On the afternoon of September 20, 1999, 28-year-old Turkish immigrant Hakan Karacay left the Clifton, New Jersey apartment he shared with his parents saying he was going to the store. He was last seen at about 5:00 p.m., driving away in his brother’s silver 1989 Mazda 626. He was wearing brown pants, a gray and black shirt, and black leather dress shoes. He has light brown hair, brown eyes, and two distinct scars on his forehead.

A week after he vanished the Mazda was found abandoned on September 25, 1999, on Wells Hill Road, a remote dirt road in the Adirondack Mountains near Lewis, New York, roughly 60 miles south of the Canadian border. The keys were in the ignition, the light switch was on, the battery was dead and the tank empty. Two packs of cigarettes were inside, one of them Parliament, his preferred brand. No sign of Hakan or any clear indication of foul play was reported at the scene.

State Police, Forest Rangers and Environmental Conservation Police conducted an extensive ground search with aviation and K-9 units but turned up no trace. The case remains active and unsolved. If anyone knew Hakan, saw him or his brother’s Mazda in September 1999, or has information about his movements, please come forward.