Barry James Sheridan was 42 and working as a seaman on a barge docked in Brooklyn when he left the tug around 8:00 p.m. on December 11, 1990, saying he was going ashore to call his family for his daughter’s fifth birthday. He never made that call and was not seen again. A few days later a birthday card he had mailed to his daughter arrived, but no other communications or traces followed.

An investigation involving the New York City Police Department, Harbor Police and the Coast Guard searched the dock area; private divers and cadaver dogs were also used but turned up nothing. Investigators suggested he may have fallen into the water climbing a ladder and drowned, but his family disputes that theory given his experience as a sailor and diver. The family also believes he might have known about illegal activity linked to his employer and may have planned to blow the whistle.

Barry Sheridan was declared legally dead in 1998, but his body has never been recovered and the disappearance remains unresolved. If anyone knew Barry, worked on the Rhode Island, or saw him in Brooklyn on December 11, 1990, please share what you remember.