Bracing For A Call Parents Suspect UI Student Dead After No Word For 2-1/2 Weeks

In the 2-1/2 weeks since his son’s been missing, Keith Hendrick hasn’t been able to shake that gut feeling that comes with 37 years as a cop.

Both he and his wife, Leslie, a Lewiston police officer, are convinced their son William is no longer alive. He disappeared after leaving a Moscow back-to-school party intoxicated on Jan. 10. His car was found the following day parked haphazardly in a downtown lot with the keys in the center console.

The popular drama major was last seen by a resident of the apartment complex where Hendrick had been at a party with fellow theater students. The resident told police the confused 25-year-old stumbled into his apartment by accident that night, but left after learning of his mistake.

Police don’t suspect foul play. The Hendricks and friends don’t think he just left town on his own. They believe he either had an accident and died of hypothermia trying to get home, or someone else was involved.

Keith Hendrick said his son may have suffered an accidental death that a third party didn’t know how to handle. If so, someone knows his whereabouts.

“For gosh sakes, call the police, call us, call the newspaper or television or whoever you feel comfortable with and let them know where we can find the body,” the father said.

How can two parents believe the worst so soon?

“You know all the signs, and the signs aren’t good,” said Keith Hendrick, who worked as a police officer in Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai County and for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe before becoming police chief in Lapwai for 12 years.

William Hendrick failed to pick up a $6,000 financial aid check the Monday after his disappearance, and missed scheduled auditions for “Angels in America,” a play he’d been rehearsing for weeks.

His car was parked as if “someone had whipped in there in a hurry” in the lot near Moscow Hotel apartments, where the student once lived, Leslie Hendrick said. His actor’s portfolio, keys and gas card were all left behind.

He failed to call his mother last Tuesday.

“If Bill was alive he’d have called me on my birthday,” said Leslie Hendrick, who worked for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and as an Idaho State Police dispatcher before joining the Lewiston Police Department.

They talked often by phone, she said, sometimes two or three times a week, and almost always on Sundays. She’s been forwarding information to “America’s Most Wanted,” in hopes the television series will do a segment on her son.

William Hendrick’s partner of four years, Jerry Schutz Jr., sends out missing person posters almost daily. The two had been openly gay for years, were planning to exchange vows next spring and were remodeling their kitchen when Hendrick disappeared.

Since the story has already circulated through the mainstream press, Schutz is now asking that gay establishments and media in Seattle and Portland highlight the case.

“Getting the information and word out at this point is really all I can do,” he said.

Moscow police detectives are hoping a forensic examination of Hendrick’s car will produce new clues, said Moscow Police Capt. Don Lanpher.

Tips and reports of possible sightings had been coming in until about last week, Lanpher said. “But they’ve all been dead ends.”

With fresh snow covering the frozen fields of the Palouse, friends and family have stopped searching. They are resigned to waiting for the right person to call with the right information. Until then, they’re relying on their faith for strength. “We just keep fighting it out, keep putting one foot in front of the other,” said Keith Hendrick. “At least we know that God knows where he is.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: Description William R. Hendrick was last seen on C Street in Moscow early Jan. 10. He was wearing a black shirt and baseball cap, black leather jacket, faded blue jeans and black and white Nike tennis shoes. He is Nez Perce Indian, 5 feet 11 and 160 pounds. His hair is bleached blond, with about an inch of dark roots. Anyone with information about Hendrick’s disappearance should contact the Moscow Police Department at (208) 882-COPS.