Graham Lacher disappeared around 4:40 p.m. on June 6, 2022, after running into the woods while on a supervised walk with a staff member at the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor, Maine.
“What I would really like people to know is that even though it’s been two years, there’s still reason to hope he’s out there,” Graham’s mother, Tammy Scully, told Dateline. “He was in excellent physical health when he disappeared. He is an extremely concerned person, you know, even obsessed, actually, with his own well-being.”
The 37-year-old, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and autism, was admitted to the facility in April 2022. Tammy told Dateline that her son had been hospitalized in psychiatric facilities at least six times in his life and said the treatment at Dorothea Dix was “the best care I have ever received.”
According to Tammy, the center called her shortly after Graham ran into the woods. “We got there as soon as we could and started searching,” she said.
Graham Lacher, Tammy Scully
The facility also contacted the Bangor Police Department. “We went out with as many people as we could gather and sent our canines out to track,” Bangor Police Department PIO Sergeant Jason McAmbley told Dateline. “And I didn’t find it.”
The Bangor Police Department issued a Silver Alert for Graham that same night.
According to Tammy, a detective wasn’t assigned to Graham’s case until four days after he disappeared. Sergeant McAmbley could not confirm how long it took to assign the case to a detective, but admitted that Tammy was “probably right” about the chronology of those events.
Tammy told Dateline that she is extremely frustrated with the system that currently exists to alert the community when a vulnerable adult goes missing. “The main reason they haven’t found him is because people don’t know he’s missing,” she told Dateline. “And why don’t they know that he is missing? Because there is no system that alerts them.”
Sergeant McAmbley addressed Tammy’s concerns to Dateline. “Of course, we have policies and protocols that we follow,” he said. “I can certainly understand his frustration; I think I would be frustrated too if my son walked away from a mental health facility that I took him to for help and, years later, he’s still missing.”
Tammy also told Dateline that the Bangor Police Department did not conduct a web search of a 75-acre wooded area across the street from the rear of the facility where Graham disappeared.
“To do a network search, you need, I don’t know, more people than we can get together,” said Sgt. McAmbley explained.
A few hours after his disappearance, Graham appeared on security footage from a nearby business. Those images were obtained days after he disappeared and are the only confirmed sighting of Graham in the two-year search. McAmbley said more than 80 sightings have been reported to the department in the past two years, but none have been confirmed.
Tammy told Dateline that in August 2022, Graham’s orange hat was found in the woods where he disappeared. McAmbley confirmed that she found the hat, although she could not say when.
Graham Lacher, Tammy Scully
According to Tammy, Graham had not spoken for six months prior to his disappearance. But about two weeks before he disappeared, he “started talking loudly to his psychiatrist, to me, and possibly to one or two other hospital staff members whom he respected,” Tammy said.
According to Tammy, her son chooses not to interact with people most of the time. “The combination of diagnoses turned him into a person who is not only unsocial, due to autism, but also afraid of people, due to the paranoia associated with schizophrenia,” she said.
Graham Lacher, Tammy Scully
Tammy originally asked that people just call the police and not interact with Graham if they saw him. However, she told Dateline that her approach has now changed. “At this point, if anyone sees it, we just want confirmation. So approaching him, taking a photo, recording a video, anything like that,” she said, would be helpful before calling the police.
People can also contact Tammy through the “Missing Graham Lacher” Facebook page. The Bangor Police Department asks that people call their local police department if they see Graham outside of Bangor.
Graham wanted to live in a group home, a place he had chosen to live earlier when he was discharged. However, unsure if that would be possible, he and his family came up with another plan. “I had decided that if the state couldn’t find him a smaller group home, I would come back and live with my husband and I in the apartment attached to our house that I lived in before,” Tammy said. .
That argument was the last time Tammy spoke to her son. She described it as a “pretty lucid conversation.” She said they talked about other things too, things that Graham loved and was excited about. “We had a conversation about his artwork,” she said. “(Graham) had come up with some ideas about how to print, make prints of things. Postcards, tokens… things like that.”
Graham Lacher, Tammy Scully
Tammy described her son as imaginative, an avid reader and a very creative person. “He is, you know, very loved by many, many people,” she said.
“We continue to hope that he is still out there,” he said, but his case needs exposure to be resolved. “We won’t find it unless people recognize it.”
“The case is open and active,” said Sgt. McAmbley told Dateline. “And we continue to follow up on any leads.”
Graham is 5’11” and weighed 190 pounds at the time of his disappearance. He has brown hair and blue eyes and would be 39 years old today.
The family is offering a $10,000 reward for the first clue leading directly to the safe return of Graham Lacher.
Anyone with information regarding Graham’s disappearance is asked to contact their local police department or the Bangor Police Department at (207) 947-7384.
Nicolás Vinuela
[fifu]
Keynote USA
For the Latest Local News, Follow Keynote USA Local on Twitter.