Missing
Richard Neil Forsyth
Forsyth, approximately 1979
Date and time person was reported missing : 10/18/1979
Missing location (approx) :
Waterloo, Iowa
Missing classification : Endangered Missing
Gender : Male
Ethnicity :
White
DOB : 08/11/1952 (68)
Age at the time of disappearance: 27 years old
Height / Weight : 6'0, 185 pounds
Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: Caucasian male. Brown hair, blue eyes. Forsyth has thinning hair.
Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Forsyth was last seen in Waterloo, Iowa on October 18, 1979. He has never been heard from again.
There has been some speculation that his disappearance is connected to the disappearance of another Waterloo man, Steven Kirchhoff, a known drug dealer who disappeared from Waterloo on January 24, 1978. Authorities believe Kirchhoff was carrying up to $8,000 in cash when he disappeared, and he may have been robbed and killed.
There were rumors that Forsyth was seen carrying something wrapped in a rug the day after Kirchhoff vanished, and he bought a 1972 Cadillac for $2,000 the next day, paying in $100 bills. His face was bruised and bloody at the time, and he said he'd fallen on a wine bottle and had to get stitches.
He left town that day and had his stitches removed in Manhattan, Kansas on February 1. After that he traveled to an uncle's home in Tucson, Arizona. By the time the police and Kirchhoff's parents tracked him to Arizona, Forsyth was gone.
In mid-1979, the Cadillac Forsyth bought was found in storAge at the time of disappearance: in Grand Forks, North Dakota. A man calling himself David Gates had left it there a year earlier, paying only one month's storAge at the time of disappearance: fee.
The same day the car was left in storAge at the time of disappearance: , a man who called himself Richard Steves rented a room in Grand Forks, paying one month's rent, but he didn't stay even one night. Kirchhoff's parents believe believe Forsyth and "Richard Steves" may have been the same person, but the landlady couldn't identify Forsyth's photograph.
The Kirchhoffs think Forsyth may have gone to Canada; the Canadian border is only 75 miles from Grand Forks. Forsyth's Cadillac was bloodstained, but the stains could not be matched to Kirchhoff's blood.
Forsyth was reported Missing location (approx) : Waterloo a few months after Kirchhoff's car was found. Both men's cases remain unsolved.
Other information and links : ncy
Waterloo Police Department
319-291-4345
September 2021 updates and sources
Iowa Missing Person Information Clearinghouse
The Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier Online
Iowa Cold Cases
The Des Moines Register
October 12, 2004. April 21, 2016; Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : updated.
Interactive Missing Person Search Map
