Melvin Bruce Buckner, 58, was last definitively seen in Cleveland, Tennessee, on July 4, 2000. A man of routine, his family noted his disappearance when he failed to keep in touch. He is described as a white male between 5 feet 9 inches and 6 feet tall, weighing 150 to 175 pounds, with graying hair often worn in a combover and hazel eyes. He commonly wore a baseball cap, blue jeans, a long-sleeved button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and work boots.

In the late 1990s Ford Explorer registered to him was later found abandoned at Big Frog Mountain in the Ocoee National Forest, but that discovery produced no clear answers about his whereabouts. The Bradley County Sheriff’s Office investigated and the case remains open; his information is entered in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. There are few solid leads and the circumstances of his disappearance remain largely unknown.

If anyone knew Melvin, saw him around July 2000, or has information about his Ford Explorer at Big Frog Mountain, please come forward.