Real Name: Timothy Michael Molnar
Nicknames: Tim
Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
Date: January 24, 1984
Bio[]
Occupation: Student
Date of Birth: 1964
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 125 pounds
Marital Status: Single
Characteristics: White male with Brown hair and hazel eyes.
Case[]
Details: Nineteen-year-old Tim Molnar was an aeronautical mechanics student studying at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. On the morning of January 24, 1984, he left his home to go to class and never returned. The last person to see him was his fourteen-year-old brother, Frank, who he dropped off at school. Some believe that he was a victim of foul play, but others, including his family, believe that he ran away to start a new life.
The night after Tim vanished, his family received a phone call. When they picked up the phone, there was no voice on the line - only static. They believe that he may have been trying to call home but got nervous and hung up. Two weeks after he vanished, his family learned that on the day of his disappearance, he stopped at a gas station in Lake City, Florida, and paid for a tank of gas with his parents' credit card. His family was told by the gas station attendant that he was traveling alone. Four months later, they received a letter from an auto impound company in Atlanta, Georgia, which stated that he had left his car in a parking lot six days after he initially vanished. The lot was just one block away from the Greyhound bus terminal.
Tim's family found his driver's license, wallet, credit card, and other items in his car suggesting that he had changed his identity. They also found that several expensive items from the car were missing, including a stereo, his expensive tool set, and a bicycle. They are uncertain whether he chose to disappear or if something else happened to him. For some reason, he took no clothes with him other than the ones he was wearing. However, just before leaving, he took out nearly all of the money from his savings account. Interestingly, he left $10 in it, possibly a way of saying that he may return one day.
Now, over a decade later, Tim's family believes that he is still alive and want him to come back home. If he does, he would be heir to a $50,000 fortune, as a relative passed away just days after he vanished.
Suspects: None known
Extra Notes:
- This case first aired on the November 17, 1995 episode.
- Tim's mother Helen helped form the non-profit organization "Mothers Aid to Missing Adults".
Results: Unresolved. When the case re-aired on January 31, 1996, a viewer named Steven Cull called the telecenter. He recognized Tim's clothes as the ones he had found on a body frozen in ice in a secluded wood lot in Neosho, Wisconsin, ten years earlier. After he contacted the medical examiner, they contacted Tim's family and received DNA samples. Through DNA testing, the body was confirmed to be his in November. Keys found with it were determined to match the locks on the Molnar home.
Despite the identification, the cause of Tim's death could not be determined (there were no signs of trauma), nor could anyone determine how or why he traveled all the way to Wisconsin. His family held a memorial service for him and had him buried in Daytona Beach, Florida. His death remains a mystery.
Sadly, Tim's parents have since passed away: his mother Helen in 2004 and his father Michael in 2012.
Links:
- Tim Molnar on Unsolved Archive
- Tim Molnar on Coldcaseworld.com
- MA-MA Wants to Comfort Families of Missing Adults - November 27, 1985
- Parents searching for missing adults fighting the barriers of Privacy Act - November 18, 1986
- Law hampers search for missing adults - November 21, 1986
- Family still holds out hope that missing son will return - December 29, 1988
- Skeleton found decade ago identified as Florida man - November 17, 1996
- How did Tim Molnar die? - 2000
- SitcomsOnline Discussion of Tim Molnar
- Tim Molnar on Find a Grave