https://www.facebook.com/ethan.kazmerzak?ref=br_rs
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/22526/7/
http://hamptonchronicle.com/content/remembering-ethan
Family, community members share memories, hope for resolution in case of missing Hampton man
Everything seemed normal the day Iowa beat Iowa State?s football team in 2013.
April Hemmes, an alumna of the latter and die-hard Cyclone fan, expected to hear gloating from her 22-year-old son Ethan Kazmerzak, who had attended Iowa for two years, but the call never came.
The two years and four months since have been anything but normal.
Kazmerzak went out with friends to watch the Saturday game at local bars and then to a small gathering at a pond northwest of Hampton on Sept. 14, and has been missing since early the next morning.
His car has not been found and all activity froze on his credit card, ATM card and cell phone. A call was tracked from his phone around 12:15 a.m., near the intersection of 190th Street and Olive Avenue that Sunday. He had called his mom.
Multiple aerial, land and underwater searches offered no leads in the following days and weeks. Residents scoured the banks of ponds for tire tracks and a Wisconsin-based search and rescue team scanned nearby bodies of water using SONAR.
Friends and neighbors pooled together $20,000 to establish a reward for tips six weeks later. It was reestablished in May 2014 and increased to $100,000 in November 2015, but officials have received a slow trickle of tips, none of which have led to a break in the case.
?It?s the nothing ? the absolutely no information ? that?s the worst,? Hemmes said.
Hampton Police Chief Bob Schaefer said the investigating departments have exhausted their options until someone comes forward with new information.
?It?s very frustrating,? he said. ?I can?t imagine what it?s like, as a parent, not knowing.?
The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation?s original thought was that Kazmerzak and his car had gone into a ditch or body of water, Schaefer said.
?Most of the time, if something sinister happened, you end up finding the vehicle in a parking lot or burnt out somewhere,? he said.
For the family?s sake, he said people should continue to keep their ears open and report information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to the police.
?If you think something sinister or criminal happened to him, then yeah, somebody knows something,? he said.
Franklin County Sheriff Larry Richtsmeier, a long-time friend of the family, leans toward the criminal route due to the fact that the car hasn?t been found. Its VIN number and license plate are registered nationwide as missing and area junkyards have been searched.
?Whether they?re still in Franklin County or not, somebody has information,? Richtsmeier said. ?I honestly do feel that someday their conscience is going to get the best of them and they will come forward. But that was my opinion back when it started, and it still hasn?t happened.
?Sooner or later, they?re going to have to answer for it. Whether it be to us, or to a higher authority, they?ll have to answer for what they did. Unless they answer to us, the family?s not going to get any closure.?
Richtsmeier also urged anyone with information to come forward. He compared the mystery to assembling a puzzle, saying it isn?t usually one thing, but many little things that make a case.
?When you try to put the puzzle together, the pieces start locking together and you end up with the big picture,? he said. ?We would really love to get the puzzle together, but we don?t have the pieces to work with.?
Kazmerzak?s disappearance is one of three unsolved cases in Franklin County, officials said.
http://mydeathspace.com/article/2020...e_went_missing
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