Police find ‘possible’ lead in case of man missing since 1999

Gary Police said they may have a development in the case of a man who disappeared after leaving his girlfriend’s Dorie Miller apartment in May 1999.

Police were looking for any relatives, and one has since reached out, Lt. Dawn Westerfield said in a release Thursday.

“Possible information on John Len Taylor’s case has come to the attention of local law enforcement,” she said earlier.

The disappearance was immediately deemed suspicious.

On May 24, 1999, he was at his girlfriend’s house when he and another person there had a brief argument. He said he was going out for air, and that’s the last anyone saw Taylor, then 48.

“He walked out and never walked back in. We’ve done all the usual checking and nothing has come up. We’re concerned there may be foul play involved,” Capt. Mike Nardini, commander of the detective bureau said then.

A year before he disappeared, he was shot and left for dead, his sister told the Post-Tribune in 1999.

Taylor, who lived with his parents in the 3900 block of Adams Street, turned down offers for rides, choosing instead to regularly walk to his girlfriend’s house in the Dorie Miller Housing Development, his older sister Gennette McDaniel said.

During one of those treks he was shot from behind on 21st Avenue near Martin Luther King Drive. He underwent surgery and had developed medical problems, his sister said.

“He doesn’t own a car. You would offer him a ride and he would say he’d rather walk. Last year when he was shot and left for dead, we thought after that he would stop walking, but he continued to walk,” she said after his 1999 disappearance.

In 1999, Taylor was described as 5 feet 10-inches tall, about 150 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black and gray jacket, a blue and white shirt and gray pants.

Anyone with information can call Gary Police Detective Sgt. Mark Salazar at 219-881-1209.