Logan Drew Schiendelman had an epiphany. According to Logan’s grandmother, Virginia Gebo, who raised him since childhood, the epiphany had something to do with himself, something he needed to work through. That was the morning of May 19, 2016, when the two had that conversation. Logan Schiendelman has never been seen again.
Logan Drew Schiendelman was a star highschool athlete and model student with a promising future, but on May 19, 2016, he simply vanished.
The 'phantom' in the swerving car
The search for 19-year-old Logan Schiendelman started 25 miles away from where he lived with his grandmother in her Turnwater home in Washington State.
9-1-1 calls had came in to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office even before Logan was reported missing. Callers claimed a car, Logan’s 1996 convertible Chrysler Sebring, was spotted swerving across three lanes on Interstate 5 heading towards Rochester, where it crashed into the median, and stopped on the shoulder at milepost 92.
None of the call-ins mentioned a driver, but did claim that a man, in no way resembling Logan Schiendelman, jumped out from the passenger’s side and headed into the wooded area. A trucker with more of a birdseye view claimed that the other callers didn’t mention a driver, because there was none. Just a single passenger, a white guy with brown or red hair, who escaped through the woods.
When police searched the sedan, they found Schiendelman’s wallet containing his driver’s license, twenty-five dollars in cash, and his cell-phone.
This was Logan’s Schiendelman’s car, but who was the man running from it?
Was the truck-driver mistaken, and were there actually two men in the vehicle?
Police also found a bag of recently purchased snack foods which still stood upright on top of the center console, the posture of the bag, police surmised, would show that a driver did not cross over the center of the vehicle, which would of certainly spilled the bag and its contents on the car’s floor.
The Exhaustive Search for Logan
Mike Ware, a retired Thurston County Sheriff, who also is Logan’s uncle oversaw the search. Ware and his party combed by foot and aircraft, a two-mile radius surrounding the area where Logan’s car was found.
Mike Ware told NBC that the area was “extremely thick and busy”. In the end, nothing was found, and they left the case open, as it remains till this day.
Another witness eventually came forward claiming to have seen a man resembling Schiendelman standing outside his car on Interstate 95 earlier that morning. Logan, if it was him, was standing with two white men on the right shoulder of the highway.
One of the white men stood 6 feet tall, was thin, and had a distinguishable blond haircut, a bowl-cut, a tank top, and jean shorts “too small for him.” The other white man, the caller claimed, had his blonde hair draped down by his shoulders. He wore a flannel shirt and jeans.
Who is this man who was seen with Logan Schiendelman on the day of his disappearance?
The Star athlete
Logan Drew Schiendelman was born on June 27, 1996, to a mixed raced mother (half white, and half black) and a Saudi Arabian father. Logan’s father left before his son was even born, and was thought to only conceive the child while on a business trip in the United States.
Logan’s mother, Hannah, left him and his older half-sister in the care of their grandmother while she attended art school in Seattle. Logan stayed in contact with his mother, despite the disapproval of his grandmother.
Logan excelled in both academic and athletics at Turnwater High School. A model student, and defensive back, still holding highschool records for his performance on the field.
Logan graduated in 2015 and moved into his new life at Washington State University. No one really knows what caused Logan to drop out of the college program and move back home to Turnwater at the start of his sophomore year. Maybe Logan missed his grandmother, his town, and his step-sister, or maybe Logan had trouble making new friends in his classes there.
According to Logan's Grandmother, he was going through an "Identity Crises"
Family would describe Logan as “a quiet, sensitive young man” although becoming noticeably more withdrawn over the years, especially since his departure from Washington State University.
A former highschool classmate, Dakota Tresner, noticed that her once friend was changing after she tried to contact him on Facebook several times, “He would read them, but never reply.”
Logan’s grandmother tried to look past his smelling of marijuana, which she claimed would make him paranoid.
One thing that is obvious to friends and family is Logan Schiendelman was not living to his fullest potential. Now a college dropout picking up menial jobs, such as working for a laundromat service or manual labor on a farm owned by a family member.
The grandma told media that “He was kind of at a loss with what he was going to do with his life.”
Logan was going through an identity crises and his grandmother believes it was regarding his skin color? Was he picked on for being mixed?
Something must have happened to Logan while a student at Turnwater Highschool that made him question his place in society. Gebo distinctly remembers her grandson having an “identity crisis” regarding his skin color and race.
As previously said, Logan’s mother was mixed and his father was Saudi Arabian and at some point he questioned his place in society, or perhaps feel self-conscience about his own background.
After highschool, Logan cut ties with all of his friends, even football teammates, specifically because of racism.
What happened that made him so introspective on his own race enough to cut ties with the friends he grew up with?
Was it something that one person did or said, or was it a culmination of smaller quips and racial jokes over the years?
Does this tie into Logan’s epiphany that he had before he went missing?
Whatever it was, Logan didn’t consider his friends, his friends, anymore.
A Strong Lead Leads Detectives to Logan's Home
When Logan’s half-sister moved her boyfriend into the grandmother’s home, Logan was not happy. The two would never get along while he lived there, often going their separate ways, awkwardly avoiding each other.
To police, however, the recent tension caused by the new unwanted guest gave them a promising lead. The boyfriend was questioned and then underwent a polygraph (lie-detector) test. As of now, the boyfriend has never been charged and is no longer a person of interest.
When questioned, he denied any involvement in the disappearance of Logan Schiendelman.
He had passed the polygraph.
Emotions Begin To Rise One Week Before Disappearance
Tina Crary, Logan’s aunt, is convinced she knows what happened to her nephew. Shortly before college she recalls Logan visiting the other side of his mother’s family. According to Crary, for Logan, this was an extremely emotional visit.
"I showed him a picture of his grandfather, my older brother, and he stared at it, he said 'It feels good to see someone that looks like me,'" said Crary
The Facebook Check-in
Perhaps the most mind-boggling thing about this case is not just that ‘somebody’ checked in to Logan’s Facebook account (logged in through his name), but the location of the check-in.
One week had passed since they officially considered Logan a missing person when at the Olympia Regional Airport, his Facebook showed a log-in.
Who logged into Logan’s Facebook?
Could it have been him?
Where is Logan Schiendelman Now?
As of now, nobody knows the whereabouts of Logan Schiendelman or if he is alive or dead. Police surmise Logan was suffering from a mental illness, but have provided no other theories about whether they believe his whereabouts may be.
Looking through messages posted by Logan’s family, it is easy to see that they still have hope that he is alive somewhere, and perhaps he left on his own accord.
Did Logan Schiendelman escape his life to start anew?
Perhaps his epiphany was that it was his time to leave behind his past?
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