The Mystery of Michael Negrete’s Disappearance (December 10, 1999)

Michael Negrete was a popular freshman attending UCLA in the autumn of 1999. He was a resident of the sixth floor of Dykstra Hall, located on campus, when he disappeared in the early morning hours of December 10. Finals were impending and Negrete had attended a party with other students on his floor before retiring to his dorm to play a multiplayer game (probably a first-person shooter RPG) with another student through the university’s intranet. It has been reported that after the game ended he made a brief trip through the halls to congratulate the opponent he had been playing and then he headed back to his room. The time for this final separation was given as around 4:30 a.m. But when his dorm mate woke at approximately 9 A.M. in the morning, Michael was gone. His clothing, shoes, wallet, keys and musical instrument were in the room. He has never been seen since.

This case is so frustrating not only because Michael was, by all accounts, a wonderful and very gifted human being, but because one feels the pangs of knowing that this case should have been solved. Although it was the middle of the night, there was a superabundance of kids awake and moving around in the halls of that building. Even in the wee hours, the activity never stopped. Especially around finals. It seems likely somebody (or several somebodies) saw and knew more than they ever let on or admitted to law enforcement during the interviewing process.