Missing
Sidney Edward Johnston
Johnston, approximately 1990
Date and time person was reported missing : 01/22/1990
Missing location (approx) :
Davenport, Iowa
Missing classification : Endangered Missing
Gender : Male
Ethnicity :
White
DOB : 12/11/1942 (78)
Age at the time of disappearance: 47 years old
Height / Weight : 6'2, 180 pounds
Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: Caucasian male. Brown hair, hazel eyes. Johnston's nickname is Sid.
Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Johnson was last seen in Davenport, Iowa on January 22, 1990. He has never been heard from again. When investigators checked his home, they found holes punched in the walls and one door, a possible vomit stain on the bedsheets, and a dish full of cat food on the floor. The house was uncharacteristically messy. Johnston's maroon 1984 Ford Thunderbird disappeared with him and has never been found.
According to his neighbors, Johnston's behavior changed about six months before his disappearance. In the summer of 1989, a young man and a young woman began spending time at his house, which was unusual because Johnston rarely had friends over. His neighbors frequently heard loud arguments at the residence, with shouting and cursing. Investigators identified and interviewed the man and the woman, and both passed polygraph tests.
Johnston also gave away nearly $30,000 in the months before his disappearance, when before he had been very frugal. He had gotten into legal trouble over his finances and was getting contacts from bill collection Age at the time of disappearance: ncies.
He was supposed to appear in court on January 23, the day after he went missing, to answer to charges of unlawfully possessing a bank identification card. He asked his brother for money in December 1989 and refused to say what he needed it for. Two weeks before his disappearance, he received several emergency telephone calls at work, which is also out of the ordinary for him.
Johnson is a Navy veteran and worked as a machine operator at Case IH. He was single, had no children and lived alone at the time of his disappearance in the home where he'd stayed for 28 years. Two of his five siblings have died since he went missing. Foul play is suspected in his case, which remains unsolved.
Other information and links : ncy
Davenport Police Department
563-326-7979
September 2021 updates and sources
Iowa Cold Cases
The Quad-City Times
October 12, 2004. November 11, 2010; .
Interactive Missing Person Search Map
