Thomas Allen Meuse, known as Tommy, was 14 when he vanished from Schenectady, New York. On August 9, 1971, he left his grandmother’s home on Swan Street with a few dollars to walk downtown and buy a gift. The last confirmed sighting placed the brown-haired, blue-eyed boy near Proctor’s Theater on State Street; he was never seen or heard from again.

At the time he was described as about 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing roughly 120 to 125 pounds, with a scar on his left eyebrow from a dog bite. Family circumstances were tense: he and his mother Shirley had recently returned from California, living in a cramped trailer with her boyfriend and the boyfriend’s son. His father James thought Tommy might have run away; some relatives said Shirley was evasive after the disappearance. A January 1972 personal ad appeared that was apparently from his mother, and Thomas may have used the alias Tommy M. Seeley.

The investigation remains open and family DNA was submitted to national databases, but leads have been scarce. If anyone knew Tommy, where he spent time, or remembers seeing him in Schenectady that August, please share what is known.