Youngstown Detective Sgt. Dave Sweeney is shown in front of the former International Tavern on Poland Avenue at Center Street in Youngstown, the last place anyone reported seeing Frank Cerimele alive July 14, 1969. Sweeney recently learned that Cerimele’s disappearance was never solved and opened an investigation.

YOUNGSTOWN — If Frank Cerimele is still alive, he would be 72 years old.

Cerimele was a 21-year-old West Sider on July 14, 1969, when he went to the International Tavern on Poland Avenue at Center Street in his slick 1968 Pontiac Grand Prix to meet a friend.

He walked into the tavern wearing Bermuda shorts, a buttoned-down shirt and sandals.

Inside the bar, he may have watched news coverage from Cape Canaveral in Florida, where the Apollo astronauts were preparing two days later to lift off on the world’s first mission to walk on the moon.

Neil Armstrong, who lived in Warren and Champion as a boy, achieved unbeatable fame when he made his famous “one giant leap for mankind” remarks and dropped onto the moon’s surface July 20.

Armstrong and fellow Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin appeared at a televised news conference the evening of July 14 with Armstrong saying he and the two other astronauts “have no fear” of the mission, according to the July 15, 1969, front page of The Vindicator.

Two days later, the world watched as the Apollo mission launched. But Youngstown also had another issue on its hands.

OTHER ISSUES

Pickets turned violent at Montella’s Dairy, 907 Oak St., on the East Side the evening of July 15, touching off race-related “disorders” on the city’s East and South sides that injured two firefighters, three policemen and a police cadet, The Vindicator reported July 16. The newspaper later used the word “riot” to describe the incidents.

A Wilson Avenue pharmacy was “gutted” by an arson, and two cars were damaged.

“Roving gangs of youths pitched rocks, set fires and looted stores,” the newspaper’s William A. Snyder reported July 16.

The newspaper reported July 17 that nine people had been injured, a curfew had been instituted and the National Guard helped local police enforce order.In the July 20 Vindicator, a short article mentions that Cerimele, of Richview Avenue, had gone missing and that local police had been alerted. His mother reported him missing July 17, 1969.

A longer article July 22 said two Youngstown detectives had been assigned to the case. Detectives Gerald Brace and Peter D’Alesio were “checking out several leads” and suspected foul play.

The detectives said Cerimele was very proud of his car, which was found in the bar’s parking lot with the windows down. Cerimele had last been seen in the bar around 9 p.m.

That article appears to have been the last mention of Cerimele in The Vindicator. Archivists at the Youngstown Public Library searched for other references to him, but found none.

A FRESH LOOK

Youngstown Police Detective Sgt. Dave Sweeney learned about Cerimele’s disappearance about a month ago and is now investigating.

It falls to him because he has been investigating “cold cases” for a while now, and he learned about Cerimele from someone he was talking to about another cold case.

He checked into Cerimele’s disappearance and found no indication that Cerimele is still alive or that his body was ever found.

Sweeney said he can’t say much about the Cerimele investigation, just like any other active case, but he would like to hear from anyone who remembers anything about Cerimele’s disappearance and can help Sweeney solve the case.

The phone number to call is 330-742-8268 or 330-746-CLUE to use the anonymous tip line.

He declined to say whether he has been able to reach any family members or friends of Cerimele’s or whether such people are encouraging or helping him with the investigation.

Sweeney said the Cerimele case is now the oldest cold case he is investigating. He was able to find a folder in the police department’s archives but doesn’t know why the case did not remain on a list of unsolved cases.

One of the things Sweeney did when he learned of the case is report it on the NameUs Nationwide information clearinghouse, which provides free, secure, easy-to-use, online technology to help solve missing person cases.

NameUs says more than 600,000 people go missing in the United States every year. Many missing children and adults are quickly found, alive and well. But thousands remain missing for more than one year — what many agencies consider “cold cases,” NameUs says.

About 4,400 unidentified bodies are recovered each year, with approximately 1,000 of those bodies remaining unidentified after one year.