Nieko Lisi

[KFinn]

Ten years ago, a teenager from my neck of the woods went missing.  He/his body has never been found.  The town he lived in, Jasper (my alma mater,) is literally the type of town where if you blink your eyes, you will miss it.  The school is surrounded on two sides by cow pastures and the third side is a cemetery.  This is a rural farming town where the majority of the families who live there have small family owned farms that have been there for generations.  We have a large Amish community there.  It is a very sleepy little place.

Nieko Lisi disappeared, after telling his folks he was going to leave the area to possibly go camping.  He told people he was using his grandfather's truck, but no one seems to really know where the truck came from (his grandfather did not have a truck.)  For some reason, he drove from our area in western, NY to Buffalo and then to Michigan to drop a friend off at his home (although he was never seen in the truck in Mkchigan) and then it is assumed he drove to Tennessee.  That is where the trail went cold.  Days later, his drivers license was found in a town fifteen minutes from Jasper (Hornell) and a good samaritan mailed it back to his home address.  Years later, they found his truck, stripped of all parts, inside a garage in Tennessee.  The family and authorities believe foul play was involved but there is simply so little information about his last days.  If anyone ever has the ability to look into this, I know it would help give his family some closure.  There is more info out there on the internet, but here us his Charley Project entry. 

https://charleyproject.org/case/nieko-anthony-lisi

[Investigator]

First question, can we pin down when he was in different locations and the times he was there?  In other words, let's separate what's known from what's suspected.  One thing that comes to mind is that he stole a truck and wanted to do something, perhaps just get out of the area for a while, perhaps to commit a crime (like moving drugs for a someone or a gang), perhaps he had a psychological issue, or something along these lines.  Another idea is that he wanted to commit suicide but didn't want his family to know, due to shame or some other issue.  How do we know he was connected to the stripped truck?  Who put forth that claim in the first place?  It sounds like another possibility is that a "friend" (perhaps some sort of "partner in crime") made up the story after doing something to Nieko, and Nieko never left the area around Jasper.  All this is related only to what you stated in your post.

[KFinn]

First question, can we pin down when he was in different locations and the times he was there?  In other words, let's separate what's known from what's suspected.  One thing that comes to mind is that he stole a truck and wanted to do something, perhaps just get out of the area for a while, perhaps to commit a crime (like moving drugs for a someone or a gang), perhaps he had a psychological issue, or something along these lines.  Another idea is that he wanted to commit suicide but didn't want his family to know, due to shame or some other issue.  How do we know he was connected to the stripped truck?  Who put forth that claim in the first place?  It sounds like another possibility is that a "friend" (perhaps some sort of "partner in crime") made up the story after doing something to Nieko, and Nieko never left the area around Jasper.  All this is related only to what you stated in your post.

The timeline is sketchy.  The friend whom he dropped off in Michigan was questioned as soon as Lisi was reported missing (so within days.)  After his questioning, the police put him on a psych hold for evaluation and upon discharge, the friend immediately went home and committed suicide.  The last verified sighting of Lisi was at the friend's uncles house when Lisi said the truck was his grandfathers.  No one saw him in the truck between NY and Michigan.  Then the truck wound up in Tennessee and was found years later, stripped.  But no one has verified that Lisi drove it to Tennessee...at the same time, it almost had to be Lisi who drove there because its a town where he once lived. 

[Investigator]

Sounds like the friend had something to do with his death, though not necessarily on purpose.  You might want to write up one or more chronology of events, one of things known for sure, and at least another with things that seem likely.  This can often help the mind "piece things together" without getting stuck on one notion.