No new leads in case of missing man

By Derek Liebig

It’s been a year since Jonathan Schaff was last seen walking from a Main Street bar toward the Vermont border and police are no closer to finding him today than they were a year ago.

Vermont State Police, the lead agency on the case, said earlier this week there no new updates.
Schaff was last seen around 5 a.m. on Jan. 18, 2014. The 23-year old Fair Haven, Vt., man was walking east on Main Street toward the Vermont border.

He was walking with two people, a 33-year old female and a 26-year old male, who he had met at the bar and had offered to give him a ride. Their car was parked at Loomis Trucking, just across the state border.

The female and male told police they had stopped “for a smoke and to make out” near the Granville Lions sign on East Main Street and Schaff had continued walking east.

When they arrived at their car, Schaff was nowhere to be found. They called for him, but never received a reply.

Prior to his disappearance, Schaff had been at Riverside Pub and witnesses said he was involved in a physical altercation with a 50-year old man during which his glasses were broken.

His cell phone was later found in an abandoned vehicle parked at Loomis Trucking. The vehicle was parked near the Mettowee River and authorities suspected he may have fallen into water.

Searchers, including New York and Vermont State Police, Granville Police and members of the New York State Department of Conservation searched the frigid waters in the for weeks, but to no avail. Search efforts were suspended in March, but resumed in May. But those efforts did not turn up any evidence of his whereabouts.

The river was searched again in early November, but no new clues were found.

In the months since his disappearance, police have pursued a number of leads, but most have led nowhere. Last summer a fisherman reported seeing bones in the Mettowee River in Middle Granville, but they turned out to be the remains of an animal.

A Facebook page, “Bring Jonathan Schaff Home” was created in the weeks after his disappearance and friends and family have continued to post messages and well wishes.

Police said they have not given up on finding Schaff.

Schaff would have turned 25 Wednesday.

Anyone with information on Schaff’s disappearance is encouraged to call Vermont State Police at 802-773-9101.