Patrick Joseph DiFrancesco, 24, disappeared after he and a 61-year-old pilot, James Johnson, took off from Fort Pierce, Florida, on August 26, 1985. The men were reportedly planning an overnight flight to the Bahamas or the Virgin Islands to pick up a shipment of marijuana; neither they nor the plane owned by Howard Jay Crouch Jr. were ever seen again.

DiFrancesco held a student pilot’s license and had been involved in drug smuggling to supplement his work as a concrete laborer. His brother Tony has pursued leads over the years and believes Patrick and Johnson might have been killed locally, but no solid evidence has been produced. Rumors that DiFrancesco was later held in a Jamaican jail were never substantiated.

The disappearance remains unsolved and the family continues to search for answers. Did anyone in Fort Pierce or the region have contact with Patrick, James Johnson, or that aircraft in late August 1985?