Missing Person Photos

A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe. By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends. A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.



Missing Person Photos

Resources for Missing Persons

According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day. Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends. Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.

Missing Person Photos

John Patrick Kerrigan
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
Kerrigan, date, approximate 1984
Date Missing 07/20/1984
Missing From
Ronan, Montana
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 01/20/1926 (96)
Age 58 years old
Height and Weight 6'0, 185 - 200 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A white t-shirt, red shorts and sneakers.
Associated Vehicle(s) Brown Chevrolet Impala (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Gray hair, blue eyes.
Details of Disappearance Kerrigan was last seen at the now-defunct Deneault's Bakery on 4th Avenue southwest in Ronan, Montana on July 20, 1984; he stopped there on his way home from jogging. He has never been heard from again.
A Franciscan priest, he had just been transferred to the Ronan parish two days before to work at Sacred Heart Church. He went missing the day before he was scheduled to deliver his first sermon at the parish. He was discovered missing after he didn't show up for Mass to give his sermon.
The day after Kerrigan's disappearance, the clothes he was last seen wearing were found by a woman setting up a roadside fruit stand on Highway 35 near Flathead Lake. They appeared to have been intentionally placed next to the road: his shirt, shoes and windbreaker jacket. His shirt was stained with his blood and there was a $100 bill in the pocket. A bloodstained and "deformed" coat hanger was also present.
His brown Chevrolet Impala was found a week later and seven miles away, just outside Polson, Montana; inside the trunk there was a bloodstained shovel and a bloody pillow. The car's interior and trunk were bloodstained, and the car had been wiped clean of fingerprints. The keys were in a field about 30 yards away.
There are differing accounts as to when and where Kerrigan's wallet was found and how much money it contained. Some stories are that his wallet was found with his clothes and contained about $200 in cash; other accounts claim the wallet was in the trunk of his car and contained over $1,200. It's possible there was more than one wallet.
Another local man, Curtis Holmen, disappeared from the same general area two days after Kerrigan did, and his vehicle was found abandoned about forty miles from where Kerrigan's car was found. Holmen's brother believes the two s could be connected in some way, but this theory hasn't been proven.
Police could find no connection between Kerrigan's and the 1982 disappearance of James Anderson, an Episcopal priest who went missing from Townsend, Montana and was never found. The two men had worked in White Sulphur Springs, Montana at the same time in their clerical careers, and they were friends.
In August 1982, nearly two years before Kerrigan vanished, another Franciscan priest named Reynaldo Rivera was called away from his rectory in Santa Fe, New Mexico by a man who called himself "Michael Carmello" and asked for a priest to come administer last rites at a rest stop in the town of Waldo.Three days later, Rivera's body was found lying in the open in a remote desert area three miles from the rest stop. He had been shot to death and his murder has never been solved.
"Carmello" had called the same rectory earlier on the day of Rivera's disappearance with the same request for a priest to come and give the last rites, but the first priest he spoke to was unable to come, so he called back later and got Rivera.
The FBI created a profile of Rivera's killer, theorizing the person was someone who was familiar with the Catholic Church and felt betrayed by it. It's possible more than one perpetrator was involved. One of the officers investigating the murder believed there was a connection between Rivera's murder and Kerrigan's disappearance, but he could find no evidence that the two men knew each other.
Kerrigan was born in Butte, Montana, attended St. Edwards Seminary in Seattle, Washington, and was ordained a priest in 1954. In his thirty-year career as a priest, he served in various rural parishes throughout the state of Montana, including Butte, Hamilton, Walkerville, Dillon, Browning, Bozeman, Drummond, White Sulphur Springs, Choteau, Plains, and lastly, Ronan. Sacred Heart Church was his thirteenth assignment.
In 1983, Kerrigan stayed for three months at a retreat, the Congregation of the Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. It was designed for priests who are experiencing personal difficulties, including substance abuse, depression and sexual misconduct. After his disappearance, the Catholic Church admitted he'd been to the retreat but wouldn't say exactly why.
In 2011, two separate groups of victims sued the Catholic diocese in Helena, Montana, alleging that between the 1940s and the 1970s, they were sexually abused at the hands of Jesuit priests and Ursuline Sisters at the St. Ignatius Mission and the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius, Montana.
The plaintiffs implicated twelve priests from western Montana as well as 21 nuns from the St. Ignatius Mission; one of the priests they named was Kerrigan. Because many of the alleged abusers have since died and because of the statute of limitations, no charges could be brought against anyone.
As part of a settlement reached with the victims, however, the Church published a list of the alleged perpetrators in 2015. The lawsuit, which involved hundreds of abuse claims, was settled for $20 million; it drove the diocese into bankruptcy.
Foul play is suspected in Kerrigan's and he is presumed to have been the victim of a homicide, but it's unclear whether the abuse scandal had anything to do with his disappearance. His remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Lake County Sheriff's Office
406-883-7301
Other
Montana Missing Persons Clearinghouse
NamUs
The Bismarck Tribune
The Santa Fe New Mexican
The Missoulian
The Idaho Spokesman-Review
Unsolved Mysteries
The Trail Went Cold
The Flathead Beacon

Missing Person Photos

A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe. By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends. A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.



Missing Person Photos

Resources for Missing Persons

According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day. Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends. Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.

Missing Person Photos