Milwaukee's Missing Men

BREAKING NEWS 1/11/13: Body recovered by divers from the partially frozen waters of Cedar Creek in the Milwaukee area is that of 24-year-old Robert Steinbrecker, officials are now saying. Steinbrecker ran away from his two friends sometime in the early morning hours of December 27th 2012 and has not been seen nor heard from since.

Police state they received a tip sometime this morning from a citizen who allegedly spotted the young man's green and gold cap as well as other identifying items in the creek near where they happened to be walking. (Read the original report below or go here for this case update and any others currently pending.)


In addition to 24-year-old Nick Wilcox vanishing from downtown Milwaukee after being ejected by bar bouncers on New Year's eve, people are also desperately searching for a young man in nearby Ozaukee County's town of Cedarburg.

 

Robert Steinbrecker, 24, disappeared on December 27th.

Undersheriff Jim Johnson says on that day Steinbrecker and friends left a local pub named Maxwell’s at approximately 2:00 AM and were headed north from there along Cedar Creek Road when Steinbrecker decided to run up ahead and vanished from view.

However, his friends were able to make cell phone contact with him about a half-hour later at around 2:40 AM and at that point they all agreed to meet up again on Sheboygan Road. But Steinbrecker never made it.

“He wasn’t exactly sure where he was," the undersheriff explains. "They were trying to meet on Sheboygan Road, but they never met up.”

That was the last anyone heard from Steinbrecker. Since then several agencies have been searching the Cedar Creek locale for him, but say they've found nothing. They are now asking residents in this region to check their property for any signs of the young man, if only a piece of clothing or footprints.

Some locals familar with this stretch of terrain suspect that Steinbrecker probably lost his bearings in the dark and overshot Sheboygan Road, ending up on Highway 60 instead.

What happened to him after he reached that spot though still remains a mystery.

Robert Steinbrecker is described as a white male, about six feet tall and 170 pounds, with red, shoulder-length hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a dark-green, heavy parka, a Packers knit hat, black tennis shoes, an off-white button-up shirt with a black t-shirt underneath, and brown pants.

Anyone with information about Steinbrecker’s whereabouts is urged to call the Ozaukee County Sheriff's office at 262-284-7172. Callers are also asked to reference incident #12-35179.

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*NOTICE January 10th: Problem cited below has been resolved--I can once again reply to your comments -- WOOT!

NOTICE dated January 8, 2013: Google Blogspot is having technical difficulties with the Admin reply feature for certain browser systems this week, and is "working to correct this issue". This glitch does not deter visitors from posting here, however. Below is the answer to the reader comments posted prior to the disruption:

@ Anonymous websleuth

Great site--thank you for the invitation and for the compliments too. Maybe the admins over there are taking down your excerpts from Killing Killers because they think my content is too grisly...? There is usually a lot of forensic data attached to my work and writings.

If it's fear of infringement, that's unfortunate because I want the info I post on this blog to be public. The more knowledge that is shared here the greater the heat on the 'Smiley' crew.

(NOTE: Aside from my books, of course, the articles I do for Crime Magazine are the only ones where cutting and pasting into forum threads may be prohibited--I'm a paid contributor on CM and in return they have exclusive rights to online publication. I just retain the print copy rights to that content. Which is fair, I think.)

Hey, if you (and anyone else) downloaded THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN from Amazon, please consider writing a review of the book at that webstore so others interested in this case can more readily find my overview and analysis of it. The comments you posted above are perfect, by the way, and, once again, I thank you for them!

Also, there are important updates to the Matt Ward 'drowning' which occurred in Indianapolis October 2012. That info was compiled in an editorial piece titled 'BLOOD ALCOHOL' and has just gone live on Crime Magazine's front page yesterday. Think you'll be interested in the new revelations; click HERE and it should take you right to it.

@ Anonymous January 6 - Yes, it is indeed "evil", for sure, but if we all stay focused and unrelentingly give chase, we can put an end to these disappearances and drownings soon. And get all the smartass 'Smiley' killers behind bars as well.

Thank you, everyone, for your posts-- E.R.