On the morning of January 27, 1974, 11-year-old Joseph Andrew Spisak finished his Hammond Times paper route and returned to the 7000 block of McCook Avenue before his customary walk to Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church. When Joseph did not return for the family’s 5:00 p.m. dinner, his parents reported him missing after learning a friend had last seen him earlier playing on the Morton Middle School grounds.

Joseph was described as responsible and had left behind important belongings, including a spare pair of glasses, his baseball card collection, and his mitt, which led the family to reject the idea he had run away. Searches by police, Boy Scouts and railroad crews turned up nothing. Witnesses later placed him near the railroad by Kennedy Avenue cemetery and near Hessville Cemetery, but an inspection car along the tracks produced no clues. Over the years investigators pursued many leads, including possible sightings out of state and inquiries about a connection to John Wayne Gacy, but the case remains unsolved and the family has not had him declared legally dead.

Did anyone in Hammond in 1974 see Joseph near Morton Middle School or the cemeteries along the railroad tracks?