Bethlehem man missing nearly two weeks after disappearing in Mount Pocono; police launch drone search

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A disabled Navy veteran from Bethlehem who suffers from multiple mental health conditions has been missing for nearly two weeks after vanishing in the Mount Pocono area, and his wife says police were slow to act on the case.

Matthew Thompson, a Bethlehem resident, was last seen on the evening of Feb. 13 near the Mount Pocono Boulevard bus station. His wife, Joselyn Burgos, said he had driven to the Poconos that morning to finalize paperwork on a new home for the couple.

Burgos said a detective told her Thursday morning that police are planning a drone search of the area, starting from the bus station where Thompson was last captured on surveillance footage.

The Bethlehem Police Department issued a public appeal Wednesday morning for help locating Thompson, describing him as last seen carrying a black bag and wearing yellow pants, a yellow sweatshirt and a black vest.

Burgos said he does not have access to his vehicle or a working cell phone.

A Routine Day Turned Crisis

Thompson, who is diagnosed with multiple mental health conditions, including PTSD and bipolar disorder, left the couple’s Bethlehem home around 9 or 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 13 to pick up keys and sign paperwork at Pocono Country Place, a gated community in Tobyhanna where the couple had paid roughly $6,000 to relocate, Burgos said in an interview Thursday.

She said he called her multiple times that morning, once to ask her to text him a photo of his car registration so he could enter the gated community, then again to say he had the keys and was waiting on the property manager.

She said he mentioned he would get something to eat.

Burgos said Thompson completed all the paperwork that day, and the couple was ready to move. She said the landlord later told her he had spoken with Thompson at the new property to verify everything was in order, and that it was the last time he heard from him.

That was also the last time Burgos heard from her husband, around 1 p.m.

“After that, I was just calling him all day,” Burgos said. “He just disappeared.”

Surveillance Footage Traces His Movements

According to information relayed to Burgos by a detective Thursday morning, surveillance footage has pieced together portions of Thompson’s movements that evening.

The detective told Burgos that cameras show Thompson parked his car at Foxfire Condominiums in Mount Pocono — not his intended destination — sometime around 7 or 8 p.m. He was seen on camera trying to open multiple doors at the residential complex, which Burgos believes was an attempt to seek help.

“I assumed that he didn’t feel well. He was trying to get any help or whatever, because he was trying to open all the doors,” she said. “Because the doors were closed, he just walked away.”

By approximately 10 or 10:30 p.m., Thompson had walked roughly one to two miles to the Mount Pocono Boulevard area, where he requested an Uber to take him to the couple’s new home at Pocono Country Place, according to the detective’s account relayed by Burgos.

Surveillance footage from the bus station shows him there, but he never boarded a bus or got into the Uber, Burgos said.

Burgos said the detective told her Thompson appeared to have simply walked away before the Uber arrived, and that in the footage, his pants appeared wet, suggesting he had been walking through snow off the cleared roads and possibly through wooded areas.

Burgos said the car was towed by the complex from Foxfire Condominiums and remains at the tow yard.

When Burgos and a police officer opened the vehicle, she said the driver’s seat was covered in wood sticks, suggesting Thompson had been walking through the woods before parking there.

She said his keys and wallet were not found in the vehicle. Burgos believes he still has a black Jansport backpack containing a phone, a water bottle, his wallet and the house keys.

Wife Says Police Response Was Delayed

Burgos said she reported her husband missing to Bethlehem police on Feb. 14, but said she has been frustrated by the pace of the investigation. She said the lead detective on the case has spoken with her only two or three times in nearly two weeks, citing days off and training.

“They never handled it like an actual missing person,” Burgos said.

She said police did not initially attempt to track Thompson’s phones or bank accounts, prompting her to try to access his email herself to use a phone-finding feature.

She also said police did not contact volunteer search-and-rescue organizations until she pushed them to do so — 12 days after Thompson disappeared.

“If the police can’t do the search because they don’t have the resources, and they told me that — it’s not their jurisdiction — then why don’t you communicate with the people who do it?” Burgos said.

Burgos said Wolfpack Search and Recovery, a volunteer organization active in the Lehigh Valley, has been in contact with police and told her they are coordinating with rescue teams in the Mount Pocono area to conduct a search.

Additional Identifying Information

According to the police notice, Thompson has brown eyes and short hair. Burgos said he has seven tattoos, including a prominent blue dragon with planets across his chest, the name “Matthew” on his right arm, the French phrase “C’est la vie” on his left arm, a cross on his right bicep, and a Navy ship on his left bicep.

Burgos urged the public to disregard speculation about her husband’s disappearance.

“He wasn’t involved in anything weird,” she said. “It’s just a disabled veteran who has mental illness, probably is missing, is disoriented, or is probably injured. I just want people — if they have any good information — communicate with the authorities. Trying to find him alive and safe. That’s all that I need.”

The Bethlehem Police Department public notice asks anyone with information to contact police at 610-865-7000 or [email protected]. Anonymous tips can be submitted to the tip line at 610-691-6660.