mattmwolfe

Great question. I was kind of flummoxed by that, but then I thought about it for a little bit and it made sense. BK had a really small social network, so there actually wouldn't be that many people in Lafayette who would be in a position to identify him after he'd aged 30+ years. And, while 4 million people watched the show -- which sounds like a lot -- that's only about 1 percent of the population. Personally, I never saw that episode or any article with BK's face prior to 2014, and neither had most of the people in my social network. So, it's possible.

Furman, I can tell you, never watched Dr. Phil.

I don't think they've helped him financially, but only because he hasn't needed them to. He's started working at a new job and he's receiving Social Security -- finally -- so he's actually doing OK moneywise.

As far as Robert, I don't know, but I suspect that his absence is rooted in the same reasons Williams left -- trauma and a painful past.

I was surprised, though, that he had no apparent interest in reconnecting, even under these circumstances. I mean, if I had a brother who wrote me out of the blue after 30 years saying, "Hey, I've had amnesia..."

These are all really good questions, but I'm going to politely decline to offer information on William's medical history (other than the amnesia), sexual orientation, or other super personal stuff.

Excellent how-the-sausage-gets-made question. The short answer is it's very, very hard and I got very, very lucky. I started reporting this is 2014, when I was freelance. That February, I paid out of pocket to go see BK in Florida. I kept reporting, on and off, for the next year, in my spare time. (At the same time, I was working another, full-time job.)

Finally, in the spring of 2015, I pitched it to an editor at First Look Media (which publishes The Intercept) Eric Bates, who -- to his enormous credit -- agreed to pay for the piece and cover additional expenses, even though the case hadn't been solved and didn't look like it was going to be solved anytime soon. This was a very unusual arrangement, considering the story didn't have a third act. By sheer luck of timing, the very skillful CeCe Moore happened to crack the case a few months later. Eric eventually moved over to TNR and, long story short, the article went with him.

Generally, whether as a staff writer or a freelancer, these articles are enormously difficult to get written and I got extremely lucky to get the support I did.

I'm researching missing persons in grad school, so a long article about the phenomenon of missingness.