Richard Andrew Rader II, 50, was last seen August 13, 2001, in San Francisco. He was aboard his 40-foot boat Robert Croll, fishing for albacore or salmon south of the Golden Gate Bridge, wearing a blue sweatshirt and blue jeans. He is described as a white male, 5 feet 10 inches, 180 pounds, with brown hair, green eyes and a scar on his left cheek.

Rader’s family reported him missing when he failed to return from the trip. The Coast Guard conducted a massive search; on August 22, 2001, a Coast Guard plane found Robert Croll adrift about 25 miles west of Morro Bay. The vessel was unoccupied, out of fuel and with dead batteries, and Rader was not aboard. The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department handled the investigation, and investigators long believed he had drowned.

A fisherman recovered a human skull in Monterey Bay in 2003, but the remains could not be identified at that time. In October 2023 modern DNA testing positively identified the remains as Richard Andrew Rader II. If anyone knew Rader, his boat, or saw activity off the coast that week in August 2001, please come forward with information.