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MA JOSEF UNTERHUBER: Missing from Boston, MA - 11 Jan 1988 - Age 32

Romulus

Well-known member
Josef Unterhuber
Missing since January 11, 1988 from Bolzano, Italy.
Classification: Missing


View attachment 675
Josef Unterhuber, a translator from the Italian province of Bolzano.

Vital Statistics
Age at Time of Disappearance: 32 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 182 cm
Distinguishing Characteristics: Blue eyes; brown, wavy hair. He wears glasses or contacts. His facial hair is red.
Marks, Scars: He has a scar on the inside of his right thigh. He has an old fracture on the left arm close to the shoulder.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Unterhuber had come to the Boston area reeling in pain from a lost love affair. He was last seen on Jan. 11, 1988, just weeks after his 23-year-old girlfriend in Italy had turned down his marriage proposal. Just before his disappearance, Unterhuber, then 32, traveled to Austria to ask his girlfriend to marry him, she said. After her refusal, he returned home on Jan. 11 and asked for two weeks of vacation from work. That night, about 6: 30 p.m., he called his mother from the train station to tell her he was going on a vacation. It was the last time he talked to her.
Just before his disappearance, Unterhuber, then 32, traveled to Austria to ask his girlfriend to marry him, she said. After her refusal, he returned home on Jan. 11 and asked for two weeks of vacation from work. That night, about 6: 30 p.m., he called his mother from the train station to tell her he was going on a vacation. It was the last time he talked to her.
"I just had a bad feeling," she said.
The family called police and they contacted his friends. His mother even remembers going to his apartment with the ex-girlfriend, who is now a doctor in Austria.
Georg Unterhuber described his younger brother as a dashing and brilliant man who was happy and doing well for himself. He had a good job as a translator at the Languages Office of the Independent Province of Bolzano. He spoke Spanish, English, German, and Italian. He'd just bought a white Volkswagen and lived by himself in a large apartment in a residential area. His home was filled with up to 300 books.
Georg said his brother was a bit of a ladies' man, which is why he was so surprised to hear that his disappearance was prompted by his loss of a girlfriend.
His brother had one real love, and Georg believes that is what drew him to Boston: American culture, especially that involving Native Americans. Josef had studied in New Orleans for three months and always dreamed of returning to America. His favorite writer was Karl May, a German writer who died in 1912, never having visited America but writing dozens of best-sellers in Europe about the American West.
Georg believes his brother got so caught up in his American fascination that he decided to travel to America on a lark.
On Feb. 12, 1992, four years after Unterhuber left Bolzano, the Italian Consulate in Boston contacted the family and Bolzano police to tell them that Unterhuber's passport had been found on a bench at The Homeless Older Adults Center at Holy Trinity Churchin Boston's South End.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Chi l'ha visto?
Email
Source Information:
Chi L'ha Visto?
Other link
The Doe Network: Skeleton Doesn't Match Missing Italian Man -- March 2002

edited by staff to add media link


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The Doe Network:
Case File 408DMITA

1584873251495.png
Josef Unterhuber
Missing since January 11, 1988 from Bolzano, Italy.
Classification: Missing

Vital Statistics
Age at Time of Disappearance: 32 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 182 cm
Distinguishing Characteristics: Blue eyes; brown, wavy hair. He wears glasses or contacts. His facial hair is red.
Marks, Scars: He has a scar on the inside of his right thigh. He has an old fracture on the left arm close to the shoulder.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Josef Unterhuber was a translator when he disappeared on 11 January 1988. On that day, Josef left for a two weeks vacation. He didn't tell anyone where he was going and never returned. It was discovered that Josef had requested a Visa for New York at the Vienna airport on the day after his disappearance. On July 7th of the same year he left the State of New York. On February 12, 1989, the Bolzano Police Station was informed by the Italian Consulate that his passport had been found in a facility for homeless people in Boston.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Chi l'ha visto?
Email

Source Information:
Chi L'ha Visto?
 
If a moderator could please combine duplicate threads? Thank you very much in advance.

 

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