This article was produced by Kay Fate, kfate@postbulletin.com
Friends of the Byron family whose teenage son has been missing for eight weeks are offering a $1,000 reward for his return.
Noah Graddy, 15, was reported as a missing person by his parents on Jan. 21. He was last seen that day “by pure coincidence,” by a different group of people, said Sgt. Tom Claymon of the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office.
Noah hasn’t contacted friends or family since then; authorities are now calling his disappearance “suspicious.”
On Jan. 16, a report was filed about the theft of money from the Graddy home, Claymon said, with the suspicion that perhaps Noah had taken the cash.
“His parents didn’t wish to file him missing at that time,” Claymon said. “They thought he’d show back up, and they’d deal with it when he got home.”
When law enforcement first went looking for Noah, it was in connection with the theft, not as a missing person.
His parents notified authorities again on Jan. 21 to file the missing persons report. Early investigation revealed several people had seen him that day.
“To the best of our knowledge, there’s been no sightings since,” Claymon said. Noah didn’t have a bank account or driver’s license, so those traditional avenues of tracking people are useless, he said.
The Byron High School student was last seen by “a group of friends who say they were with him,” Claymon said. It’s believed he left alone from a residence in Kasson, wearing blue jeans, a gray sweatshirt and a black/purple/gray checkered snowboarding jacket.
Officials now are “combing through piles of information, through leads and interviews,” Claymon said. “It’s a very labor-intensive process” as they try to establish a timeline that may lead them to Noah.
“It’s tedious,” he said. “For every hour we’re out in the community, we’re probably putting 10 hours in behind the scenes, between meetings, the forensics and all the other aspects involved in the investigation.”
Fliers with Noah’s photo and information about the disappearance are posted throughout the area.
“His family has been very diligent with the Facebook community,” Claymon said, posting fliers and making people aware of the case.
So, could Noah have been kidnapped? Had an accident? Simply run away?
“This is the very conversation we had this morning,” Claymon said. “We’ve been briefing very regularly on this, and one of the things we take great steps to do is not rule anything out. We want to avoid a narrow focus, so we’re looking at any and all possibilities with this case.”
There are no suspects, he said, “because we haven’t narrowed it down to if there even could be a suspect. For all practical purposes, we don’t know that he didn’t have a medical emergency. We don’t even know that he’s not laying on somebody’s couch.”
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is also part of the investigation, as are members of the Kasson Police Department and Dodge County Sheriff’s Office.
“Nothing has been ruled in or ruled out,” Claymon said. “Nothing. It’s wide open. We don’t want to become so focused on one aspect only to find out down the road that it was something totally different.”
Anyone with information about Noah’s whereabouts or who has information about his disappearance is asked to call 328-6800 or CrimeStoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
Callers may remain anonymous.
