The 1988 Oscar-winning movie Rain Man earned Dustin Hoffman A Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of the autistic Raymond Babbitt. The film also brought public awareness to autism, a developmental disorder originating early in life in which a child is hindered by difficulties in social interaction and communication. The struggles often intensify during puberty and adolescence, and continue into adulthood. Sadly, such was the case for twenty-eight-year-old Gordon Page, Jr. of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

From an early age “Gordie” was slow and awkward. He had trouble communicating and struggled with simple cognitive skills; conversely, as with many afflicted with autism, he displayed extraordinary memorization skills. Like Raymond Babbitt, Gordie could recite with ease the statistics on many of his thousands of baseball cards.

Gordie’s parents, Gordon Sr. and Linda, struggled to understand their son’s disorder and they were not alone; for years doctors mistakenly thought he suffered from schizophrenia. In March 1991, after being diagnosed with autism, Gordie was placed in a facility renowned for treating those with the disorder.

Two months later, Gordie disappeared from the home; thirty-three years later, he has not been found.

Gordon Page, Jr.

Gordon Page, Jr., was born in 1963, the first of three sons of Gordon Sr. and Linda Page. His brothers, Lance and Todd, did not suffer from autism.

Young Gordon With His Parents

Goride was slow, clumsy, and walked awkwardly as a child. Several doctors told the Pages he would grow out of his abnormalities but he did not. Gordie’s struggles worsened as he grew older.

As he was lagging far behind his peers in cognitive skills and development, Gordie became “socially isolated” before the term was in vogue. He continued to be examined by doctors, but none could diagnose a term for his condition.

Childhood Struggles

School was also always a struggle, but Gordie worked hard. To his parents’ delight, he graduated from Wisconsin’s Brookfield High School in 1981.

A Major Accomplishment

Graduating High School . . .

Gordie then began working at a local grocery store. He worked hard and the experiment went well for a time, but he still struggled with communication. His inability to do as he was told and his trouble in assisting customers led to his firing.

. . . But The Job Fails

After several social workers and doctors subsequently evaluated Gordie, a name was finally given to his condition: schizophrenia. It was, unfortunately, the wrong diagnosis.

It was recommended that Gordie live in a group home where he could be evaluated by a psychiatrist. The double dose of medications he was prescribed proved disastrous. The combination of the stimulant Ritalin and the tranquilizer Valium caused him torment, both psychologically and physically. The doctors told his parents that the initial reactions were normal and that, given time, the medications would work. Again, the doctors were wrong.

For five months, Gordie struggled with the medications. His condition did not improve until he was taken off Ritalin and Valium after another doctor determined the combination was making him virtually catatonic.

The Medications Make It Worse

When Gordon, Sr. and Linda moved from Michigan to Tampa, Florida, in September 1989, Gordie was transferred to another group home in Grand Rapids. He did well at his new surroundings until November 29, when a courier brought a package to the group home. He left his truck running as he entered the building to leave the package with the receptionist.

Enticed by the running truck, Gordie, who did not know how to drive, entered the vehicle and took the controls. He swerved erratically out of the parking lot. After nearly hitting several cars, he crashed into one coming from the opposite direction. Neither Gordie nor the woman whose car he hit were hurt, but the damage to both vehicles was extensive. Though physically unharmed, a disoriented and rattled Gordie walked away from the accident scene.

As police were investigating the accident, they received a call that a disoriented man, determined to be Gordie, was at a nearby elementary school wanting to teach a class. He told the police he wanted to drive to Texas to visit his brother at college. He was heavily medicated at the time of the accident, but not on either Ritalin or Valium.

A Near Catastrophe

Following the incident, Gordie was placed in Kent County’s Kent Oaks Psychiatric Hospital where he was evaluated by social worker Bill Arnold. After several months of therapy, Arnold concluded Gordie was not schizophrenic; he instead diagnosed him as a high functioning autistic.

Bill Arnold

Psychiatric Social Worker

Gordie’s condition improved more significantly once he was taken off medications for schizophrenia and treated as autistic.

In March 1991, Gordon Sr. and Linda placed their son in Grand Rapids’ Cascade Foster Care Home, a renowned and established treatment center specializing in treating autism. The home required that that no visitors were allowed for two months as Gordie adapted to his new environment.

