David Bird Thomson, a 32-year-old writer and journalist, disappeared from Minnetonka, Minnesota, on July 4, 1979. He was last seen standing by Highway 7 and Williston Road carrying only a backpack. At the time he vanished he was known to be living with scoliosis and depression, and his brother reported David may have been having mild delusions.

Thomson had a distinctive appearance: a beard, shoulder-length brown hair, a receding hairline and scars from a 1964 car accident that left his left leg shorter than his right and a foreshortened left arm. He had published a book titled In the Shining Mountains the same year and had briefly worked in Wyoming and Colorado in 1979. Family members have suggested he might have chosen to live in isolation in a mountain man style, but no confirmed trace of him has been found.

What information do readers have about David’s movements in Minnesota, Wyoming or Colorado in 1979, or anyone who may have seen him after July 4?