Seventeen-year-old Jay Calvin Pringle of Medford, Oregon, was last seen April 19, 1977, in Gardena, California. He was on a road trip to California with a 23-year-old friend, Robert Harry Kellogg, whom Jay had reportedly met at the bus station where he worked. Kellogg said the two argued in Gardena and separated, and that Pringle then left with an unknown person.

At the time he disappeared Jay was carrying a suitcase and a brown and green wool blanket and wore an army jacket, pants, a blue bandana or handkerchief around his head, and gold-rimmed eyeglasses. He had several scars including on both knees, his left elbow, above his left eye, and on his left calf. Kellogg later traveled to Las Vegas and reportedly spent all of Jay’s money before returning alone to Medford; Jay’s mother successfully sued Kellogg in small claims court to recover the funds.

Investigators have long considered Kellogg a person of interest but said there was insufficient evidence to file charges; Kellogg left Oregon during the probe and died in September 2011. Jay has not been seen or heard from since 1977. Anyone with information about Jay’s movements in April 1977 or who might have known people he met in Gardena is asked to contact the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.