Warren Newcomer
Dave Newcomer tried to make Christmas the best he could for his kids.
But after opening presents and eating dinner, he and seven family members went out into the snow once more to search for his 80-year-old dad, who has been missing from his Manheim home since Wednesday.
The only problem is the Newcomers don't know where to look.
"I have no clue," Newcomer said, "no idea."
Warren Newcomer disappeared Wednesday from the home he shares with his daughter, Andrea, on Hart Street in the northern part of the borough.
Andrea Newcomer last saw her dad Wednesday morning, when he was sitting in their living room. But later in the afternoon, when she went to find him, he was no longer there.
She called her brother and the two drove around to look for their father but had no luck. Growing increasingly worried, they called police.
A state police helicopter, with a searchlight, used up an entire tank of fuel searching for Newcomer Wednesday night, said Manheim Police Patrolman Joseph Stauffer.
Local fire companies and police officers searched for him, too.
The next day, bloodhounds from the Red Rose K-9 Search & Rescue Team sniffed out a possible trail on Christmas Eve, using scent from an article of Newcomer's clothing, but the trail went cold.
The family checked in with Newcomer's favorite restaurant, the Baron's Diner on Route 72. They checked with relatives.
They went to Newcomer's church, St. Paul's United Church of Christ.
They even went to the cemetery where Newcomer's beloved late wife, Lillian, is buried.
"There were no footprints leading up to the gravesite," Dave Newcomer said of the undisturbed snow.
No trace of Warren Newcomer has been found anywhere during a time when the weather has been both frigid and rainy.
Here is what the family and authorities know about Newcomer's disappearance:
• He took off on foot, though he has a car.
• The gray-haired man, who wears glasses, put on a blue coat and was last seen wearing dark pants and a light-colored shirt. He is 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs about 130 pounds.
• He was taking medication for depression and other emotional problems, but was not confused or disoriented.
Though searchers did not know what direction Newcomer walked when he left home, Stauffer spent his Christmas morning shift trying to eliminate possibilities.
The police officer walked through the snow in the area of Sporting Hill and Sun Hill Road, and tramped up and down two sets of railway beds.
State police had searched the area north of the borough and in the Mt. Gretna and Cornwall area. The bloodhounds followed a trail, using a scent from one of Newcomer's socks, through the northwestern part of the borough.
The dogs also searched the area near the Lancaster Junction Recreation Trail, after someone reported seeing an elderly man there.
And the bloodhounds searched the area near the Rohrerstown Elementary School, after someone else reported seeing an elderly man there.
Nothing.
"I'm kind of at a loss," the patrolman said.
So is Newcomer's family.
"I'll tell you what, I just don't know," Dave Newcomer said.
Warren Newcomer was retired from Raymark in Manheim. He was a religious man who often read the Bible.
The last passage he read was about David and Goliath, leaving a bookmark there.
The elder Newcomer also left his home on foot about a year ago but the family found him after a neighbor said they saw him walking north on Route 72. A family member picked him up in Elstonville.
His son wonders if his dad was feeling extra blue this week.
"Maybe it was because my mom wasn't around," he said. "The holidays _ -- that was pretty rough. He was thinking about her, missing her."
Manheim Borough Police officers continue to patrol and actively search for Newcomer.
Stauffer suggests that anyone with a wooded property near Manheim take a walk around it, to check for Newcomer.
The family is hoping and waiting and wondering.
"I don't know what happened to him," Dave Newcomer said. "Just something made him run off."