It has been a Southern Arizona mystery for 40 years.
On Jan. 20, 1986, Lorne Landeen went for a run in the desert, never to be seen again.
As his cross-country teammate at Sabino High School, I took a special interest.
"I think he's alive some place because I still look for him," said Lorne's mother, Sharon Landeen, in an interview with KGUN 9 back in 2017.
Sharon held out hope that her son would someday return.
An avid runner, Lorne was a well-liked member of his cross country and track team at Sabino High, where he graduated in 1981.
I knew Lorne well.
He was smart and witty, but reserved.
"They just know, nice guy who ran cross country," said Lee Landeen, Lorne's younger brother.
"A really good sense of humor," added Leslie, Lorne's younger sister.
Laurie Block, Lorne's older sister, said he was respectful and a really good brother, "but we didn't know a whole lot about him," she said. "Who he really was."
None of Lorne's siblings will say they were especially close with him, but they did know that he loved to run.
When he disappeared while on a run in January of 1986, Lorne's roommate was the first to report him missing. His parents began calling his sisters and brother.
"I just said, 'No, I hadn't talked to him recently,'" Leslie told her mom when she asked. "Then she just said, 'Oh, OK, well if you hear from him, let me know right away.'"
"It clicked (that) this was more serious than just he's hanging out with some friends or something like that," Laurie said.
Five days later, Lorne's car was found parked at Sabino High School.
His wallet was left in the vehicle, along with his keys.
Only the car key was missing, which he always laced into his shoe when he went running.
Authorities began a search for the 22-year-old along the running trails surrounding the high school and into nearby Sabino Canyon.
Lee Landeen said different groups would conduct informal stakeouts by where his car was found in the parking lot at Sabino High, "just to kind of make sure if he had gone and was going to come back," he said. "Then someone was going to be there to be able to at least intervene."
As the investigation continued, authorities learned that Lorne's grades at the UA had fallen, and he hadn't registered for his final semester of his senior year.
"If he was troubled, we probably wouldn't have known," Laurie said. "He didn't share a lot of things. He was very quiet."
After a week, the Pima County Sheriff's Department called off the search.
Lorne's mom, Sharon, always thought he may have had a mental health crisis, and he was living somewhere else.
The three siblings agree that something happened to him while out on his run.
"We think that he probably was running, maybe stumbled," Laurie said.
"Either disoriented, not thinking straight," Lee said. "You know how the trails were at Sabino. Something may have happened; an unfortunate accident."
Laurie added, "We just haven't found him; that area is so vast."
Lorne's mother passed away three years ago.
"If nothing else, if we could find out definitively what happened," Leslie said. "But we never got that for her."
Lorne's mom kept important documents on the investigation as well as personal items in a small tan suitcase.
Now, 40 years later, the Landeens look through his wallet and wonder what happened to their brother.
"Families either pull together or they spread apart," Lee said.
"It pulled us together," Laurie said.
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Pat Parris is an anchor and reporter for KGUN 9. He is a graduate of Sabino High School where he was the 1982 high school state track champion in the 800 meters. While in high school and college, he worked part-time in the KGUN 9 newsroom. Share your story ideas and important issues with Pat by emailing pat.parris@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
