Where Is Matt Maupin?

Jan. 14, 2007 — -- In the village of Batavia, Ohio, a community that prides itself on its clean-cut values, it's hard not to notice Keith Maupin. With a gray and scraggly beard that hangs down below his chest, the 56-year-old is known by everyone. Maupin hasn't shaved his facial hair in almost three years -- not since April 9, 2004, to be exact.

That's the day Maupin's son, Matt, a soldier serving in Iraq, was kidnapped by militants who ambushed his convoy outside Baghdad with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. Since then, a special Army task force has pursued countless leads and engaged in at least 200 missions to search for him, but Sgt. Maupin has not yet been found and remains the longest-missing U.S. soldier in the current Iraq conflict.

"It gets frustrating," says Keith Maupin, who has vowed not to shave his beard until his son returns. "It's been almost three years, and they haven't found hide nor hair of him. I don't know what they're doing, but it's not working out right."

Maupin and his ex-wife, Carolyn, are among the most active military families in the country. They've set up the Yellow Ribbon Military Support Center, which has become a full-time job for the couple. And at the Sam's Club where Matt used to work stocking shelves, his father has sent 170,000 photos of Matt around the world to keep his memory alive.

Keith Maupin is persistent. He has talked to President Bush seven times and asked numerous generals and commanders about what they're doing to find his son. When the president once asked him when he would cut his hair, Maupin responded: "When you bring Matt home."

Every three months, the Maupins head to the Pentagon to get updates from military personnel -- they're leaving in three weeks for the next visit. And they're trying to stay patient as the information has slowed to a trickle. "It has been dry for a while. They've had no major leads in a long time."

The biggest lead so far has also been the most disheartening. A week after Maupin's convoy was ambushed, a video depicting the soldier was delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar, and aired on Al-Jazeera. It raised hopes that Matt Maupin was still alive, since he identified himself by his military rank, which is standard procedure for prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.