William Farris Goodmon, a 56-year-old businessman from Polk City, Florida, was last seen on the morning of June 27, 1988. He left home about 6:45 a.m. to drive to his business, Day’s Lawn Mower in Lakeland, and never arrived. Family and employees became concerned when the business remained closed at 8:00 a.m. The last confirmed sighting came at 9:00 a.m. when a clerk at Grandma’s Pantry, a convenience store north of Lakeland, sold him beer and cigarettes.

Two months later Goodmon’s brown 1974 Ford Thunderbird — with a distinctive maroon hood and a dark brown vinyl top — was found abandoned in a rural part of Manatee County. The car had been partially stripped, vandalized, filled with garbage, and investigators concluded it had likely been there since late June. A .357 magnum Ruger handgun that Goodmon normally carried was never recovered. Financial checks showed no unusual activity in his personal or business accounts, and family members say he did not habitually carry large sums of cash.

Goodmon lived in Lakeland with his wife and an eight-year-old grandson, whom the family says he protected and would not have voluntarily abandoned. He had suffered a stroke about a year before his disappearance and was described as being in poor health. In 1993 he was declared legally dead; the disappearance remains unsolved.

Did anyone in the area know Goodmon’s routines, customers, or recent contacts in late June 1988 and might still have information to share?