DATE OF LAST CONTACT: 14th March 1988
MISSING FROM: Union Township, Clermont County, Ohio
DATE OF BIRTH: 21st March 1969
AGE AT DISAPPEARANCE: 18
HEIGHT: 5’9
WEIGHT: 150 lbs
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: White male. Brown shoulder length hair, Green eyes.
INVESTIGATING AGENCY: Union Township Police Department & Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation
BASIC CASE FACTS
- Monday 14th March 1988 – Scott Hilbert leaves a note for his parents to say that he has gone to visit friends and will be back later. He never arrives at his destination or returns home.
- 21st March – He is reported missing
- Friday 1st April – The car he was driving is found in the Arizona desert, 1700 miles from his home. The odometer says that it has traveled over 3000 miles in total. Several of Scott’s possessions are scattered around the car and some of the items raise more questions than answers. Other items are found inside which suggest the car traveled across the western states. There is no sign of a struggle but also no sign of Scott. He is never seen again.
It is Spring break 1988 and Scott Hilbert spends the weekend at his family home. On Monday the 14th March his parents return from work to find a note telling them Scott had taken the family car and gone to visit friends and will be back later. Scott never arrived at his friend’s nor did he return home. His parents just assumed he had gone off to enjoy Spring Break, but became worried when they hadn’t heard from him for several weeks and reported him missing. On the 1st April the car Scott had been driving was found 1700 miles away in Arizona, abandoned in the middle of the desert. The odometer suggested the car had traveled over 3000 miles in total and scattered around it were some of Scott’s possessions. The mystery deepened as several things were found in the car that shouldn’t have been there, and things were missing that should have been. There was no sign of Scott and he was never seen again.
SCOTT’S STORY
Scott Allen Hilbert was born on the 21st March 1969 to Lawrence and Edith Hilbert. Along with his older brother, John, Scott lived in the family home at 15 Sleepy Hollow Lane in Union Township, Clermont County, Ohio. It was a large home set back from the road and surrounded by large trees. Union Township is just east of Cincinnati. It is a quiet, rural area with small, close-knit communities and Scott’s parents ran a restaurant. Scott attended Batavia High School and his friends describe him as “Kind, creative and driven”, “Such a nice guy” and “a BEAST on the drums”.
Indeed, Scott had a passion for music, particularly the drums, and in the Fall of 1987 he began his freshman year at Morehead State University in Kentucky where he was studying for a BA in Percussion. The University is about two hours away from his home and Scott lived on campus at Cooper Hall. Not much is known about Scott’s life as a freshman; whether he had adapted to college life or if he had made friends, but he did play in the percussion ensemble. It was Scott’s first Spring Break and rather than spend it with people from his own university, he chose to return home and visit with friends at Ohio State in Columbus. There is a small mention of Scott in the 1988 Morehead University yearbook, where his disappearance is noted alongside an increase in postage rates and a visit from Miss America. This small entry might suggest that Scott hadn’t made much of an impact on his fellow students, though he had only been there a few months.
DISAPPEARANCE
Scott had returned home to visit with his family over the weekend of 12th – 13th March. On Monday the 14th his parents went to work and when they returned they found a note on the refrigerator from Scott that said:
I went to see a friend at Ohio State University. I’ll be back later. Love ya, Scott
Scott had taken some items (about which I will discuss more later) along with the suitcase he had brought with him and set off in one of the family cars – a black 1984 Ford Tempo. Ohio State University is in Columbus, about an hour and a half’s drive from the home. Scott did have plans to meet with a friend there, but he never arrived. The friend just assumed Scott’s plans had changed and didn’t raise any concerns when he didn’t show. His parents didn’t think too much about it either, despite the note saying he’d be back later, they weren’t alarmed when he didn’t return. In fact, in newspaper reports they say that they thought he had gone to Florida to enjoy Spring Break. I don’t know the family dynamics – perhaps it was typical for Scott to go off without checking in – but I do find it odd that his folks wouldn’t have expected a call from him to let them know he was heading to Florida, especially as he was driving one of the family cars. It’s also troubling that his friends never raised the alarm when he didn’t show. Was Scott supposed to be driving to Florida, was he catching a plane? Was he meant to be giving a ride to his friends, had he already booked a hotel room? Presumably Scott had mentioned Florida over the weekend and that is where this idea came from – but still, no one raised the alarm, no one was actively looking for Scott.
