Walter Vernon McCraw, known to some as Vernon, was 51 when he vanished from Shelby, North Carolina. The last confirmed sighting was July 11, 2018, after family members dropped him at a Waffle House on East Dixon Boulevard. A police officer later saw him sleeping in the grass near a McDonald’s on U.S. 74; after that encounter he was not seen again. Family reported him missing on August 1, 2018, noting they had waited because he sometimes disappeared for periods of time but became alarmed when he didn’t collect his SSI check.

McCraw had serious health and mobility issues. He was diabetic, had lost all ten toes to frostbite, and his daughter said he was in late-stage liver failure from long-term alcohol use. He lived with his mother on Rehobeth Church Road but was known to wander locally. His ID was found later that same day near the old police department on Lafayette Street and was turned in; who found it has not been released. Searches and follow-ups by the Shelby Police Department and others have produced no significant leads.

If anyone saw Walter around Shelby in July 2018 or afterward, or knows where he might have gone, please share what you know.