Moved Again

After the two months had elapsed, Gordon Sr. and Linda returned from Tampa to visit Gordie at the center, on May 21. As they were leaving, Gordie begged his parents to take him with them. Both wanted to do so but were told their son needed more treatment.

Had they known this would be the last time they would see their son, the Pages would have, in Gordon Sr.’s words, “put him in the car and driven straight to Florida.”

Gordon Sr. and Linda Page

During the regular midnight bed check at the Cascade Center six days later, an orderly discovered Gordie was not in his room. He had ripped out a piece of cardboard from a broken window awaiting repair.

Gordie was not carrying any identification when he disappeared, and he is not believed to have had any money.

Gordie Is Gone

Approximately one hour later, a fireman saw a man believed to be Gordie hitchhiking toward Interstate 96, picking up cans and bottles along the road. (Michigan has a recycling program paying ten cents for each bottle or can returned.)

Six weeks later, several baseball cards were discovered under an overpass near an I-96 ramp leading to Detroit and Chicago. Police believe the cards were Gordie’s because three of them had been noticeably separated from the others. The separated cards were of Gordie’s three favorite players: Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, and Eddie Murray.

One week later, a man resembling Gordie was seen sleeping on a picnic table and bathing in a museum fountain in Grand Rapids’ Riverside Park. Two weeks later, he is believed to have been seen by a worker at a downtown homeless shelter. Around the same time, a cashier at a party store believed Gordie had asked her for water and directions to the “police church.”

Two months later,  in July, a policeman believes he saw Gordie walking along a highway south of Lansing, seventy miles southeast of Grand Rapids. The man was carrying a bag of aluminum bottles and cans, but the cop lost sight of him before he could be questioned.

In 1994, three years after Gordie disappeared, a family friend reported that another friend had told him he saw a man resembling Gordie walking with a crutch and carrying a small bag as he crossed a street near a car dealership in Akron, Ohio, three-hundred-twenty-five miles southeast of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The sighting seemed credible as the area was familiar to Gordie; he had worked at the dealership as a teen during the 1970s when it was owned by his father.

Several additional sightings of Gordie have been reported over the years, but none have been confirmed. Most of the sightings are similar to the ones mentioned, of a man collecting empty bottles or cans along roadsides, or lingering around automobile dealerships or tents in campsites.

Several Sightings . . .

Gordon Thomas Page, Jr. has been missing since May 27, 1991. At the time of his disappearance, he was twenty-eight-years-old, six-feet-three-inches tall, and weighed approximately one-hundred-seventy-five pounds, although his weight fluctuated between one-hundred-thirty to two-hundred pounds, depending on his mediations. His eyes were blue and he had naturally reddish-brown hair which was graying. He had a scar under his chin and a surgical scar on his pubic area from an operation to repair an undescended testicle during his childhood. He also had several small white-colored acne scars on his back and a brown-colored mole on his left inner leg. Gordie’s teeth had several white discolorations and he had a pronounced Adam’s apple. He sometimes wore a moustache, beard, or goatee.

Gordie enjoyed collecting comic books as well as sports cards and memorabilia. He also liked playing baseball, basketball, and swimming and he enjoyed frequenting music and antique stores.

Diagnosed as a functioning autistic, Gordie’s memorization skills were exceptional, but he had difficulty communicating with people.

. . . But Gordie Is Still Missing

Nothing suggesting foul play has been found in relation to the disappearance of Gordon Page, Jr. He may be traveling with a carnival, working with migrant workers, or as a farmhand. It is also possible he could have been admitted to a hospital as a John Doe.

Is Gordie A Jon Doe?

Gordon Page, Jr. would today be sixty-one-years-old. If you have any information on his disappearance, please contact the Kent County, Michigan, Sheriff’s Office at 616-336-3133.

Aged-Enhanced Image of Gordon Page, Jr.

Gordon Page, Sr. died in 2018 at age eighty-one. Linda Page is still living.

Gordon Sr. Did Not Learn His Son’s Fate

SOURCES:

• The Charley Project
• Detroit Free Press
• Grand Rapids Press
• Marshall Chronicle
• Tampa Bay Times
• Unsolved Mysteries