PORT TOWNSEND — Mitchell Hamilton was a regular customer at the Spruce Goose Café for several years.
So when he didn’t show up for a few weeks for a meal, co-owner Christine Cray and her crew became suspicious and concerned.
“Mitch was always here,” she said Friday while serving a busy afternoon lunch crowd at the cafe at the Jefferson County International Airport.
“He was an avid hiker and sometimes would be gone for several days. But when it was the 20th day and he hadn’t shown up, we all knew something wasn’t right.”
Instead of having left the area to go hiking as his friends believed, Hamilton, 57, was close by at Fort Worden State Park. Investigators found his remains Jan. 13 in a climber’s hammock perched high in a tree where he had taken his own life. He had been missing since Oct. 20, 2017.
Cray said his friends created missing posters and hung them at the restaurant and posted them around the area for several months. There were no sightings of Hamilton.
One of his friends went to his storage unit in Glen Cove where he had been living to see if he was ill or incapacitated. There was no sign of him.
The friend found a piece of paper with Hamilton’s log-in and ID for his email account and discovered he had purchased a “hammock rope” online not long before his disappearance. She wondered why he purchased that type of rope because he had multiple ropes in his storage unit and buying that one seemed unnecessary.
She reported Hamilton missing to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and gave detectives the rope information, which turned out to be one of the keys to solving the case.
“Mitch was a wonderful person, everyone loved him,” Cray said. “He was part of the airport family. Every day he would come in and sit at the counter in the same place. He ordered grilled cheese on sourdough, turkey sandwiches and pie. He especially loved our chowder.”
Christopher Jennings, Hamilton’s brother-in-law, said his mother and sister and the rest of his family are devastated by the news of their loved one.
“We always thought he would call us up, not do what he did,” Jennings said. “He was a private person. It was not surprising to not hear from him for six to eight months. Then he disappeared. No note, no closure. He is just gone.
“We believe it was depression,” he said. “Mitchell was lively and creative. He loved sailing and had lived on his sailboat. He had to let go of it because of the economy. He had been injured on the job and fell on hard times.
“This is a relief in a sad sense,” Jennings said. “Not once did we think about this. He kept this to himself.”
Hamilton’s family lives in Spokane and western Idaho and wants to take his remains back to their home. Jennings said there hasn’t been much time to process the information and that plans for any type of memorial have not been finalized.
“We are unprepared for this and are asking for charity through a Go Fund Me campaign,” he said.
Mitchell Hamilton’s fund site can be found at www.gofundme.com/help-bring-my-brothers-remains-home.
Back at the cafe, there is sadness about the loss of their friend.
“This just breaks our hearts that Mitch didn’t reach out to us,” Cray said. “We had no idea he was in that state of mind.
“Depression is a scary thing.”
If you or a loved one is in crisis or suffering from depression, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or dial 9-1-1 in an emergency.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Jeannie McMacken can be reached at 360-385 2335 or at jmcmacken@peninsuladailynews.com.
