Category Archives: News Articles

John James Morris Jr. was last seen by a neighbor the night of July 30, 2007. He was standing at the end of his former lover’s driveway in Poolesville, searching for the keys to his pickup truck. By morning, Morris was gone, but the truck remained. On Thursday, Montgomery County Crime Solvers offered a $1,000 reward for information that leads authorities to Morris, or to the arrest of his possible attackers. Montgomery County police believe he might have been kidnapped or killed, but they have no suspects. The health of the 40-year-old’s parents in New Jersey is failing. “There is no closure or peace, we just live in limbo waiting for answers,” Morris’ mother, Madeline Morris, said in a statement. The 6-feet-1-inch-tall Morris left his parents’ home on the morning of July 30, 2007, and drove to the 24000 block of Whites Ferry Road to collect his belongings from the house he shared with his partner for 14 years, Detective Rod Stephens said.

The two men had separated a few weeks earlier. “Their relationship was off and on verbally and physically abusive,” Stephens said. The partner returned from a trip abroad the day Morris was last seen. He landed in Washington at 4 p.m. but told authorities he spent the night in a condo he owned in D.C. A neighbor, Stephens said, confirmed to police that the partner’s car was not in the driveway when she left at 11 p.m. That was when she saw Morris looking for something in the dark. Stephens said he believes Morris was searching for the keys to his truck. Police later found the keys in the truck’s bed. Morris’ partner has been repeatedly questioned, and police have no reason to suspect him, Stephens said. There were no signs of a struggle in the partner’s house, and repeated searches of the property produced no results. Morris had suicidal tendencies in the past, but police don’t believe he killed himself. Stephens said if Morris had done that, authorities would likely have found his body by now. Anyone with information regarding Morris’ whereabouts is asked to call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).

fklopott@washingtonexaminer.com

http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/maryland/md-man-went-missing-after-breakup-lover-police-say

Friday – 3/12/2010, 8:58am  ET

Nathan Hager, WTOP.com

POOLESVILLE, Md. – Nearly three years after his disappearance, the parents of a Poolesville man are making one last push to find out what happened to their son.

John James Morris, Jr., who would be 40 this year, was last seen the night of July 30, 2007, in the 24000 block of Whites Ferry Road.

Montgomery County Police say he was packing his truck at a home he shared with another man, with whom he had just ended a 14-year relationship. Morris was preparing to move permanently to live with his parents in New Jersey.

The truck stayed put, but Morris vanished.

Since then, there have been few leads, and Morris’ parents are experiencing failing health. His mother, Madeline, suffers from multiple sclerosis. She and Morris’ father are both housebound.

“Their health is deteriorating rapidly,” says Montgomery County Detective Rod Stephens, who has followed the case since it came to the police’s attention in August 2007.

“All they ever talk about is closure, and just wanting to know what happened to him.”

Madeline Morris, who is unable to travel, released a statement about how the family wants to know what happened.

“Our hearts are breaking, we do not sleep well thinking about what may have happened to you… There is no closure or peace, we just live in limbo waiting for answers. I cry most of the time,” she writes.

Stephens says police can’t rule out foul play, but any potential suspects who may have been involved in Morris’ disappearance, including his ex-boyfriend, have been cooperative and questioned repeatedly.

“It’s a close knit group that John hung out with, so my point of view is that if he is a victim of a homicide, there’s few suspects,” Stephens says.

The case has been brought to the attention of America’s Most Wanted, and Morris’ parents have created a Web site devoted to their son.

Crime Solvers of Montgomery County is offering $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest or charges against anyone who may have committed a felony related to Morris’ disappearance. The anonymous Crime Solvers top line is 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=706&sid=1910582

March 12, 2010 2:47 PM

NEW YORK (CBS) In July 2007, John J. Morris, Jr. mysteriously went missing. Since that day, police have been investigating, but have yet to have any successful leads on Morris’ whereabouts. His mother and father are asking for help to find out what happened to their son.

