Michael Joseph Scully was reported missing from New Castle County, Delaware, with his last contact recorded as November 21, 1986. NamUs lists him as a White/Caucasian male, 25 years old at the time, 5 feet 10 inches tall and about 165 pounds, with brown hair, green eyes, and a beard. He was also noted to wear contact lenses, and his listed accessories included glasses. His case is recorded in NamUs as MP6946 and is associated with the New Castle County Police Department.
Online summaries of the case describe Michael as being last seen in the early morning hours at a residence in the Wilmington/New Castle County area. One account states that he woke his brother around 3:00 a.m. and asked for the keys to a white 1980 two-door Pontiac, but did not explain where he was going or why he needed the vehicle. That exchange is described as the last known sighting of him.
Later, the Pontiac was reportedly found abandoned on the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
Accounts state that the vehicle’s engine was still running and its four-way flashers were activated. A brown leather jacket was reportedly found on the right-hand railing behind the vehicle. Because of where the car and jacket were found, some sources have described the circumstances as suggesting that Michael may have gone from the bridge into the water, but his body was not recovered.
Search efforts were reportedly launched in the area, including rescue boats that searched for about an hour and resumed searching at daylight. Despite those efforts, Michael was not found. Online case discussions also note that there was reportedly no known history of depression, no suicide note, and no clear known reason for an apparent suicide, leaving painful uncertainty around what happened to him that night.
NamUs identifies the investigating agency as the New Castle County Police Department and lists the agency case number as 32-87-967-676. The available NamUs-linked information also indicates that family reference DNA from biological sisters has been collected and is associated with the national CODIS process, an important step that can help with future comparisons if unidentified remains are recovered.
Michael’s case remains a deeply difficult one for those who knew and loved him, because the public record provides only a brief window into his final known movements and no definitive answer about what happened afterward. The available online information points to a young man who left suddenly in the early hours of the morning, a vehicle later found on the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and a search that did not bring him home. The lack of recovery has left his loved ones without the certainty and closure that every family deserves.Last Seen: Nov 21, 1986