It wasn’t until a week had passed that his parents began to worry. It was Scott’s birthday, 21st March – he would have been turning 19 – and they still hadn’t heard anything from him. Scott’s parents never actually mentioned that it was his birthday in any news reports, but I have to assume that this is the reason they began to worry. Presumably they must have expected to hear from him, but they didn’t, so they called his university and discovered that he hadn’t returned after spring break and hadn’t attended any of his classes. They reported him missing that same day.
DISCOVERY OF THE CAR
On Friday the 1st April a police officer from Utah was out dirt-biking with his family in the remote desert of Arizona when he came upon Scott’s car and reported it to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, who managed to trace it via the VIN number to Scott’s dad and learned Scott was missing. The discovery of the car did not help find Scott. In fact it only added to the mystery of his disappearance. The car was located North West of the Cedar Pockets rest stop on I-15. The rest stop no longer exists and although the precise location of the car was never revealed it was on a dirt track somewhere in this vast desert wilderness:
Police did a search of the area around the car and quickly determined that there was no sign of Scott and no signs of foul play around the vehicle. But the position of the vehicle and the strange items around it and in it simply heightened the mystery.
Police noted that it appeared that someone had tried to push the car off a cliff, but that the car had become entangled in a Joshua tree, suggesting that someone tried to destroy it. They also noted that both the front and back license plates had been removed; they never were located. Scattered on the ground around the car were Scott’s university dorm key, a bottle of shampoo identified as being Scott’s, a lug wrench and, perhaps most strangely, a kitchen knife from his parent’s home! Found inside the car was a matchbook from a restaurant in Denver and several pages torn from a Long Beach, California Phone book. The car was forensically processed and one of Scott’s fingerprints was found on the passenger side of the car while several fingerprints from an unidentified person were found elsewhere in the car. That person has never been identified. Finally, and perhaps most bizarrely, the odometer showed that the car had traveled 3800 miles. The car was located 1700 miles from Scott’s home…2100 miles were unaccounted for! The suitcase that Scott was known to have taken with him was not at the scene and was never located.
I am going to spend a little time processing and discussing the discoveries at the car because I believe they have important implications and may offer clues as to what may have happened to Scott. First:
The items found scattered on the ground
- Lug Wrench – this is used to change the tires and was probably already in the car. Although the condition of the tires on the car was never mentioned is it possible that someone had attempted changing a tire on a car that had gotten stuck, rather than trying to push it off a cliff?
- Dorm Key – Only the dorm key was mentioned, yet he must have also had his house keys and car keys with him at the time. Where were these?
- A bottle of shampoo – This one really stuck out to me. It was identified as being Scott’s shampoo – I am not sure how. Would an 18 year old guy think to take shampoo? Well possibly, he had shoulder length hair and since it was identified as Scott’s maybe he used a medicated brand or something. But my instinct tells me that the shampoo should have been in his suitcase. Why on earth was shampoo scattered on the ground with these other items?
- A kitchen knife – This has never been explained. His parents didn’t notice it was missing but positively identified it as being from their home. The type of knife has never been revealed but for what reason did Scott take a knife with him from the kitchen? Well…it depends on the type of knife!
So with the above items in mind let’s go back to the 14th March, to when Scott disappeared. We can recreate the scenario of his departure:
Scott writes a note to his parents specifying “I’ll be back later”. He takes the suitcase with the clothes that he had bought for his stay along with a bottle of shampoo and his dorm key and for some inexplicable reason he grabs a knife from the kitchen, gets in the car and drives off. Remember that in his note Scott specified he’d be back later – not tomorrow, not next week, but “later”. That implies he meant to return later that same day. So why did Scott take his suitcase and all of the clothes he had brought with him for his stay? Why did he need his shampoo? Why on earth did he need a kitchen knife? The only thing that makes sense is that Scott never intended to return home that day.
The items found in the car
Two things that were found in the car itself raised even more questions for the investigators: a matchbook from a restaurant in Denver, Colorado and several pages torn from a Long Beach, California phonebook. It seems like a reasonable assumption that the car had been driven to both these locations – you would likely have to be at the restaurant to get the matchbook and be in the vicinity of Long Beach for access to a phonebook. Remember that the car’s odometer showed it had traveled approximately 3800 miles since Scott left home – might these items explain where the car had been and the unaccounted for mileage?
