u/turnbuckle47

Unfortunate topic from the show yesterday.

Back on June 23rd my Dad didn't make it to our late Father's Day dinner.

It turned out that my missing Dad was hit by an Amtrak the night before.

I'll come back and listen to that segment later. I imagine it was pretty funny. I just couldn't do it right now, especially with my 11 year old sitting here with me.

The initial news and police report had us and the detective ruling out that my Dad was the person killed. After a couple days of searching for him, including many folks in our neighborhood, the detective called to confirm it was him after all.

Based on the investigation, it was an accident. No drugs or alcohol, not a suicide, not listening to headphones, etc.

I haven't and won't seek out the video.

I did get an email from the mayor who said he and his staff have concerns about how the signal arms operate. He didn't elaborate further.

The location of the tracks is outside of a university with a lot of trees and bushes lining the tracks around a bend. The Amtrak is also notorious for having "false alarms" where the signals go off but no train shows up. A few people who live by there have said the train is known for not always tooting its horn as it approaches crossings.

All of these things or none of these things could have been a factor.

When I first heard about it, my initial thought was that my dad - who is very intelligent and rode his bike everywhere for my entire life - wasn't "dumb enough" to get hit by a train. And yet, bam (Adebayo)

Anywho - I love the show and do want to go back and hear this conversation. My dad had a great sense of humor and would probably laugh through the segment too.

But I had to share my Tedtalk real quick since it hit so close to home.

Coincidentally, the day Kyra Sampson passed away was the same day we found our Dad was missing. I made the comment before here - I've been a wreck over my 74 year old Dad's passing. I can't begin to fathom the pain of losing a child.

Hey all - I wanted to share my Dad's obituary here. I also wanted to thank everyone in the community that reached out in support and in helping to look for him when we initially thought he was missing.

My Dad is the one from this post a few weeks back My almost-74 year old Dad is missing

This all started when Dad didn't show up for our late Father's Day dinner on Tuesday, June 23rd. We were planning on going to Onewell Brewery, which was our typical hangout spot for special occasions. When he didn't show up I started to worry.

The next morning that worry escalated to panic. We went to his trailer and saw his car was still parked there. I had thought the worst when he didn't answer to our knocking or doorbell ringing. Since he built guitars inside his trailer, I was fearing that he had some kind of accident - maybe from his saw, maybe from breathing in too many fumes, maybe your typical 74 year-old accident. Stroke, heart attack, etc.

We needed to have the police break in to his home, and for a few minutes I was certain he was lying there deceased. When the police announced "he's not here" I felt the biggest relief ever. I hugged the police officers, thanked them, then got breakfast. I don't know if it was denial, hope, or both - but I was thinking he might have mistook what day we were meeting and ended up staying with a friend for the night. There was a ring camera picture of Dad where the police had we misunderstood it for being from the night prior (Tuesday night, the 23rd). This lead us to believe something must have happened from Tuesday after 6pm. But it "ruled out" any of the known accidents at the time, whew.

After a couple hours though I really started to worry again and I made the aforementioned post about it. The community here were all very quick to respond - so quick that I couldn't possibly keep up with all of the comments while I was also driving around trying to find him. It was overwhelming in the best way. Fuck. It's hard to talk about, all of this is. But thank you guys. Your help gave us hope and gave us strength.

Unfortunately, we found out the next day (Thursday the 24th) that my Dad was the person hit by the Amtrak on Monday, June 22nd. I had read about that accident the night it happened, but the original age they gave (or estimated) was off and the timeline didn't make sense from what we originally understood. But it was true; we just had the wrong idea of the date from the ring camera.

Of course, when the news of that accident came out the responses were understandable. "Must have been a suicide"; "Must have been drunk / high"; "Must have been stupid"; "must have been attacked and left there" "must have been wearing earbuds/headphones" etc. etc. I don't begrudge those kind of responses; it's perfectly normal to immediately think something like that without any context.

"Fortunately" after the investigation it was ruled an accident. My Dad, for whatever reason, wasn't aware of the train. I don't know the full details, but I know my dad started having really bad hearing loss. Somehow he didn't see or hear the train and was attempting to cross. The train arms were down. The detective said he stopped near the tracks; maybe misjudged where he stopped, or misjudged when starting again. In my mind I'm thinking he saw the arms down, didn't see the train, didn't hear the train, and thought it was one of those "false alarms" where the arms come down but the train never shows. I dunno. That does happen; it's happened recently a few times when I've crossed at Howard. But yeah, I dunno.

The detective who ruled out suicide said I could talk to the Amtrak officer for more details, but I don't think I can do that. I know I'm not ready for more details than what I already have at the moment. But I'm glad suicide was ruled out, he didn't have earbuds in, and I'm 99.9% sure he wasn't impaired by drugs or alcohol.

I'm kind of rambling...somehow I'm finding it a little "easier" to write about what happened here than to write more about him on Facebook or in his obituary.

I originally started writing just to give an update and say thanks.

I lost track of time; lost my train of thought (pun intended, Dad)

My Dad had a great sense of humor. I'm heartbroken. I want to write more about just who he was and I also want to yell at him.

But for right now I have to go pick my son up from his summer camp. Saved by the bell.

With that being said - thanks again everyone. My dad would be so humbled to see all of the support and kind words he was given.

<3

My Dad was supposed to meet us for dinner last night at Onewell but never showed up.

Concerned since it's not like him to not show up, we went to his home this morning. His car was still in the driveway but he wasn't answering when we knocked or rang the doorbell.

We ended up having the police come and get us into his home and I feared the worst.

But he wasn't there.

A neighbor saw him leave on his bicycle on her ring camera around 6pm last night, which lines up with when he'd need to leave to meet us for dinner. When the weather is nice he usually rides his bike to meet us.

But, again, he never showed up. The neighbor's ring camera didn't pick up him returning on his bike. He hasn't been online.

His cellphone is still at home, but he often leaves it there (he still mainly uses his landline)

I'm not sure what to do right now. I check the siren Facebook groups and have seen couple accidents, but nothing fitting my dad's description. The police have checked the hospitals and didn't find him.

Other than just waiting, posting on here is about all I can think to do in the off chance someone has seen him.

His name is Ken.