Michael Kerkowski, 37, vanished in May 2002 amid allegations he had been running to avoid prosecution for operating a large prescription drug trafficking scheme from his pharmacy north of Wilkes-Barre. For more than a year prosecutors believed he had fled, but that changed in June 2003 when human remains were found in a shallow grave on the Kingston Township property of Hugo Selenski, a man Kerkowski had considered a friend.

The graves contained Kerkowski and his 36-year-old girlfriend, Tammy Fassett; both had been strangled with plastic flex ties. Investigators also found charred bones of at least three other individuals in and around a burn pit on the property. An informant led authorities to the site. Testimony at trial described a robbery motive: prosecutors say Selenski and a co-conspirator, Paul Weakley, tortured Kerkowski on May 3, 2002, to force him to disclose the location of tens of thousands of dollars hidden at his Hunlock Township home.

In February 2015 a jury convicted Selenski, who was sentenced to life without parole; Weakley testified against him and received a lesser sentence. Does anyone have information about Kerkowski’s last known movements in May 2002 or about the Hunlock Township area at that time?