Father Vanishes Under Strange Circumstances: Where is Curtis Crosby?

Curtis Crosby was the man everyone knew and loved. You couldn’t miss him either. Curtis had a big smile, the type of smile that showed on his whole face.

Curtis had some rough times, yet he never stopped smiling.

In 2005, Curtis, then living in Louisiana, was displaced and separated from his family after Hurricane Katrina devastated that region of the United States.

For one year he was separated from his adult children. No one knew where anyone was. Cell phones were lost or damaged and phone numbers were misplaced. It was 2006 when Curtis finally tracked down a family member and called them to let them know he had survived, and he was living in Salt Lake City, Utah now.

Around Thanksgiving, in 2015, authorities were called to a vacant building for someone trespassing. Turns out it had been Curtis camping out in there. He was asked to leave, but he left his belongings behind, which is how authorities learned it was Curtis.

This didn’t make sense, Curtis had an apartment just five blocks down the road.

That Christmas, his family grew very concerned when they couldn’t reach Curtis and he hadn’t contacted them. He had always stayed in touch with family, despite living in Utah now.

It was then that they decided to officially report Curtis as missing.

Clues were few and far between as to where Curtis had disappeared to. His daughters even flew to Salt Lake to help in the physical searches for their father.

But they never found him.

Curtis Crosby had disappeared.

This story takes us to Salt Lake City, Utah, and tells the tragic story of a 59-year-old man who had already been through so much.

Most everyone in the United States remembers Hurricane Katrina.

Katrina made landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana on August 29, 2005. The damage was devastating. The death toll was even worse. 1,833 fatalities were eventually confirmed as a result of Katrina.

The area suffered billions of dollars in damage, and even now, in 2025, there are still signs of the hurricane in southern Louisiana. The infrastructure and economy were impacted so badly, that they are still rebuilding.

The storm caused flooding and storm surges that wreaked the most damage.

Curtis Crosby was rescued that day via a helicopter. He was separated from everyone, and many of the evacuees were taken to other states.

Somehow, Curtis ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah.

When he was finally reunited with his family a year later, he would tell them tales of how much he loved it there. It was so beautiful he said, and the people had been wonderful to him.

Curtis worked with the homeless population there and was very active with several community outreach programs. He focused on helping the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina, as well as the less fortunate.

He quickly became a well-known community figure there in South Salt Lake, and everyone loved Curtis.

Despite now living states away from most of his family, Curtis did keep in touch with them. If not regularly, at least occasionally.

One of his daughters recalls calling her father in October 2014. It was the anniversary of her mother’s passing and she wanted to talk to her father that day. It would bring her comfort.

It was also the last day she would speak with him.

That conversation was normal, for the most part, but she does remember him being rushed. He was in a hurry for some reason, and the call was cut short.

She wouldn’t speak to him again.

Around Thanksgiving, a landlord called law enforcement to report a man trespassing in one of his empty buildings. A man had set up a camp of sorts and was sleeping in this building.

An officer escorted Curtis back to his apartment, just five blocks down the street.

Now there are a lot of unanswered questions revolving around this incident.

• Why was he sleeping out in an empty building?
• What was his reasoning to the officers? I’m sure they asked him, right?
• What did the officers have to say about this encounter with Curtis?

As the weeks went by, no one in the family heard from Curtis. They tried to reach out to him occasionally, with no luck. Their worry grew with each unanswered call, but they hoped that he was just busy with his outreach work and his volunteering.

It would be Christmas that year when his family’s concern escalated enough that they knew to had to call authorities and report Curtis as missing.

Curtis might have been known to go out of town for brief periods of time, but he would never miss calling the family on Christmas Day. They were convinced that something was very wrong.

It was at this point that they learned about the incident around Thanksgiving. It didn’t make any sense to them why Curtis would be in this empty building.

Curtis was loved by everyone. He was healthy and in good shape as far as everyone knew, with no physical or mental impairments.

He had a perfectly good apartment, there was no reason to be living on the streets.

Searches around the area turned up no signs of Curtis. Law enforcement turned to the media to help get his photo out and ask the public for help. Tips came in, as did possible sightings of Curtis.

Some said they had seen him walking the streets around South Salt Lake. Others said he was living in a homeless encampment. All the tips that came in were thoroughly checked out, but nothing led to Curtis. The sightings were determined to not be Curtis.

Curtis’ daughters flew to Salt Lake City to help search for their father. They had lost their mother four years earlier, and they didn’t want to lose their father.

They started hanging up flyers and talking to people around the neighborhood that Curtis lived in.

From that, they learned some troubling news.

A couple of the neighbors told them that in the weeks leading up to his disappearance, Curtis had been having some troubles. They had found him wandering the streets near his apartment, seemingly lost. He couldn’t remember how to go get home.

This happened a few times, and each time a neighbor walked him back home.

Of course, this was extremely troubling for his daughters. They had not known Curtis was having these types of issues. Was this due to an illness? An injury? Or, was this the beginning of dementia?

This might explain Curtis taking up camp in the abandoned building. Perhaps he couldn’t remember where he lived and how to get there.

Curtis was 59 years old. The majority of dementia patients are over the age of 65, so Curtis was young for these kinds of symptoms. Only 5% of dementia patients are under the age of 65, so his family wasn’t prepared for this kind of news. Plus, they hadn’t detected any signs of this themselves so the news was not just worrisome of course, but shocking.

Still, law enforcement and family uncovered no clues to lead them to Curtis’s whereabouts, and the tips and leads coming in weren’t helpful either.

With months and months going by without any sign of their father, his daughters decided to hire a private investigator.

This investigator hit the ground running in Salt Lake City and soon announced that he believed that Curtis was the victim of foul play. He also said that he thought Curtis was likely hiding out from someone when he was found in that empty building, and the officers escorting him home, actually allowed the perpetrators to find him.

He allegedly found witnesses who said they saw Curtis being forced into a car by five men. It appeared to be against his will.

But nothing else was learned about this.

The investigator put the information out there hoping to get additional leads or witnesses to come forward.

No additional information came in.

Curtis Crosby has been missing now for eleven years. Authorities aren’t sure if he is living somewhere, possibly among the homeless, or if something bad happened to him.

The Utah Cold Case Coalition has put up a $3000 reward for information on Curtis Crosby’s disappearance.

Curtis Crosby survived Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters to hit the United States in recent history.

He ended up across the country, living in Salt Lake City, Utah, and dedicated his life to helping other victims of Katrina and the less fortunate in and around the city.

Curtis loved his family and certainly would have never wanted to worry them.

Salt Lake City, Utah, has about the highest number of homeless people in the state. There are about 2,000 homeless people in the city, and that number continues to grow slightly each year.

Those numbers are likely low due to unreported homelessness as well.

Could Curtis Crosby be among those living in the streets?

Or, did something sinister happen to Curtis as the private investigator believes?

What do you think happened to Curtis Crosby?

Curtis is described as a black male, standing 5’10” and weighing around 200 pounds, when he was last seen in November 2014.

He was 59 years old, with grey hair and brown eyes. His most notable feature was his big smile. It’s possible he might have facial hair.

Anyone with any information on the whereabouts of Curtis Crosby is asked to contact the South Salt Lake City Police Department at 801–412–3600.