A missing father, murdered son, and a search for answers
To his family and friends, Frederick Richardson Sr. was “Boo-Boo,” a father, brother and loving and free-spirited man who lived on Noble Avenue in Bridgeport with his son.
One day, he simply disappeared. His blue 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee was later found abandoned between exits 9 and 10 on Interstate 95. Richardson’s keys, wallet, cellphone and groceries were still in the car.
“Everything was there but him,” his sister Patricia Richardson-Wooten told the Stamford Advocate.
Nearly 10 years later, there’s been little new information to shed light on what happened.
Richardson, 69, was last seen alive on May 8 or early-morning hours of May 9, 2016, in Stamford, according to Bridgeport police. His car was found near the Stamford-Darien line. It was taken into police custody and later returned to the family.
A Silver Alert was issued on May 10.
Richardson was a regular visitor at Dwight Eisenhower Senior Citizen Center in Bridgeport, and staff there said he last visited on May 6.
After Richardson disappeared, his son Fredrick Richardson Jr. put up missing person flyers around the Bridgeport neighborhood near Washington Park. The son has been described in news reports as a “tireless advocate” for finding out what happened to his father. The two had been living together in a multi-family home since 2015, neighbors told the Connecticut Post.
But just three months after the disappearance – in August 2016 – 37-year-old Frederick Richardson Jr. was shot and killed outside his home. He had been sitting in a parked vehicle with another person, who was also injured in the shooting. Richardson Jr. was pronounced dead at Bridgeport Hospital just after 11 p.m. on Aug. 17, 2016.
Police do not know if the shooting is related to the elder Richardson’s disappearance. Neither case has been solved.
“He liked to have deep, meaningful conversations,” Richardson-Wooten told the Advocate about her brother. “He always had some kind of nugget of wisdom to drop on you.”
Richardson Sr. was last seen wearing a brown baseball cap, black zip-up jacket and brown sweatpants. He is described as a black man with brown eyes, about 5-foot-9, weighing about 240 pounds. At the time of his disappearance, he was bald with some gray hair but had both a mustache and a beard with silver tones. He was also wearing dentures, according to his NamUs missing persons entry.
If he is still alive today, Richardson would be 79 years old.
Anyone who may have information related to his disappearance, or his son’s killing, is asked to call Bridgeport police at 203-581-5245.