive any more, this is so out of character. I hope to God we’re wrong."
Asked if Chase might harm himself, his family says no. Yet they cannot rule out that he may have fallen or become fatally injured after leaving. Family members have searched fields and woods around his home.
The sheriff’s department has not conducted a similar search. Sheriff Povero says there is no evidence to support one. The following is a statement issued Thursday in response to the family’s concerns:
"The Ontario County Office of Sheriff is conducting an active missing persons investigation for 32 year old Adam Chase who is reported to have walked away from his Stanley residence on June 14, 2012. A press conference with Chase family members was held on November 14, 2012 to appeal to the public for any information relative to the whereabouts of Adam Chase. Members of the Chase family agreed that this would also be an opportunity to appeal through the media directly to Adam Chase to contact his family by any means so that his family would know that he is all right. Consistent with the message of the November 14th press conference, the Ontario County Office of Sheriff urges ANYONE with information relative to the on-going missing persons investigation of Adam Chase to contact Inv. Lee Martin at (5850 396-4629)."
