West Hartford man, 18, rents a car, disappears without a trace
Martin Alan Miller has been missing since May 1980
Raymond and Florence Miller went away for Memorial Day Weekend in May 1980. When they returned to their West Hartford home, their 18-year-old son had disappeared.
Martin Alan Miller, the youngest of three children, had cleared out his room of most personal belongings and removed his trophies and all pictures of himself. His parents also learned he had given his two-week notice at McDonald’s, where he had been working, removed $600 from his bank account and told his friends he was leaving Connecticut for California.
“I thought of many possibilities of why he left,” Raymond Miller told the New Britain Herald newspaper four years later. “They don’t make much sense.”
Martin Miller left his $14,000 Porsche at home and gave away his $400 bicycle to a friend. He then rented a car through AVIS on May 25, which was returned in Huntsville, Alabama, on June 4, 1980. Officials say the car had been driven about 1,700 miles when returned. The most direct route from West Hartford to Huntsville is just over 1,000 miles.
Nobody knows what route the car took to get there. It is also unclear if Martin was even the person who returned the car.
“The only things I know about Martin are that he used to be very good at chess, and that he was a very, very smart guy,” wrote his niece, Rachel Miller, on an Ancestry.com message board in 2013, where she was hoping to find more information about her missing uncle. “I have never met my uncle – I wasn't even alive when he vanished – but I still want him to know that I love him, that his father loved him, and that my father still loves him.”
Raymond Miller at the time contacted police, several government agencies like the FBI and the IRS, mystics, religious cults, a private missing children’s bureau and medical professionals. But because Martin was over 18, there was very little anyone could do to help him.
The IRS and the Social Security Administration promised to put a letter in their files that Raymond wrote to his son, saying if Martin ever contacted them and provided an updated address, they would forward this letter to him. But confidentiality rules would prevent them from letting Raymond know whether this ever happened.
Raymond Miller in his newspaper interview expressed frustration that if someone wants to disappear voluntarily, there is very little anyone can do. But he also speculated that his son may have been “brainwashed” or was otherwise unable to communicate.
“It’s too bizarre,” Miller told the New Britain Herald. “I find it difficult to believe that Martin’s lack of communication is voluntary.”
Martin Miller has now been missing for over four decades. And the family is no closer to getting answers.
Miller is Caucasian and has sandy brown hair and hazel eyes. He was about 5-foot-10 inches tall at the time of his disappearance. His front teeth are crowded and crooked, and he has an appendectomy scar on his stomach. He would be 62 years old today, if he is still alive.
Anyone with information about Miller’s disappearance or his whereabouts is asked to call the West Hartford Police Department at 860-523-5203.