“Something is not right,” Michaelyn Memoli told Dateline. “Nobody disappears off the face of the earth.”
But it seems like Michaelyn’s father-in-law, Darrel Johnson Sr., did just that.
It’s been nearly six months since Michaelyn and her husband, Darrel Johnson Jr., last saw his father in Arizona.
They are desperate to get the details of his case out there, in case someone knows something that could help bring Darrel home.
A GETAWAY WEEKEND
On June 27, 2024, Darrel Jr. stopped by to see his 67-year-old father, who was known by the nickname Bubba, at his property in Phoenix, Arizona. They went to the dump together and then Darrel Jr. bought his father lunch.
The next day, Friday, June 28, Darrel Sr. left for a weekend trip to New Mexico.
He was joining a large group of more than 30 people to celebrate someone’s birthday at Conchas Lake State Park.
“He’s never been to Conchas Lake, however he’s been to New Mexico before with part of this family,” Michaelyn said. “But never this far out in a desolate area.”
According to Michaelyn, the information they received from the people Darrel was traveling with was that they last saw him around 11 p.m. on Friday, June 28. “They said that they went to his tent at 11 p.m., zip the tent up and said their goodnights and that was the last time they saw him.” Dateline contacted two people who were with Darrel that weekend to get their recollection of the night he disappeared, but has not yet received a response from either.
In the early morning hours of Saturday, June 29, there was another sighting of Darrel Sr.
“There was a neighbor camper next to their campsite that saw him,” Darrel Jr. said. His father, apparently, had asked to borrow a flashlight. “That would have been on Saturday morning at 12:30 a.m.,” Michaelyn added.
Darrel was last reported to be wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and brownish-gray shoes.
Dateline reached out to the New Mexico State Police Department for an interview about Darrel’s case. Their public information office agreed to review questions and answer them via email. According to NMSP PIO Amanda Richards, Darrel was reported missing on the 29th by someone who was with him on the trip. The email states that the person who called to report Darrel missing last saw him the night before at 11:00 p.m. in his tent.
Richards wrote that “neighboring campers reported that Darrel approached them to borrow a flashlight, which they lent him before he walked back toward his campsite.” Those campers were interviewed and asked if they noticed anything unusual about his demeanor. “They reported that when they spoke with him, he seemed either drunk or under the influence of something,” the PIO wrote, adding that the reporting officer then inquired if Darrel made any specific statements to them. “The campers replied that he only asked for a flashlight,” Richards wrote.
The PIO added that multiple individuals who were camping with Darrel for that birthday gathering were also interviewed.
When Darrel Jr. heard what the neighboring campers said about how his father was acting, he thought something wasn’t adding up. “They thought that he was drunk,” Darrel Jr. said. “I told the officer, ‘Well, my dad don’t drink, don’t do drugs.’”
“That’s the last time he was ever seen again before he vanished into — you know, vanished and disappeared off the face of the earth,” Michaelyn said.
A FRUITLESS SEARCH
About midday on Saturday, June 29, Darrel Jr. and Michaelyn got the phone call that would change their lives. “The attending officer that went to go and take the report called Darrel [Jr.] and said, ‘Your dad is missing,’” Michaelyn told Dateline. The call came in the early afternoon, according to Darrel Jr.
“I knew something wasn’t right, the way that they were explaining it,” Darrel Jr. said. “I just told, you know, Michaelyn, it was like, ‘We have to go up there, like — something doesn’t seem right. This doesn’t sound right for my dad to do this.’”
They hit the road that afternoon, making the more than 500-mile drive from their home in Arizona to the campsite in New Mexico. “We got there at about 2:30 to 3:30 in the morning,” Darrel Jr. said.
“I stayed up for almost a week and a half up there,” Darrel Jr. said. “We just went every day just, you know, I walked that park, like, all day and from morning ‘til night. And just trying to figure out if my dad could have walked out of there, like, putting myself in my dad’s shoes. And there’s no way that my dad would have made it out of there, you know, on his own.”
“If he would have gone away from the campsite, like, it’s all hills and stuff,” Darrel Jr. said. The other directions Darrel Jr. says his father could have gone were blocked, too, on one side, by a barbed-wire fence and on the other side, by the lake.