Below is a map which shows the route if a vehicle were to drive from Scott’s parent’s home to Denver and then to Long Beach. Amazingly, this route passes right by the location where the car was found:
From Scott’s parent’s home to Long Beach via Denver is 2243 miles. Assuming that the car was returning from California at the time then I would add in the distance from Long Beach back to the location the car was found – 381 miles. So we have a total distance of about 2625 miles – that still leaves over a thousand miles unaccounted for! To account for those extra miles that car could have also driven as far north as Oregon, as far south as Texas or anywhere in between. This was one hell of a road trip!
Fingerprints
When the car was processed one of Scott’s fingerprints was found on the passenger side. This may be expected since the car was a family car, however we would also expect to find Scott’s fingerprints on the driver’s side – none were. Instead, on the driver’s side, investigators found fingerprints belonging to an unknown individual. That person has still never been identified which means they have not committed any crimes for which they were fingerprinted or the IAFIS fingerprint database would have registered a hit – it never has.
Finally, let’s consider what wasn’t found at the scene, which may be just as important as what was found.
The license plates had been removed. This could indicate two things. It may be that someone didn’t want the car to be identified. If so, then this person was unaware of the VIN number, which was in fact used to track the car back to Scott’s dad. But also it may be a sign of criminal activity. If someone had already placed different tags from another car on Scott’s car and then used it in a crime, they may have dumped the car and removed the tags.
Other items noticeably absent were those related to Scott himself; his wallet, his ID, his house keys and the car keys and of course, the suitcase full of his clothes that wasn’t found in his parent’s house and therefore was present with Scott himself.
SEARCH AND INVESTIGATION
When Scott was reported missing the police immediately contacted the friends at Ohio State University he was supposed to meet and learned that he had never showed up. The friends hadn’t heard from him and had no idea where he was. It was also discovered that he hadn’t returned to his college. But it was with the discovery of the car that the investigation really heated up.
Both ground and air searches were conducted with helicopters brought in, but no sign of Scott was found. Early on the FBI entered the case since it was a possible kidnapping. They did a character check on Scott and concluded that there was nothing in Scott’s life that would have led him to leave home. They also found no evidence of criminal behaviour and concluded that a kidnapping had not occurred. The case was then taken on by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation as well as the Union Township Police.
Over the years fifteen detectives have worked the case and hundreds of leads have been tracked down. Karen Rebori, of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, said in a 2024 interview that it was her only unsolved case. She went on to say that the case took her in vastly different avenues: “At the time it ranged from a serial killer to narcotic dealers to foreign exchange students and everyone in between”. Police investigated and cleared over seventy individuals over the years.
In 2024 police put out a public plea for information. Detective Wilfert said “Somebody knows something”. He believes that the car is the key to solving the case, but admits that after so many years it is unlikely someone will remember it. Law enforcement lean towards foul play and suspect that narcotics may have been involved somehow, but haven’t said why or how Scott was involved. Detective Wilfert says that he thinks the car was driven erratically across the western states to throw investigators off, I personally don’t buy this idea. It seems a lot of effort for a criminal to make driving nearly 4000 miles just to throw off the scent only to dump the car; they could have dumped it anywhere without needing to drive all that way – how likely is it that a perp is gonna spend money on 4000 miles’ worth of gas just to throw off police!? Not at all. I think it is far more likely that the car was driven with a purpose; possibly by Scott himself. Detective Wilfert said one tip could solve this case, but that tip has never come.
Scott’s family were shattered by his disappearance. The whole family went into therapy to deal with it. Scott’s dad, Lawrence said “It has torn us apart. Life deals some hard blows at times but this is the toughest any of us have ever been through. If Scott were alive, we would have heard from him. We do not expect to find ou son alive. The most difficult thing is not knowing“.
There is no rule book on how to deal with the grief of a missing loved one, but Scott’s family was one of the more unusual ways that I have come across. They quickly concluded that they wouldn’t ever see Scott alive again: “We have accepted the fact our son is dead and we will probably never find his body”, Lawrence Hilbert said in August 1988, just four months after he disappeared. They put up a reward of $10,000 for information on his whereabouts, but withdrew it after only a few months, saying “We have got to bring this thing to a conclusion. It has been hell”. The reward was withdrawn on 30th November. I must admit, I have never been able to understand this. It seems to me that the reward could have been offered indefinitely. Sometimes it can take decades for a person to speak out; withdrawing the reward removes any incentive. Eventually the Hilberts sold their home and left the area, saying that it was too difficult to be surrounded by the memories of Scott. Years later when asked his advice to other parents of missing children, he had this to say:
WHAT HAPPENED TO SCOTT?
