Search for missing Roxborough man enters third week with few leads, growing reward

Nearly two weeks ago, 21-year-old Shane Montgomery was last seen leaving Kildaire’s Irish Pub in Manayunk, but little has changed from an investigative standpoint. 

In the time since Thanksgiving, family, friends and locals have plastered Northwest Philadelphia and beyond with missing posters and green ribbons (Shane’s favorite color), while the “Help Find Shane Montgomery” Facebook page has drawn more than 31,500 likes from across the country. 

Where things stand today

Despite that activity, police said they are no closer to determining the Roxborough native’s whereabouts, or to understanding just what happened during those early hours of Thanksgiving morning when he went missing. 

FBI Special Agent J.J. Klaver said it’s one of the more puzzling cases he’s seen in his nearly 25 years with the agency.

“It’s really frustrating to have nothing come up, to have nothing to focus on,” he says.

The FBI, which got involved in the case within days due to the “suspicious circumstances” around Montgomery’s disappearance, is now in the process of re-interviewing people to see if they missed something in initial interviews, according to Klaver. 

Searching for a clue

Meanwhile, family and police are asking anyone with a business or residence in the area that has surveillance-camera footage from the night of Nov. 26 into Nov. 27, when Montgomery disappeared, to get it into the hands of authorities.

Detectives may be able to glean additional information from the footage, goes their thinking.

Montgomery’s family has also asked anyone who went out on Manayunk’s Main Street the night before Thanksgiving to look at photos they took that night to see if the missing man is in the background. 

Klaver noted that while it’s a long shot, a picture or a video could possibly connect Montgomery to a person or place that police have overlooked.

Fundraising efforts

The reward for information regarding Montgomery’s disappearance has reached $65,000. 

On Monday, Chubby’s Steaks on Henry Avenue, a Roxborough mainstay, donated a portion of their proceeds from the day to the search for Montgomery. 

A GoFundMe page designed to pay for search efforts and to financially support the Montgomery family during the search for their son has raised $29,603 as of Wednesday morning.

Background information

Montgomery, a student at West Chester University, was last seen early Thanksgiving morning leaving Kildaire’s after spending the night out on Main Street in Manayunk with family and friends.

At 2:38 a.m. two Lower Merion cellphone towers picked up a ping from Montgomery’s phone — an Amazon Fire with a white speckled case — presumably as the phone lost its battery charge.

There is little surveillance footage available from the hours Montgomery was last seen. 

On Dec. 1, Fourth District Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. sent a letter to Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter asking for city-administered cameras to be installed along Main Street in Manayunk. 

“Because Main Street in Manayunk has a high volume of individuals that leave drinking establishments late at night it makes sense to place these cameras throughout the Main Street corridor,” the letter read.

A spokesman for Jones’ office said they will follow up with the mayor this week.

Montgomery is described as a 5-foot 11-inch tall white male, weighing between 130 and 140 pounds with short brown hair and green eyes.

He was last seen wearing a gray button-down shirt, blue jeans, gray hooded sweatshirt and black sneakers and has a tattoo of a Celtic cross on his shoulder blade.

Police are asking anyone with information to call the FBI at (215) 418-4000.