PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Officials in Bucks County are asking for the public’s help in finding two men who went missing in October.
Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub acknowledged it’s not uncommon for people to go missing, but he said this one is odd.
“It is not my experience that two people [who] have no other attachment or relationship other than they work at the same place go missing at exactly the same time at exactly the same date,” he said.
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Officials say 50-year-old Matthew Branning and 47-year-old Michael Stark worked together at Enchlor, Inc. in Silverdale. They were seen together leaving their job on Oct. 15.
Video shows Branning stop at an ATM in Sellersville while someone else sits in the backseat of his car, but authorities can’t tell who it is.
According to cellphone and toll data, Branning went to Central Jersey, then south to Cape May. Stark bought something at a Wawa in Cape May, but there was no sign of Branning.
Tool info shows Branning’s car going north then west on the Atlantic City Expressway. Since that night, there has been no activity on Branning’s cellphone or bank accounts.
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Weintraub said Branning hasn’t contacted his family, which is not the norm for him. According to family members, there’s no reason why he would have driven to New Jersey, and it is out of character for him to miss work, where he has been employed for nine years.
Weeks later, Stark was seen in surveillance footage in Garden City, Michigan, trying to pawn a bike on Nov. 13.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office says Stark is considered a person of interest in Branning’s missing persons case. Investigators suspect foul play.
Weintraub added, “We have no indication that they knew each other other than through work, so there is no indication of any bad blood between these two men.”
Branning’s car is a 2002 Lexus SUV with the plate number KWS-5619.
Weintraub is asking anyone with any information, no matter how small it may seem, to reach out to investigators:
Bucks County detectives: 215-348-6056
Perkasie Police Department detectives: 215-257-6876
Anyone can also make an anonymous tip to the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4PA-TIPS or online.