Family continues to search for missing 19-year-old man

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By Steven Martens | Saturday, May 10, 2008 1:00 AM CDT | () comments

Theresa Roseland hopes someone will come forward with information about her missing son, Benjamin, who disappeared Feb. 9 in Clinton, Iowa. (Jeff Cook/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

CLINTON, Iowa — It was three months ago Friday that Benjamin Roseland left a friend’s apartment in Clinton to walk a few blocks to Hy-Vee and get a snack before going to bed.

He never made it to the store and hasn’t been seen or heard from since Feb. 9.

The family and friends of “Benny,” 19, continue their efforts to search for him, maintaining their hope that he is alive and well somewhere because the alternative is unthinkable.

“I’m just praying that somebody picked him up and he’s OK somewhere,” said his aunt, Marge Nance.

Nance, another aunt, Julie Connell, and his mother, Theresa Roseland, chuckle when they describe Roseland as “thrifty.” Theresa Roseland said her son was living at home and going to Clinton Community College, although he had missed some school over the winter while he recovered from a car accident that left him with a skull fracture. He has been saving his money since he was 8 years old and was hoping to put a down payment on a house soon.

Theresa Roseland said her son had saved a significant amount of money, but there has been no activity on his bank accounts since the day he left.

Nance says the rumors surrounding Roseland’s disappearance can be hurtful. They have heard that he was dead and his body was under a bridge or in an abandoned house in South Clinton. Archer Daniels Midland Co., which has purchased homes in South Clinton near the plant, gave the family permission to search the homes, but no sign of Roseland was found.

Another rumor the family has heard was that Roseland skipped town to avoid the legal repercussions of his car accident, in which another woman was injured and Roseland was charged with driving with a suspended or revoked license and failure to stop within

a safe distance, according to court records.

His family said Roseland felt terrible that another person was injured in the accident, but would not have run away to avoid taking responsibility. They said he had paid a local attorney $5,000 to represent him in the matter, which someone as thrifty as Roseland would not have done if he were planning to skip town.

Besides, Connell said, Roseland routinely called his mother to let her know where he was and is not the kind of person who would leave suddenly without saying anything.

“If he knew what was going on, he wouldn’t be putting us through this,” she said.

Family members also wonder if Roseland’s disappearance is related to the “Smiley Face Killer,” whom investigators believe could be linked to the deaths of as many as 40 male college students in the Great Lakes area.

Several volunteer searches for Roseland were held in the weeks after his disappearance. The only clue found was a pair of shoes that were similar to a pair Theresa Roseland says are missing from her son’s room.

They have given fliers to truck drivers to post in truck stops across the Midwest and placed fliers in railroad boxcars. A family friend set up a Web site, benroseland.com, which has received more than 3.700 hits.

Capt. Randy Meier of the Clinton Police Department said Roseland’s disappearance is being treated as a missing-person case, but there have been no new developments. Meier said he doesn’t know of any other missing-person cases the department has open.

Nance and her husband, Don, recently went to Kansas to attend a wedding. It was their first trip since Roseland’s disappearance. Even then, she couldn’t stop looking for him.

“You look in every ditch, and you look in every car that goes by to see if he’s in there,” Nance said.

Connell said she has contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for help. She said she was embarrassed to admit that she also has contacted Allison DuBois, a psychic upon whom the television series “Medium” is based.

While using a psychic may seem far-fetched to some, Connell said it couldn’t hurt.

“Stranger things have happened,” she said. “You can’t just walk away from this.”

Steven Martens can be contacted at (563) 659-2595 or smartens@qctimes.com.

MISSING MAN

Benjamin Roseland was last seen about 10:30 p.m. Feb. 9 in the 400 block of 10th Avenue South in Clinton, Iowa.

He is described as a while male, 19 years old, 5-foot-11 and weighing 175 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes, and was last seen wearing camouflage coveralls. Anyone with information about his whereabouts may call the Clinton Police Department at (563) 243-1455.

Anyone wishing to make a donation to a reward fund may do so by mailing a check to Clinton National Bank made out to the bank with a note to have it deposited in the “Donations for Ben” account.