Missing Person Joseph Sarni of Lansdale

LANSDALE — After three or four days, the people who knew Joseph Sarni the best began to worry.
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The last time anyone saw the 38-year-old Walnut Street resident was July 8.
On Thursday evening, a group of about 14 concerned family and friends of Sarni’s gathered near the intersection of Sixth and Walnut streets to canvass the neighborhood and circulate some of the 200 fliers they had printed up.
“He’s probably one of the nicest guys you could meet,” said John Hurst, who worked with Sarni at two different Lansdale auto detail businesses.
Sarni’s boss at Lansdale Auto Recon, Jamie Posavec, called him “my right hand man for a long time.”
The fliers being circulated state that foul play is suspected. Several of Sarni’s friends commented that he seemed nervous and scared right before he disappeared.
“He seemed like he was ready to go out somewhere,” said a tearful Judy Weiner, a friend who was one of the people who last reported seeing him. She said that he stayed overnight at her residence because it was hot and she had air conditioning.
Sarni’s asthma inhaler, his backpack and an urn containing the ashes of his mother — items he would never leave without, according to his sister, Jaime Parsons of Telford — were found in his unlocked apartment.
“The apartment was left the way that you would leave it if you were going to go outside, if somebody called you and said ‘meet me outside,’ or you were going to go outside and have a cigarette” she said. “His food was out, his drink was on the floor next to the bed.”
Calls placed to his cell phone have all gone to voice mail.
Lansdale Police have been investigating Sarni’s disappearance since Monday, have contacted other police departments in an extended area, and entered Sarni into a national missing person database, police said.
Sarni’s sister, Jaime Parsons, said that a private dog search of the neighborhood “did well,” but declined to go into more detail. She said that her brother may have been assaulted during the last week of June.
Meanwhile, Matthew Tartaglia, a sergeant with the U.S. Search and Rescue Task Force, who said he knew Sarni through an outreach program from his church, offered to do an additional dog search. “For this to happen this way, something is wrong,” Tartaglia said, lamenting that search and rescue is usually the last agency called for an missing person investigation. He said that he would contact police about the search.
“I think my brother is either hurt or worse,” Parsons said, hoping to find a clue like a piece of his wallet or his watch or sunglasses. “He’s had a lot of hard times in his life and he’s come a long way and he doesn’t deserve this.”
According to a press release from Lansdale Police, interviews have been conducted with family, friends and co-workers.
A Facebook group page dedicated to finding Sarni described him as well-mannered, soft spoken and having tattoos on both arms and a Celtic heart tattoo on the right side of his chest.
He is approximately 5’8” with hazel eyes and brown hair. The flier says that he is between 180 and 190 pounds. He has a scar under each eye and tattoos on both arms. Experienced in auto detailing, landscaping and pool cleaning, he does not own a vehicle and may be on foot or on a bicycle, police said.
Anyone with information on Sarni’s whereabouts is asked to please contact the Lansdale Police Department at (215) 368-1801.