Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008

Search intensifies for missing Poolesville man
Morris last seen in July

by Meghan Tierney | Staff Writer

John James Morris, 38, was last seen in the driveway at the home he shared with his boyfriend on Whites Ferry Road on July 30. Morris and his boyfriend had recently ended their 12-year relationship. His family contacted Montgomery County Police and reported Morris missing Aug. 23 after he missed several of their weekly telephone conversations.

Morris is described as white, 6 feet tall and 185 pounds with brown eyes, graying brown hair, a tattoo of a snake on his right forearm and a tattoo of a scorpion on his left shoulder. A talented painter, he may be working as a landscaper, a handyman or a glazier.

The Maryland Missing Persons Network, a Web-based volunteer organization that helps locate missing persons, sent out a press release asking for help in locating Morris on Jan. 9 after getting in touch with his mother over her MySpace page, which is dedicated to finding her son, according to network coordinator Kylen Johnson. The Maryland Missing Persons Network also has a MySpace page.

‘‘I just got to talking to her and was surprised [police] hadn’t sent out a press release or anything,” she said last week. County police sent out a media statement asking for the public’s help in locating Morris on Friday.

In Montgomery County, the investigating detective decides whether a missing person case warrants a press release, said Cpl. Jimmy Robinson, a spokesman for county police. He said there are no criteria for making that determination.