Woman Reports Deadhead Son Missing Since '95

JANUARY 14--A South Carolina woman yesterday contacted police to file a missing person report on her son, who left home to follow the Grateful Dead nearly 20 years ago.

Margaretta Evans, 63, told a Myrtle Beach Police Department officer that “she has not seen or heard from her son since early June of 1995,” according to a police report.

Evans “advised that he left to follow the Grateful Dead at that time,” reported Officer Traci Chanaca.

The missing man, Jason Patrick Callahan, would now be 38, Evans told police. She described him as “approximately 5’ 10” to 6’ 00” in height and approximately 160 pounds” with “wavy brown hair and brown eyes.”

While the police report does not indicate why Evans waited two decades to report her son missing, the notification appears connected to the recent social media interest in the 1995 death of an unidentified man dubbed “Grateful Doe.”

The victim, who was killed in a June 26 car accident in Virginia, had Grateful Dead ticket stubs in his pocket at the time of his death, as well as a note addressed to "Jason." The driver of the vehicle was a South Carolina man, 21, who fell asleep at the wheel and also died in the crash.    

In June 1995, the Grateful Dead performed a trio of shows at the Shoreline Ampitheatre in northern California before embarking on a 16-concert East Coast swing. The tour ended with a July 9 show at Soldier Field in Chicago that would be the band’s final performance. Guitarist Jerry Garcia died a month later of a heart attack at a California drug rehabilitation facility. (2 pages)