Donald Smatlak: two-year anniversary news article

When I was reading this article, I was also shocked to see another familiar name: the name of this blog! This seems to be the first media mention of my blog, at least as far as I know. However, I should clarify that a person does not have to be from Pennsylvania to be on this blog, although most of the people on here are.

From http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_551547.html?source=rss&feed=1:

Few clues in man's two-year disappearance
By Chris Foreman
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Two years after the disappearance of an
Allegheny County man, the police chief heading the investigation says he's
"baffled" by the lack of clues.
Donald D. Smatlak, of North Versailles, has
been missing since Jan. 28, 2006, when he told his parents in a telephone
conversation that he would join them for dinner the next day at their North
Huntingdon home. He also said he was going to visit a friend in Delmont, but
never arrived.
Two years ago today, police found his silver Mazda parked
near the intersection of Meyran Avenue and Louisa Street in Pittsburgh's Oakland
neighborhood, where Smatlak received a criminal justice degree from the
University of Pittsburgh.
While North Versailles police Chief James Comunale
hesitates to call the disappearance a cold case, he said his department hasn't
received any new leads lately.
The case was listed this week on a blog of
missing Pennsylvanians called "Between Life and Death: A Few Missing People."
"Unfortunately, it's one of those cases where it's at a standstill,"
Comunale said. "We checked every single lead and nothing ever panned out. We're
baffled."
Smatlak's parents said Friday their son was a normal 25-year-old
at the time of his disappearance who had been living on his own for nine months,
in a two-year relationship with a woman, and readying for a job interview a
friend had arranged for him in the Pittsburgh area in a couple of weeks.
He
had recently left a job at the North Versailles Giant Eagle, but his family said
there wasn't any reason for them to suspect he would leave on his own.
"He
would never do anything to hurt us," Linda Smatlak said of the eldest of her two
sons. "That's why it's so hard for us because he wouldn't leave without letting
us know."
Comunale said Smatlak's apartment was very clean and there weren't
any signs of a struggle or fight there.
Smatlak's parents speculate he
wouldn't have abandoned his car in the condition that it was found -- with the
windows down so snow could get in.
They also say their son, who commuted to
school in Pittsburgh, wasn't known to have any friends in the city.
His
parents say they're heartened by the continuing investigation, which included
following up on a failed tip late last year.
"That is our worst fear, to
have him forgotten," Linda Smatlak said. "They said they review it each month
and it'll never be forgotten."
Smatlak is white, 6 feet 1 inches tall,
weighs 230 pounds, and has short, light-brown hair and hazel eyes.
According
to the National Center for Missing Adults, he has a scar on his lower lip, a
tattoo of a Chinese symbol on the center of his back and a tattoo of his name in
Chinese on the middle of his chest in black ink.
Anyone with information may
call North Versailles police at 412-823-1111.
Chris Foreman can be reached
at cforeman@tribweb.com or
724-626-3561.

You can print a poster of Donald at http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200604104S.