I was searching the net to see if I could find out any updates on Rogest Cain (the elderly man who went missing from California but was sited several times later acting confused). I came across his name on a cemetary website from California. Obviously it isn't a very common name but I checked his doe network profile. The day and month of birth matched but the year was 1 off. The cemetary website did say Rogest died in 1993 but wasn't buried until 1997 which would make sense since he was a missing person. A very interesting find and if anyone can research any further and find out for sure if this was the Rogest Cain profiled on UM and the circumstances surrounding his death, please share. Here are the links to the cemetary website and his doe network profile:

http://www.interment.net/data/us/ca/losangeles/lanat/c/lanat_c01.htm
(just scroll down until you find Cain, Rogest)

http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/724dmca.html

I'm not sure, but I think that is probably him.

I'll take even money it's him, if anyone is dense enough to offer

Well I contacted the Doe Network hoping that they could do some research and here is their reply:

Our California Area Director contacted the LAPD and Mr. Cain is indeed still missing. However his family did have him declared deceased in April of 1995.

If you need anything else, feel free to contact me any time.

(: ~Elizabeth
--

Is it possible that the family purchased a headstone for him even though his body was never found?

I suppose that is a possibility, a creepy one.

I just watched this case on crystaldawn's first collection. If I ever saw it when it was on NBC, I had long forgotten. It's a terribly sad case, but I am most impressed with the detective work done by crystaldawn, and the Doe network for going to the trouble to contact the LAPD, and the LAPD responding! I hope some day his family locates his body, if they have not already, and may he ret in peace. Too sad.

I read the info about Rogest Cain on the DoeNetwork and still do not recall his UM semgent.....is this another one of those cases which appeared on NBC but not on Lifetime??? I hate when they do that!!

Christopher

I read the info about Rogest Cain on the DoeNetwork and still do not recall his UM semgent.....is this another one of those cases which appeared on NBC but not on Lifetime??? I hate when they do that!!

Christopher

Yup.

I just watched this segment and I'm perplexed as to why he was declared dead. The update to this segment stated that Cain was known to be living somewhere else under a different name that was given to him by a truck driver that picked him up. Also, someone else had given police information about Cain that wouldn't have been known without actually knowing him (I believe they referred to a scar on his body somewhere).

I'm starting to wonder whether or not the claims made by these people turned out to be false statements, otherwise why end the search and declare him dead. The update to the segment also stated that he was working odd jobs at the time he was spotted, so again I'm baffled as to why the family declared him dead. Cain's family declared him dead in 1995, which was nine years after the disappearance. If this was a case where the missing was never seen again, I could see why they would take this course of action, but the fact that there were substantiated reports that Cain was alive and functioning just irks me for some reason.

...Maybe I'm just commenting with the facts that I have, and maybe the family knows things that we don't that would lead them to declare him dead, but I just don't know...:confused:

Going by DoeNetwork, Cain disappeared in February of '86 and was declared dead almost ten years later. The sightings of him were in 1989, I believe. So, it does seem rather strange that he would be declared dead so soon after the sightings. Perhaps the leads just dried up and the family wanted to disperse his estate quickly. He had obviously been missing for almost ten years at that point and it didn't seem likely he would return especially considering his age and alleged medical condition. This is all just speculation of course.

Well I do not feel there is enough evidence to allege the family of having some type of alterior motive in having the court declare Rogest legally dead. While I am sure his family did want to get access to his pension (he had been an employee of the city of Los Angeles for 27, 28 years at the time he disappeared) and things like that, I believe it was because they felt like he actually was probably dead.

I believe without a body you have to wait 6 years before you can have someone declared legally dead. Since the 1989 sightings were the last he was known to probably be alive, 1995 was the earliest they could have him declared legally dead. They probably felt like in all probability he was dead since the leads and sightings had dried up since 1989. AJ Breaux's family had him declared legally dead in 1997, 6 years after he disappeared even though like Rogest, his body was never found.

My guess is that Rogest Cain probably did turn up elsewhere after he left Topeka and probably passed away in a nursing home or hospital under an alias or even as a John Doe and is probably buried somewhere in an unmarked grave. It is sad, but likely the truth.

Two reasons that Rogest Cain's family might have wanted to have him declared legally dead:

1. If the Cain's owned their own home jointly, and Mrs Cain needed to sell the house for any reason (poor health, moving closer to children, etc.), she would need to have him declared dead in order to sell the house.

2. Closure. I have no experience with this, thank God, but I've heard that some people do get a kind of feeling that "it's all over with" when a missing loved one is declared dead. Considering his age and health at the time he disappeared, I think that his family had probably come to accept the idea that the chances were very good that he had passed away.

I agree with kadrmas - I think that Mr. Cain probably passed away shortly after he left Topeka. He seemed like a very good man - may he rest in peace.

Charli-Ann

If only that security guard had stayed with Rogest (when they found him in the gated community) until his sister came to pick him up, who knows what might have been. :(

I'm confused about this one. He was spotted several times after his disappearance, and the UPDATE on UM said that a neighbor spotted a man who had the same mannuerisms, the same scars, missing teeth, and who looked just like Rogest going by the name Elmer Jackson. But when the authorities went to pick him up, he disappeared again. The UM segment implied that he was suffering from some sort of mental breakdown or illness, and probably couldn't remember who he was. But if this Elmer Jackson was really Rogest Cain, why did he flee (twice) before family members and/or the authorities could pick him up? I wonder if it's possible that he wanted to get away from his family for whatever reason a la Alex Cooper. I tend to lead more towards him dying shortly after he disappeared and that the man named "Elmer Jackson" was just a lookalike.

