John Allen Akkerman, 27, was working a taxi shift in Spokane, Washington when he vanished after midnight on August 7, 1987. At 12:20 a.m. he radioed his dispatcher to say he was picking up a male passenger at Fifth and Wall near Deaconess Medical Center headed for Spokane Valley. All communication stopped after that call.

About two hours later another driver found John’s cab at Fifth and Madison, four blocks from the pickup. The vehicle was parked at an odd angle, unlocked, with the windows down. The meter was off but displayed a $28.55 fare. John’s protective knife was on the seat, yet both his personal wallet and his fare wallet were missing. His description: white male, 6 feet tall, 160 pounds, collar-length brown hair, hazel eyes, glasses with brown plastic frames, long sideburns and a mustache, distinctive tattoos and a six-inch vertical scar above his navel. He was married with a two-year-old son.

Family and employer say leaving voluntarily was out of character. The man picked up that night has never been identified and police inquiries turned up no substantial leads. Did anyone in Spokane remember seeing a cab or a man matching this description that night?