Joe Pichler vanished at age 18 on January 5, 2006, following a night out with friends in Bremerton, Washington — and no one knows exactly what happened to this day.
Joe Pichler was a child actor from Bremerton, Washington, who appeared in movies like Varsity Blues and two installments of the Beethoven franchise in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He took a break from Hollywood as a teenager to finish high school in his hometown, but he always intended to return to the big screen.
By 2006, Pichler was 18 and living on his own after graduation. He had a full-time job as a telephone technician, a pet guinea pig, and a plan to move back to Los Angeles after he had his braces removed. But before he had the chance, Joe Pichler vanished.
He spent the evening of January 4, 2006, playing cards and drinking at a small get-together, where he appeared to be in good spirits. Around 4:15 the next morning, though, he called one of his friends crying. Pichler was reportedly “inconsolable,” and he said that he would call back in an hour. He never did — and nobody ever saw him again.
Paramount PicturesJoe Pichler played Kyle Moxon, the younger brother of the star football player in Varsity Blues.
When Pichler’s family couldn’t get in touch with him that day, his brother went to his apartment to see if he was home. The door was unlocked and the lights were on, but Joe Pichler was nowhere to be found.
Four days later, his car was found abandoned in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant about a half-mile from a body of water called the Port Washington Narrows. Inside, investigators found a note that contained some lines of poetry, a list of belongings Pichler wanted his younger brother to have, and a few scribbled thoughts that were seemingly unrelated, such as Pichler’s desire to be a “stronger brother.”
The police were convinced that it was a suicide note and that Pichler had jumped off a nearby bridge. But his family was adamant that he wouldn’t have killed himself.
His mother, Kathy, complained that the detectives had botched the investigation from the beginning, claiming they failed to fingerprint Pichler’s car and only spent a few minutes in his apartment. She believed that foul play was involved in her son’s disappearance, and she wanted answers.
Sadly, those answers never came. It’s been 20 years since Joe Pichler disappeared, and investigators have come no closer to solving the case. His body never turned up, and nobody has come forward with additional leads.
Rumors have circulated among online sleuths about drugs, a robbery, and a mysterious MySpace page, and while most people agree that he died by suicide, Pichler’s family remains convinced that something far more sinister occurred that January night.
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