PICTURES: Missing John Morris Jr.

Police consider foul play a possibility; they believe Morris could be a victim of homicide.

Madeline Morris, his 69-year-old mother who’s in a wheelchair, and John Morris his 76-year-old father who has Parkinson’s disease, said they know they won’t be around forever and would like to know what happened to their son before they go.

In July 2007, Morris’ 14-year relationship with an older man ended. Morris was last seen at his residence in rural Dickerson, MD on July 30, 2007. He has a medical condition, which requires medication. He has ADHD and may be bipolar.

His mother said in a statement that he is an animal lover and may have taken a stray as company. She states he is a warm loving person and a talented artist.

Morris would be 41-years-old now. He has two tattoos: one of a snake on his right forearm and another of a scorpion on his left shoulder. Officials are asking anyone with information to please contact them immediately.

If you have information about the whereabouts of John Morris, Jr. please call Detective Stephens in the Montgomery County 5th District Investigative Section at 240-773-6239.

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009

Morris disappeared after unusual behavior

by Meghan Tierney | Staff Writer

The family of a Dickerson man who was last heard from more than two years ago is still searching for answers.

John James Morris, 39, was last seen seemingly waiting for a ride in the driveway at the home he had shared with his boyfriend, who he recently ended a 12-year relationship with, on Whites Ferry Road on July 30, 2007. Morris had returned to the house to pick up personal items after a weeklong trip.

“He just disappeared into the night,” his mother Madeline Morris of New Jersey said.

Morris’ family reported him missing in August after he missed several of his regular weekly phone calls, his mother said. He left all of his belongings, including his truck and dog, behind.

“You pray a lot, you cry a lot, it’s just always on your mind,” Morris said, describing her son as warm and funny and an animal lover and talented artist. “There’s no closure. If he’s dead, at least you have closure, at least you know. You’re hanging in limbo.”

Morris has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a history of depression and had run out of his medication, his mother said. He was “hallucinating,” “paranoid” and told his mother the FBI had been watching him, she said.

“He told me he was going back to God and the FBI was picking him up,” Morris said, adding that the behavior was unusual for her son “… He said he was going away for a while and that he’d call me to send him some clothes, but he never did.”

A secretary for Morris’ former boyfriend, a federal government employee, had told Morris she would contact the FBI if he continued calling the office, his mother said she later learned. The boyfriend had been verbally abusive during their relationship, she said.

The North Carolina-based nonprofit CUE Center for Missing Persons, an advocacy group that also assists with search and recovery and specializes in cold cases, recently took up the family’s cause and included Morris in the 104 missing person cases it is publicizing this summer. The group focuses mostly on missing adults, whose disappearances are often not given as much attention by police and the media, according to founder Monica Caison.

“The perception people have is that if you’re an adult you have the right to go missing, but that needs to be modified — you don’t have the right to go missing and not notify someone,” Caison said, adding that men who go missing have an especially difficult time getting attention. “…The majority of missing adults don’t walk out on their lives, they’ve been abducted or something’s happened. It’s not taken as seriously and it creates a lag time where nothing gets done.”

Morris’ disappearance is one of the center’s more serious cases, Caison said, an assessment that’s reached after talking to the families since they know the missing person best.

“That’s one thing that his mother had shared, that something’s really wrong,” she said.

Morris is described as white, 6 feet tall and 185 pounds with brown eyes, graying brown hair, a tattoo of a snake on his right forearm and a tattoo of a scorpion on his left shoulder. He has scars on his right calf and his left ear is pierced. For more information, visit www.findjohnmorris.com.

Anyone with information is asked to call Montgomery County Police at 240-773-6239.

POOLESVILLE — It’s been six months since a 38-year-old man with a history of depression and alcoholism vanished from the Poolesville home he shared with his partner of 14 years.

John Morris left the home in the 24000 block of White’s Ferry Road at 11 p.m. July 30, shortly after he broke up with his partner, whom police said was verbally abusive.

