DEL HAVEN – Mark Himebaugh is on a list of which no one wants to be a part. Thirty years ago, Nov. 25, 1991, Himebaugh was last seen at about 4 p.m. near his family’s home, on Sunray Road, in Del Haven. His mother, Maureen, allowed him to observe firefighters extinguishing a small brush fire a quarter of a mile from their house.
It would be the last time anyone saw him.
Today, he is among thousands of missing children tracked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
When a child is reported missing to law enforcement, federal law requires that child be entered into NCIC. According to the FBI, there were 365,348 NCIC entries for missing children, in 2020 and 421,394, in 2019.
“It’s still an active case,” said Middle Township Police Detective Kurt Saettler, who leads the active investigation. “We are still getting tips and we have to check each and every one of them to see if they are credible.”
Because it is considered an active case, Saettler said he could not comment on it, but stated there was “nothing new” in terms of persons of interest in the case.
On the day Himebaugh disappeared, his mother, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story, left their residence to run an errand that normally would’ve taken five minutes. However, she was delayed and, as a result, did not get home until 40 minutes passed.
Himebaugh disappeared by the time she returned home. His mother assumed he was with neighborhood children at the time; however, he has not been heard from since.
He was reported missing at 5 p.m. that evening. The afternoon of his disappearance, traffic was rerouted past his house.
Later in the day of his disappearance, investigators located Himebaugh’s left shoe, a hand-me-down L.A. Gear sneaker, at Sunray Beach, approximately 75 yards from the family’s home. His footprints were also seen above the tide line, but these were the only solid clues ever found.
There are unconfirmed witness reports that Himebaugh was seen at a local park entrance with an unidentified child around 3:40 p.m. the day he vanished. The identity of the girl may have been determined previously, according to Saettler, although witnesses said she was about 9 or 10 years old in 1991 and had dishwater-blonde hair.
She was about 4 feet tall, weighed approximately 70-75 pounds, and was wearing a three-quarter length dark blue ski parka with a hunter-orange stripe on the back.
Himebaugh was possibly sighted with two other males on the day of his disappearance, according to witness reports. One is described as between 30-35 years old, about 5’8” to 5’9” tall, and 150 pounds. He had dark reddish-brown hair in a ponytail, and a generally scruffy, unkempt appearance.
Himebaugh lived with his mother and older brother at the time he disappeared and was a sixth-grader at Cape May County Alternative Middle School.
According to information pertaining to unsolved cases, published on the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office’s website, “Himebaugh’s left foot was healing from a fracture at the time of his disappearance. He was also taking the anti-depressant Prozac for behavioral problems. Himebaugh is classified as emotionally disturbed and may have obsessive-compulsive disorder. He frequently had tantrums and angry outbursts as a result of his conditions, but his behavior had been improving prior to his disappearance with the help of medication and talk therapy.”
Himebaugh would be 41 years old today. At the time of his disappearance, he had red hair and blue eyes, with patches of freckles across his body and small brown marks on his abdomen. His nickname is “Curious George.” He had the habit of biting his fingernails around the time he disappeared and he is right-handed.
According to news reports over the years, Thomas Butcavage Jr. was named in 1993 as a person of interest in Himebaugh’s disappearance. In 1993, a male prostitute approached the police and said Butcavage, one of his regular clients, had shown him a video of himself having sex with a young boy who resembled Himebaugh. The boy was handcuffed, gagged, and appeared frightened in the video.
The prostitute said he asked Butcavage if the boy was Mark Himebaugh, and Butcavage said he was. He also said he’d deliberately planted Himebaugh’s sneaker on the beach to confuse the investigation.
According to Saettler, a warrant was issued to search Butcavage’s apartment, but nothing was found tying him to the case. Butcavage later pleaded guilty to numerous sex crime charges involving young boys in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and remains in prison.
In 2015, authorities asked anyone who knew Butcavage in the late 1980s and early 1990s to contact them.
Anyone with information can contact Saettler, at 609-465-8700, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, at 1-800-843-5678 (800-THE-LOST).
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.
