Donald Ferry Shafer was just 15 years old when he vanished from Dickson City, Pennsylvania.
Even though he was last seen on March 6, 1981, authorities wouldn’t take an official missing person report on him until 2013.
How is that even possible? What don’t we know about the case of Donald Ferry Shafer?
We do know that he was a troubled kid, but he was….just a kid. A teenager who seemed lost and defiant, although certainly, he isn’t the only teenager to ever suffer from understanding his place in the world.
Donald Shafer left his home in Dickson City that March day and was never seen again.
Where is Donald Ferry Shafer?
Donald Shafer seemed like a kid that might have slipped under the radar, at least to local authorities.
He had a history of running away and being a troubled kid, and when his family tried to report him missing shortly after they last saw him, the authorities didn’t listen.
Was it because he had a track record of running away from home?
Because of the lack of interest in his case, there isn’t much information known about Donald and his life growing up.
He was living in Dickson City, Pennsylvania in March 1981. Dickson City is located in Lackawanna County, just north of the much bigger city of Scranton.
Dickson City had its fair share of troubles. It was a dying town, with the population getting smaller and smaller almost every year. In the 1930s, the town had almost 13,000 residents. The town would decline steadily, all the way to 2018 when the population was barely 5000.
The town itself had once been a booming coal-mining town. It has since migrated into a retail mecca, for all things shopping.
Donald lived with his family in Dickson City, according to his missing person file. He did spend some time in Montana, however, specifically at the Yellowstone Ranch for Boys and Girls.
The Ranch is a residential treatment center for troubled children in Billings, Montana.
The facility is well-known for treating children with all types of issues, including, behaviors that may include drug use, running away, self-harming, suicidal thoughts, poor social skills, and defiance.
It isn’t specifically noted what issues Donald faced in life, the only thing we know for certain is that he had been known to run away.
Donald also had a sister in Wyoming that many believe he may have been trying to get to.
Authorities finally took an official missing person report in 2013 for Donald, even though by then he had not been seen for 32 years.
There are so many questions we have in Donald’s case.
- Did he indeed run away and meet with foul play along the way? But the- where is he? Is he somewhere listed as a ‘John Doe’?
- Did he meet with foul play at the hands of someone he knew?
- What was the real reason his missing person report wasn’t taken until 2013? Whether he was troubled or not, a 15-year-old is still very much a minor.
- How long had he been back from Yellowstone? It’s very possible that he made friends/connections while there, but keeping in touch was much more difficult in 1981 than it is in today’s world.
This poor young boy was just 15 years old. If he did manage to start a fresh life somewhere, with a new identity, I’d say that would have been a miracle. It doesn’t seem like he had a fair chance in life.
What I’d really like Donald to know, wherever he may be, and whether alive or not, is that there are people who care about what happened to him.
Donald sometimes went by the name, ‘Don’, and may use the alias names of Don Ferry, Donnie Frame, or Donnie Thomas. His file also indicates he has ties not only to Wyoming and Montana, but also New Jersey.
He was described as being a caucasian male, about 6’0 tall and weighing around 130 pounds at the time he disappeared in 1981.
He was wearing a dark-colored sweatshirt, black jeans, and sneakers. He might have been carrying a small tan backpack with the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch logo on it.
Donald might have a homemade tattoo on his left arm or shoulder of a bomb with the letter ‘D’.
If you have any information on the case of Donald Ferry Shafer, please contact the Pennsylvania State Police at 570–560–5660.