I'm confused...this case reminds me of another black older man missing, but in the segment (It's been yrs since I have seen it) the man had glasses. The kept showing it slowly creeping up to his face and it scared me. He was sitting with other family members and the reinactment had him driving a long green care (?) by the woods....is this another case??? Because pictures of this man never have glasses.

I'm confused...this case reminds me of another black older man missing, but in the segment (It's been yrs since I have seen it) the man had glasses. The kept showing it slowly creeping up to his face and it scared me. He was sitting with other family members and the reinactment had him driving a long green care (?) by the woods....is this another case??? Because pictures of this man never have glasses.

The man you're thinking of with the glasses is George Owens. Sadly he has never been found either.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/o/owens_george.html

The man you're thinking of with the glasses is George Owens. Sadly he has never been found either.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/o/owens_george.html


THANK YOU, SO MUCH!!!!

Just saw this case for the first time. Terribly sad. Obviously, given his age at the time of the segment, Rogest is definitely deceased by now, but I'm willing to bet that he died shortly after his disappearance. The sighting of him that mentioned him having the same scars, mannuerisms and missing teeth was peculiar but the update stated that he was gone before police could get to him. That leads me to believe that this wasn't a credible sighting/tip. My guess is "Elmer Jackson" never even existed. For one, how would Rogest know the authorities were coming to get him and secondly, why would he run again?

I'm confused...this case reminds me of another black older man missing, but in the segment (It's been yrs since I have seen it) the man had glasses. The kept showing it slowly creeping up to his face and it scared me. He was sitting with other family members and the reinactment had him driving a long green care (?) by the woods....is this another case??? Because pictures of this man never have glasses.

That was George Owens.

Per the remastered and freshly updated Stack episodes on Amazon: Rogest Cain has still never been found. :(

Per the remastered and freshly updated Stack episodes on Amazon: Rogest Cain has still never been found. :(

Which episode number is this?

Which episode number is this?

Episode 10. The segment is titled, "Stroke Amnesia" and is the final segment of the episode directly after the "Missing Time" segment.

So what's the consensus on Rogest Cain? I think it's all but proven that he suffered a stroke, which caused memory loss and was the reason why he seemed disoriented. But did he meet with foul play at some point? Or did he die of old age in a nursing/group home somewhere as a John Doe? And was Elmer Jackson really Rogest Cain?

I always thought he had a stroke and wandered off. No foul play, just horrible circumstances.

Definitely agree that Rogest had a stroke and wandered off, though I've always been on the fence about him being Elmer Jackson. Considering this guy was living in Topeka, Kansas, I'm not sure Rogest would have been able to travel that far, though it is pretty odd that this Jackson guy suddenly disappeared right before Rogest's family showed up.

That almost gave me a Alex Cooper vibe, but all accounts, it sounds like Rogest was a very devoted family man and there's nothing in his background to suggest he would have run away. Best case scenario is that he ended up in a nursing home and lived in relative comfort for the rest of his life, but was just never identified.

That almost gave me a Alex Cooper vibe, but all accounts, it sounds like Rogest was a very devoted family man and there's nothing in his background to suggest he would have run away. Best case scenario is that he ended up in a nursing home and lived in relative comfort for the rest of his life, but was just never identified.

I have to admit that I thought the same thing initially, until they mentioned the part about Rogest calling want ads in the phone book. My biggest gripe with the segment is when the police found Rogest 2 days after his disappearance, and he gave them his sister's phone number. When his sister came to pick him up, he was gone. Why the hell didn't the police hold him until the sister came to pick him up? And why wasn't this elaborated on more in the segment?

I have to admit that I thought the same thing initially, until they mentioned the part about Rogest calling want ads in the phone book. My biggest gripe with the segment is when the police found Rogest 2 days after his disappearance, and he gave them his sister's phone number. When his sister came to pick him up, he was gone. Why the hell didn't the police hold him until the sister came to pick him up? And why wasn't this elaborated on more in the segment?

I still think it's possible he had a stroke, couldn't remember who he was, then called around for work later on. Someone might have befriended him and suggested he do that, not realizing he was a missing person. I can't understand why the police/guard didn't stay with him. I feel like some details got left out of the segment on the police situation. I can't imagine a police officer doing that now.

It's so sad that his family never got closure :( He disappeared almost 31 years ago (this month).

Just saw the UM segment on Rogest Cain (S01, EP10), given that I'm watching the series for the first time.

Extremely sad case. I don't believe that there was foul play or anything suspicious involved here. It sounds like Rogest either had a stroke and/or was experiencing memory loss/dementia after he left his sister's house in 1986, so just wandered off & was never seen again by his family. It appears that he had periods of lucidity after this (due to the evidence that he had his car repaired & was making phone calls for work from the area), but even at that point it sounds like he was confused & didn't know where he was, etc.

The other question that came up re: this case was the mystery surrounding Elmer Jackson, the man allegedly living in Topeka, Kansas several years later - who some people thought may have been RC. However, this was never resolved - given that EJ had allegedly left the area by the time RC's family investigated. I think this may have been a false lead, given that there was never any physical evidence re: EJ (just anecdotal information from strangers). Odd.

The chances of this getting solved are minimal, due to the length of time that has passed since Rogest was last seen. Given his age at the time of his disappearance, he certainly passed on years ago. Very unfortunate.

This was an interesting case.

I'm not sure I believe that Elmer and Rogest were the same person. Of course it's possible, but there's a lot of reasons to doubt it. Rogest wasn't in good health, this happened years later, he would have went a long way to get to Kansas and nobody who knew Elmer ever met Rogest.

My guess is Rogest probably died soon after going missing.