Larry Stackhouse Jr.: Syracuse Disappearance and Nation Lead

Larry Stackhouse Jr.’s disappearance from Syracuse, New York on December 2, 2005 has never been solved. The 19-year-old left his parents’ home on Lynn Circle that Friday evening to attend a high school basketball game and never returned. Nearly two decades later, no arrests have been made, no remains have been recovered, and the case sits with the Syracuse Police Department’s Cold Case Squad as an active investigation.¹

The Last Known Movements

Stackhouse left home between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m. on December 2, 2005, headed for a game at Christian Brothers Academy in DeWitt, a suburb east of Syracuse. He went with a friend. He was wearing a long-sleeved white T-shirt under a short-sleeved black T-shirt, blue jeans, and tan or red Timberland boots, and was associated with a green four-door 2003 Hyundai.²

He has not been seen since.

The Friend’s Changing Account

The friend who went to the game with Stackhouse became the investigation’s central puzzle. He first told investigators he had dropped Stackhouse off at a store near his home after the game. He later changed his account, saying instead that Stackhouse had gotten into an altercation with a group of Native Americans at the game. One version of his account placed the altercation at Corcoran High School rather than at Christian Brothers Academy.¹ The friend has never been publicly identified.

Leads That Did Not Hold

Several tips surfaced in the years after Stackhouse vanished. None produced a break.

A student at Corcoran High School told her principal she had overheard two people bragging about killing Stackhouse and disposing of his body on Onondaga Nation land. Police ultimately deemed her account not credible. A jail inmate wrote to Larry Stackhouse Sr. claiming he had overheard conversations about the killing. A rumor also circulated that Stackhouse had been suspected of taking $700 worth of marijuana, which some suggested as a motive. His parents have strongly denied that account.¹

By 2009, the Onondaga County District Attorney’s office had an assistant prosecutor and a Native American investigator on the case. Chief Deputy District Attorney Rick Trunfio told reporters, “A cold case is difficult to work… you have limited leads, limited information coming in, but we’re tracking all the information that comes in.” He noted there had been activity on the case as recently as September 1, 2009, but declined to give specifics.³

The Onondaga Nation Angle

Rumors pointed early to the Onondaga Nation reservation, south of Syracuse, as the place where Stackhouse may have been killed and his body concealed. His father has said publicly that he believes his son was “kidnapped off the streets of Syracuse, murdered and his body concealed somewhere on the Onondaga Nation Territory,” based on calls, letters, and tips the family received.³

Police conducted at least one search of the area with cadaver dogs and found nothing.³ Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler acknowledged that investigators had looked into reservation-related leads but described the evidence as insufficient.¹ Attorney Joe Heath said the Onondaga Nation’s chiefs cooperated with the investigation. Under 25 U.S.C. § 233, New York State has criminal jurisdiction over offenses committed on Indian reservations within the state, so Syracuse police and the Onondaga County DA had legal authority to investigate on Nation land.⁴

The Family’s Campaign

Larry Stackhouse Sr. and Lorraine Stackhouse have spent nearly two decades pushing to keep the case alive. They distributed flyers, hired a private detective, put up billboards in Syracuse soliciting tips, held vigils on the anniversary of the disappearance, and sent case materials to NBC, ABC, and 60 Minutes.⁵⁶

The family has been outspoken about what they describe as a racial disparity in how missing person cases are covered. In a 2021 interview with CNY Central, published during the national coverage of the Gabby Petito case, Larry Stackhouse Sr. said a news anchor once told him directly that “African-American cases do not rate as high as Caucasian cases,” and that media organizations tended to “shy away” from covering them.⁶

Police reports noted that Stackhouse had two outstanding arrest warrants and may have been involved in illegal activity when he disappeared. His parents pushed back on those characterizations, maintaining he was “a good kid,” and Lorraine Stackhouse expressed frustration with local coverage that she said painted her son as a criminal on the basis of minor traffic tickets.⁷¹

Where the Case Stands

The Charley Project classifies Stackhouse as endangered missing.² He is also listed in NamUs, the federal missing persons database, under case number MP750.⁸ Authorities have no hard evidence that he is deceased. Anyone with information can contact the Syracuse Police Department at 315-442-5222.

Lorraine Stackhouse has told reporters: “We will never give up looking for him. Never. They won’t have peace until we have peace.”⁵

1
HuffPost. Larry Stackhouse Jr. Missing
2
The Charley Project. Larry Darnell Stackhouse Jr.
3
CNY Central. Larry Stackhouse Disappearance
4
Native American Rights Fund. Tribal-State Jurisdiction
5
LocalSYR. 15 Years Since Larry Stackhouse Jr. Went Missing
6
CNY Central. Missing White Woman Syndrome and the Larry Stackhouse Disappearance in Syracuse
7
Spectrum News. Vigil Marks 10 Years Since Larry Stackhouse Jr. Disappeared
8
NamUs. NamUs Case MP750