By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
For the past few weeks, the Independent has continued to bring its readers the news about an Elmhurst man who has been missing for nearly a month now. Jake Cefolia, 49, is senior vice president of sales and marketing for United Airlines, which has put out an appeal on the UA website to urge anyone with information about Cefolia or the incident to please step forward.
He was last seen on Aug. 6 and reported missing on Aug. 8. At press time, Cefolia had still not been found.
Shortly after he was reported missing, Cefolia’s vehicle was located near the Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in Lemont, where he often went for a run. Assuming something may have happened to him during a run, a search was launched of the Forest Preserve.
Illinois law enforcement, local police, K-9 units and more than 100 volunteers came out to search for him.
Cefolia’s friends and family have organized separate searches on their own for him and two different Facebook pages have been established. More than 1600 persons have already joined the Facebook efforts to locate Cefolia.
More details emerge from UA
At the United Airlines web site, more information has been provided about Cefolia, in that it has now been 20 days since he went missing, and there still has been no sign of him.
The UA web site offered some further information that wasn’t previously available, which makes this entire situation “even stranger,” according to UA officials:
• On Thursday, Aug. 6, Cefolia returned from California and was seen at home by family and coworkers.
• On Friday, Aug. 7, Cefolia missed a corporate event, however, he was seen on video getting gas at around 10 a.m., and was also seen on video entering Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve, wearing hiking boots and khakis (which is NOT typically what a person would wear if he was going on a jog).
• He didn’t take any traceable devices with him, as his cell phone and Apple Watch were both found at home.
• On Saturday, Aug. 8, Cefolia was reported missing.
• On Monday, Aug. 10, Cefolia’s family hired a private investigator.
• On Friday, Aug. 14 and Saturday, Aug. 15, extensive searches of the Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve were carried out.
• During the searches, articles of clothing were found, which were turned over to police. The found shoes were confirmed not to be Cefolia’s, but it’s not clear if a shirt that was found belonged to him.
• A rotting smell was also reported, but that turned out to be a decaying deer.
• Cefolia was trying to sell his Elmhurst home. It hit the market on June 16, had a price reduction on July 16, and had a further price reduction on Aug. 4, two days before he went missing. It is unknown whether or not this information is significant to his disappearance.
The Elmhurst Police Department was unable to comment on the ongoing investigation, other than to say they were working as hard as they could to reunite Mr. Cefolia with his family.
Anyone with information about Cefolia is asked to call the Elmhurst Police Department at 630-530-3050.
For updates to this story, visit theindependentnewspapers.com.
