The Missing: Brian Vargo vanished in 1976, his 100-year-old mother yearns for answers
HOUSTON - FOX 26 is continuing to shine a light on the dozens of missing people who have vanished from the Greater Houston area. In this edition of "The Missing" we bring you the story of Brian Vargo, a University of Texas college student who vanished in 1976.
Amanda Vargo Wattecamps never got the chance to meet her uncle, Brian Vargo, and that's because he vanished 47 years ago, at just 20 years old.
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She recently started digging into his disappearance in hopes of getting her grandmother, Brian's mom, some sort of closure.
Even though Vargo went missing in 1976, an official missing person's report wasn't filed until 2021.
"I went to my grandma, and I said, who did you file it with? She said HPD, but they didn't have any record of it. So, the whole time, they didn't officially take one, but she thought she had. She thought that calling and letting them know was enough," Wattecamps explained.
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In March 1976, Brian who was a sophomore, went on Spring Break. He was set to spend that break at a "dude ranch" in Colorado. Somewhere along the way, his car, an older model Mazda broke down, so he left it with a mechanic and caught a bus back to the Houston area to his parent's home.
His family doesn't know how far he actually made it, or what state his car broke down in. Brian had his mother drop him off at a bus station stop in Katy.
She didn't ask many questions; the assumption was he was heading back to his car and then to Colorado.
Brian lived off campus with two roommates, and once Spring Break ended, his family was alerted that he never returned to campus or his apartment. The mechanic later called his father and told him Brian never returned for his car. His mother called the police and explained her concerns, Wattecamps says the officer her grandmother spoke with didn't take it seriously.
"They said he's an adult. He can go missing if he wants to," Wattecamps explained.
As time passed, Brian's family started coming to the realization that he might not ever make it home.
"In the 70's, it was very common for young men to just kind of go find themselves, figure out who they are, and what they wanted to do. That's what they thought that he was doing," said Wattecamps.
Brian would be 67 years old. Brian's mother recently celebrated her 100th birthday, and Wattecamps says living this long with the pain of not knowing what happened to her son hasn't been easy.
The internet wasn't around at the time of Brian's disappearance. But Wattecamps believes if it was, they'd have more answers by now.
"The internet has brought us so many things like cameras everywhere and time stamps for transactions and even checking people's identities," she said.
As soon as internet searches came around, she says her father, Brian's brother, tried to find him.
"My father's first search on the internet was for Brian," she said.
Now, this family's only hope of getting answers is for someone who knows something, to see this story, and come forward with whatever information they have.
"I think that if we don't get this moving, if the people who know something start getting sick and dying, I think it could be too late within the next five to 10 years," said Wattecamps.
Anyone with information about Brian Vargo's disappearance should contact Crime Stoppers at (713) 521-4600 or the Texas Center for the Missing.
You can click here for a look at an official record of long-term missing persons throughout the state of Texas.