Michael Pierce Madden was 32 and a senior at Western Washington University when he was last seen by his landlady at his Bellingham apartment on September 15, 1986. A veteran who supported himself on a Veterans Affairs disability pension and a GI Bill award, he vanished after that date leaving behind personal belongings and a life that those who knew him describe as abruptly interrupted.

Suspicion focused quickly on a neighbor, William Milligan, who also used the name Christopher Carr. Shortly after Madden disappeared, Milligan rented a post office box in Madden’s name, diverted Madden’s pension checks and a $7,000 GI Bill check to that address, and sold Madden’s silver Audi within days. Milligan — the last known person to see Madden — gave conflicting accounts to police and had escaped from an Ohio mental hospital in July 1986 after a 1978 finding of not guilty by reason of insanity in rape cases; he had been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. Milligan was never charged.

Madden remains an endangered missing person and foul play is strongly suspected. Did anyone in Bellingham in 1986 know Michael’s routines or see him after September 15?