SFist Blotter

In the wake of the James Kim media coverage, the Oakland Tribune and the Chron follow up on a Berkeley family who's been looking for their son, 23-year-old Wallace Richards (pictured at left) for a year, with no leads.

Wallace Richards had dropped off a dancer friend outside the Hustler Club around 11 a.m. on November 10, 2005, with the promise to get the oil changed in her gold Mercedes and to come back and pick her up after her shift ended at 7:30 that night. Richards never came back, and the car was found a week later in San Lorenzo. Richards had been on leave from SFSU but was planning on reenrolling to finish up his degree.

The family, in contrast to other missing people in the Bay Area like James Kim and the pediatrician who accidentally drove into the bay in Alameda, has had a hard time getting sustained media attention and have faced difficulties in getting access to records. Authorities acknowledge that race (along with his young age and gender) could be a factor as to why the story didn't get extensively picked up.

According to the FBI, there are over 48,000 active missing persons cases (adults) nationwide, with 30,000 missing for over a year -- and in Oakland, they investigated almost 1000 missing persons cases from 2004-2005 (with some cases on their rolls for "decades").

Richards is African-American with a medium-brown complexion, and is 6'2" and 235 pounds. He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, jeans, and a green and grey North Face windbreaker.