Dateline asked the NMSP to recount their search efforts for Darrel. PIO Richards stated in her email that Clay Huffman, an investigator with the 10th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Quay County, arrived on Monday, July 1, 2024, at about 10 a.m. to conduct a search. “Investigator Huffman flew a drone over the area where Darrel’s campsite was located. After several hours of searching with the drone, he was unable to find anything,” Richards wrote. “NMSP Search and Rescue (SAR) team also came to the area to assist with the search efforts. A topographical map of this search effort was provided to the family.”
According to the NMSP, Darrel’s belongings were left in his tent, except for his phone and wallet. “There is no new information available about whether those items were ever found,” Richards wrote. Darrel’s phone “last sent a signal at 2:23 p.m. on June 29th” and that “the signal was received by the nearest tower, but no radius was provided.” There were no additional signals because the phone was either “turned off or out of battery.”
A FALSE SIGHTING
According to the family, someone in Tucumcari, New Mexico, reported seeing an African American male walking with a red shirt and a Walmart bag who resembled Darrel Sr., after he was reported missing. It turned out to be a local man, but has subsequently caused some confusion.
“Because people saw and heard of this other gentleman, everything got misconstrued and mixed up and a lot of the focus was on them seeing the other gentleman but in reality, they never saw my father-in-law,” Michaelyn explained. “We actually saw the guy at the gas station, and we could understand how people would say, ‘Oh, it resembles him,’” she said. “However, he was much younger, much shorter.”
The NMSP PIO acknowledged the sighting, stating that “a boater reported a sighting, believing they had seen Darrel walking.” The walking man also happened to be spotted by a ranger. “A ranger also observed a male walking in the same area and was shown a photo of Darrel,” PIO Richards stated. “The ranger confirmed the individual was not Darrel but rather a younger male.”
BRING BUBBA SR. HOME
Michaelyn Memoli told Dateline she is determined to help bring attention to her father-in-law’s disappearance and has gotten assistance from Charlie Shunick, who founded the missing person organization Shunick Missing Persons. Shunick’s sister, Mickey, disappeared in 2012 and was later found murdered. Dateline told Mickey’s story in the episode “Missing Mickey.” “She has been helping me with guidance on how to do certain things,” Michaelyn said. “Helping us, resource-wise, of things that we can do to kind of keep his information -- name out there.”
Michaelyn has worked with someone to create a website for Darrel Sr. where she lists out all the details of the case. “It’s easier to send a link to somebody than explain the whole story,” she said. They have also created an email address and a phone number for anyone to call with information. You can contact them at [email protected] or (602) 767-3060.
“It gets tiring but you -- you have to keep doing it and doing it and doing it,” Michaelyn said. “Nobody should have to go through this alone with no resource or help. Doing everything on their own — it’s exhausting.”
Michaelyn says through this experience she’s learned about the disparities in media coverage, especially when it comes to elderly men and people of color. “When it comes to older men, especially African American men, the percentage of them, you know, getting any help or getting, you know, any of their information out there is very minimal,” she said. “Unless you have someone psychotic like me who won’t stop.”
Michaelyn and Darrel Jr. say they won’t stop pushing for attention, answers, or justice anytime soon.
“In my heart, I feel like he is deceased,” Darrel Jr. said. He remembers feeling something bad had happened to his father from the first day he found out he was missing.
“It’s like I wrote on the website — there [are] inconsistencies,” Michaelyn added. “Something is not right.”
Darrel Johnson Sr. is about 6’ tall and 160 lbs. He has black hair and eyes. He would be 68 years old today.
“He had a big heart,” Darrel Jr. said. “He was just a great -- a great father to me.”
Amanda Richards told Dateline in her email that at this point in time, there are “no mentions of foul play in the report.” They have listed Darrel Johnson Sr. on the New Mexico Department of Public Safety Missing Persons Clearinghouse website.
If you have information about Darrel’s disappearance, contact the NMSP Dispatch at 505-425-6771 or you can email the Missing Persons Clearinghouse at [email protected].
If you have a story to share with Dateline, please submit it here.