MISSING HAMPTON MAN ‘A WALKING SECRET’
Theodoric Elton ‘Theo’ Hunter Sr. hasn’t been seen since August; police still seeking leads
HAMPTON — It’s been more than three months since a 49-yearold Hampton man was last seen — and his family and police are still seeking leads into his whereabouts.
Theodoric Elton “Theo” Hunter Sr., who lived on Hollywood Avenue in the city’s Wythe section, was reported missing Aug. 27, two days after he failed to show up for work at a Norfolk container shipping terminal.
There’s been no trace of him since. “He just kind of like disappeared,” said Hampton Police Detective Steve Rodey. “We’re trying to find out what happened.”
Both of Hunter’s cellphones began going straight to voice mail a couple days after he disappeared, and can’t be tracked. He hasn’t responded to texts or Facebook messages.
His phone and bank accounts have been inactive.
Hunter’s car — a black 2019 Nissan Altima with the license plates UYY-5668 — is also nowhere to be found.
The sedan was last picked up on a state license plate reader at 3 a.m. on Aug. 25, heading south on the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel.
Detectives have told the family that Hunter is within his rights not to contact anyone if he chooses. But Hampton police have asked the public for help in finding him.
“It’s out of norm for Mr. Hunter to be gone for an extended amount of time and to not make contact with family, friends or his employer,” Hampton Police spokesman Sgt. Reggie Williams said.
Priscilla Hunter, 46, of Norfolk — Theo Hunter’s ex-wife and the mother of his children — said it’s unlike him to take off and not tell anyone. “It’s way out of character,” she said. “In the 20-something years that I’ve known him, he’s never done this.”
She met Theo Hunter in 1995 — and was married to him between 1999 and 2007. She said he’s always been good at keeping up with his
sons, Quinton, 23, and Theodoric Jr., 21, speaking with them several times a week.
About 10 days before he disappeared, she said, Hunter took his sons to a Hampton Nissan dealership to buy cars for their birthdays. He co-signed the loans and promised to go half and half with them on the payments.
“He’s not going to do all of that and then just disappear,” Priscilla Hunter said. “He’s been in his kids’ lives, and he’s kept in contact the whole time, and he loved that job that he had.”
Theo Hunter grew up in Suffolk, went to high school in Portsmouth, then worked at Food Lion and Walmart for years, his family said. He landed his job in facilities maintenance at Virginia International Terminals, the state’s port operating arm, about five years ago, and became part of the International Longshoremen’s Association in July.
Quinton Hunter said he last saw his father on Aug. 24, a Saturday morning, when Theo Hunter took his sons to pick up their cars at the
Nissan dealership, then went to work at a Norfolk shipping terminal.
Theo Hunter’s current wife, Deirdre “Dee” Hunter, 47 — who runs a Portsmouth trucking firm and married him in October 2018 — said she has no idea what happened to him.
“I do not know where he went,” she said last week.
She said “he has a lot going on” in his life that she was in the dark about. He hardly ever let her meet his family, she said, and corresponded with many people she didn’t know.
“He’s a walking secret,” Deirdre Hunter said. “He has so much going on that he could be anywhere.”
She said Theo Hunter moved out of the Hollywood Avenue home in early July, keeping his clothes in lockers at work. But she said he would still “pop in and pop out” after that. He came to the house after work on Aug. 24, she said.
She said she asked him to hang up a TV for one of her friends, and he did so even though he “fussed” about doing it. When she then also asked him about a lunchtime meeting he had with a woman that day, she said, he ended the conversation by saying “he didn’t want to hear my mouth.”
Deirdre Hunter said she went to bed at about 10:30 p.m., with Theo Hunter still in the kitchen. When she woke up sometime after midnight, she said, his house key was on the kitchen counter — and he and his car were gone.
She said her husband had previously left the house “many times” in a similar fashion, but always got back in touch within a few days. But this time might be different, she said, because the couple was in the process of breaking up.
“We were already done because I found out so much stuff,” she said.
Police told the family that Hunter’s license plates were last picked up going south on the bridge-tunnel a few hours later, at 3 a.m. on Aug. 25.
Hunter didn’t show up for work later that Sunday. After he again didn’t show for work two days later, on Aug. 27, his supervisor got in touch with his family. Hunter’s mother, Vertley Hunter, called Hampton police that afternoon to report him missing.
Officers did a welfare check at the Hollywood Avenue home that day, with his wife allowing officers to come in and walk through.
“The morning that this happened, I had a terrible dream,” his mother told the Daily Press. “It was hard for me to shake that dream for a whole week.”
“I know he misses me,” son
Quinton Hunter said. Asked if he thought his father was OK, he said no. “I think something happened to him.”
Loretta Monroe, 56, of Virginia Beach — who has known Theo Hunter since 2005 and was married to him between 2010 and 2013 and still kept in touch with him — is also concerned.
“If anyone has seen him, that would be great,” she said. “He’s a grown man, and if he just wants to disappear and not be found — if he just lets us know he’s OK and doesn’t want to be bothered — that’s fine, too. We just want to know if he’s dead or alive. If he would just contact us and let us know.”
Anyone who has seen Hunter or his car — abandoned or otherwise — or has information that could help police is asked to call Hampton police at 757–727–6111 or the Crime Line at 1–888-LOCK-UUP.
Tipsters can also send an anonymous tip by visiting P3Tips.com. Crime Line callers don’t have to appear in court and could be eligible for a cash reward up to $1,000.