Most comments online seem to suspect a carjacking, but I highly doubt this. Carjackers want the car, they don’t generally want to escalate carjacking to murder. It also seems highly unlikely that a carjacker would drive thousands of miles cross country and then abandon it in a desolate wilderness that you cannot walk out of. Other theories involve a drug connection and, while police looked into this angle, there is no evidence that Scott was living a high risk lifestyle in any way. The police suspect foul play, and that certainly cannot be ruled out. But I have to question the motive of someone driving so far, and spending their own money on gas, just to get rid of a car that didn’t even have any signs of foul play. Did Scott pick up a dangerous hitchhiker? Did he allow someone into the car who killed him? Was Scott kidnapped from his own home – does this explain the knife? Maybe, but you would think someone who planned this would have taken their own weapon with them. I cannot think of an option involving foul play that makes sense of the strange things in this case, and that’s probably why investigators got stuck.
Is it possible that Scott simply left of his own volition? I have a hunch that this is exactly what happened. A couple of key elements in this story make me believe this. Firstly; Scott took his suitcase, including his shampoo. Scott left a note saying he would be back later, and yet he took his suitcase with him, why? Because I don’t believe he ever had any intention of being back later. Incidentally, I don’t believe he ever intended to travel to Florida either. Scott’s suitcase was never found, despite various items being found in and around the car, the suitcase with his possessions wasn’t there. I suspect that is because he took it with him.
The second thing to consider is the location of the car. This isn’t a place that someone just walks out from. It is rugged, rocky desert far from any inhabited place. I believe someone else had to also drive to that location in another vehicle in order to drive whoever was driving Scott’s car back. If Scott abandoned the car, then he had someone else’s help to do so.
Thirdly, those fingerprints on the passenger side. It makes sense to me that Scott spent some time in the passenger seat. That car drove almost 4000 miles, it makes sense that two people would share the driving. We know some other unidentified person was in the car, we just don’t know who.
I don’t know why Scott might have left. I don’t know what happened over that weekend with his folks. Maybe he told them he wanted to drop-out of college or something else that didn’t go down well. I have a suspicion that his parents had an idea this is what had happened though. They were so quick to decide that he was dead and that they would never see him again and subsequently withdraw the reward money and move away to start a new life that I think they knew Scott had chosen to disappear and decided not to pursue it. Later they even had a funeral, Lawrence stated that it wasn’t a memorial; it was a full funeral. Scott’s family had put him to rest in their minds. Maybe they needed the closure, but maybe, deep down, they had an inkling he had chosen to leave them. Possibly. This is purely speculation onmy part.
My guess is that Scott left with a friend and drove across the country, eventually settling in Long Beach. He and his friend decided to dump the car and chose Cedar Pockets; likely they had seen it when they stopped at the old rest stop on their way down to California. After removing the license plates and leaving certain items scattered around that he no longer needed and which may have thrown off investigators to make it look like a crime had occurred, his friend drove him back to California.
My guess – Scott moved to California where he carried on with his love of drumming; changing his ID and name and probably his appearance by cutting his hair (no need for shampoo if he shaved his head!). Scott was probably in a band or on the music scene.
A STRANGE COINCIDENCE
There is one more strange coincidence in this case. When Lawrence Hilbert went to collect the car he was told how another car had been found abandoned in the same place four years earlier and that the driver is also missing. That person was David Meacham who disappeared while driving from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City. His car was found with his stuff scattered around and inside but there was no sign of David at the scene. It has been speculated that the two cases may be related due to the similarly odd circumstances but after having received the full police report for David I feel strongly that he committed suicide and his body just hasn’t been recovered. I believe this to be purely a coincidence.
SOURCES
2024 FOX19 report on police asking for tips
2015 LOCAL12 News report on Youtube
The Daily Spectrum, 28th August 1988
Cincinnati Enquirer, November 1989
The Lantern, 27th November 1989
Never Seen Again 