“He had an altercation with his boyfriend, and he asked him to leave,” said Montgomery County Police Detective Roderick Stephens.

“At this point, there’s definitely foul play or possibly suicide,” Stephens said. “He could be anywhere between here and New Jersey.”

That’s where his parents live and where Morris was supposed to be heading. When he didn’t show up or call, his mother, Madeline Morris, reported him missing.

That was three weeks after he disappeared from the driveway where he was last seen, apparently waiting for a ride, according to Stephens.

“She thought he might have stayed with friends,” Stephens said. “She didn’t know when he was leaving.”

Police Cpl. Jimmy Robinson is a public information officer at the Montgomery County headquarters. “Morris was estranged from his family, but they spoke on the phone once a week,” he said. “His parents told us their son was in a verbally abusive relationship.”

Stephens, the lone detective on the case, said “we’ve checked every place he had been in for alcohol treatment and the hospitals. It’s just kind of weird — six months.”

But, the detective said, “If he doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be.”

Robinson said officers went to the home to check on Morris’ welfare after a neighbor saw him standing in his driveway. When police got there, Morris was gone, but his white pickup truck bearing New Jersey tags was still there.

Robinson said Morris’ significant other was not in town at the time Morris went to the house to gather his belongings.

That done, the spokesman said it looked like Morris was waiting for a ride, but police don’t know if he was picked up or took off on foot and possibly hitch-hiked.

Robinson said Morris is suicidal and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He had no medication for depression with him when he left.

Kylen Johnson, of Clarksburg, Maryland Missing Persons Coordinator, asked for help in publicizing the case.

She said Morris is 6 feet tall and 185 pounds. He has a large tattoo of a panther on his right forearm and a tattoo of a scorpion on his left shoulder. His hair is graying brown and his eyes are light brown.

Johnson said Morris is a talented artist who is very outgoing and makes friends easily. He may be working as a landscaper or a handyman. He is also a glazier who can repair broken car windows.

by Meghan Tierney | Staff Writer

The family of a Dickerson man who has been missing for nearly six months is asking the community to help them find their son.

A neighbor of John James Morris, 38, last saw him on July 30, standing at the edge of the driveway at the home he shared with his boyfriend on Whites Ferry Road around 11 p.m., according to Cpl. Jimmy Robinson, a Montgomery County Police spokesman, and a Maryland Missing Persons Network press release. Morris’ parents, who live in New Jersey, filed a missing person report on Aug. 23 after he began missing their weekly telephone conversations, Robinson said.

According to the statement, Morris had recently ended a 12-year relationship with his live-in boyfriend, who his mother, Madeline Morris, said was staying at the couple’s Washington, D.C., condo at the time.

‘‘It’s not like him not to call,” said Morris in a telephone interview with The Gazette. She described her son as friendly and easy-going.

John Morris had recently returned to Maryland after a weeklong trip to New Jersey, and he was planning to go back after retrieving his belongings, Madeline Morris said. When she last spoke to her son on July 30, he told her that somebody was coming to pick him up. The neighbor who last saw John Morris told police that he appeared to be waiting for a ride, Robinson said.

Morris, who has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and a history of depression, sounded distressed during their last telephone conversation, Madeline Morris said.

‘‘He was just not like himself,” she said. ‘‘He was angry and depressed. He was just hallucinating.”

No one has reported hearing from or seeing Morris since, Robinson said. All of his belongings, including his truck and his dog, were at the home when police checked in, Madeline Morris said.

The Maryland Missing Persons Network, a volunteer organization that helps locate missing persons, describes John Morris as 6 feet tall and 185 pounds with brown eyes, graying brown hair, a tattoo of a snake on his right forearm and a tattoo of a scorpion on his left shoulder. A talented painter, he may be working as a landscaper, a handyman or a glazier, according to the statement.

Anyone with information about Morris is asked to call county police Det. Rod Stephens at 301-840-2650.