On December 23, 2013, with the Christmas holiday fast approaching, the Delaware County, Iowa Sheriff’s Office received a call.
Brian Burns, 55 at the time and known to many locals by the nickname “Farmer,” had not been seen in several days.
“There was about a four day lapse before he was reported missing to law enforcement,” Delaware County Sheriff John LeClere told Dateline NBC.
Burns lived on a family-owned farm in Manchester, Iowa. He worked part time and often socialized at a nearby golf course.
Family members describe Burns as an “easy going guy that could joke around with you.” Theresa Burns, Burns’s sister-in-law, told Dateline their family initially hoped he would soon show up around town, as he often did.
But Brian has not been seen or heard from since. And as another Christmas quickly approaches, the Burns family simply wants to know what became of him.
“I can’t see him packing up and just leaving,” Theresa told Dateline NBC. “He was a super-nice guy. Everybody in town knew him.”
Authorities believe Burns disappeared with nothing but the clothes on his back.
“We did a pretty extensive search in the area between his house and the golf course, where he typically would be,” Sheriff LeClere told Dateline NBC. “He did not have a cellphone, vehicle, credit cards, or any type of items that you can typically track. That made this case very difficult to follow up on.”
Facing unusually snowy circumstances, search crews enlisted the help of a local snowmobile club to canvas the area.
Mike Ryan, Coordinator of Delaware County Emergency Management, helped initiate the search efforts at the time.
“We had about 50-60 snowmobilers and four-wheelers go out to search,” Ryan told Dateline NBC. “We assumed Burns had been walking [to work], but we found no traces of him.”
Snow continued to fall and the Christmas holiday passed, but there was still no sign of Burns.
“This is one of those cases that is difficult to categorize,” said Sheriff LeClere. “It could be foul play; it could be a chosen absence. We really have a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to this.”
At one point, a tip came in to the Emergency Management office that Burns had perhaps fallen into an icy lake. Mike Ryan, Sheriff LeClere, and members of the local fire department worked together to follow up.
“When we got that tip, we went out, drilled a series of holes [in the lake] and then lowered an ice fishing camera,” said Mike Ryan. “We could rotate that around 360 degrees to see if there was anything beneath the ice. But that came back negative.”
As another anniversary of Brian’s disappearance nears, authorities are still riddled with uncertainty as to the fate of Burns.
“We discuss this case periodically and think of what we might do and what we might try, but in this case we aren’t really coming up with any fresh ideas,” said Sheriff LeClere.
The Burns family is now preparing for another holiday missing “Farmer.”
“I hope we can find him,” Theresa Burns told Dateline NBC. “I would give him a great big hug and tell him not to be running away like that if we did.”
If you have any information about this case, please call the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office at (563) 927-3135 or Delaware County Emergency Management at 563-923-2361.