Into the Desert and Out of Sight: The Unsolved Disappearance of Howard Tokarsky

A routine workday that never ended

On the morning of December 14, 1984, forty-five-year-old Howard Sherwin Tokarsky began his day in Los Angeles like any other workday. He lived in the Granada Hills area and worked as the operations manager of a chemical company in Sylmar, a role that suggests a steady professional life and significant responsibility. At some point during that day, he left work early, telling his wife and colleagues that he planned to go out to the desert to practice shooting. It was a simple plan, one that would normally end with a drive home after an afternoon of target practice—but Howard never came back, and no one has seen or heard from him since.

A family man with a precise description

Public records describe Howard as a white male, about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing around 200 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He had scars on both knees and on his left arm, and he wore eyeglasses—an important detail that becomes haunting when we learn where those glasses were later found. On the day he vanished, he was reportedly dressed in blue jeans, a red sweatshirt, and black shoes, an outfit that places him firmly in that moment in 1984 but provides no clear clue to his fate. Case summaries note that he left behind a wife and two young children, meaning his disappearance abruptly altered the course of an entire family’s life....Read More

Share

Comments (0)

Leave A Comment