Friends search for North Carolina man who vanished after crash

Volunteers are searching the Raleigh area for Robert Richardson.

By
Bill Hutchinson
May 11, 2022, 4:46 PM ET
4 min read

Friends and volunteers formed a search party Wednesday and fanned out in Raleigh, North Carolina, looking for clues and raising awareness about a popular nightclub bouncer, who they say went missing a week ago while driving home.

Robert Richardson, 41, was reported missing by friends, who say he disappeared after getting into a minor car accident on the evening of May 4.

"He's out there somewhere and somebody knows something," Kensley Perry, a friend of Richardson, told ABC station WTVD in Durham.

Perry works as head of security at The Village Entertainment Complex in Raleigh's Glenwood South nightlife district, where Richardson is employed as a door bouncer.

The Raleigh Police Department confirmed that Richardson's friends filed a missing person report, but said they have no solid leads on where he might be.

Richardson was driving home to nearby Sanford on May 4 after meeting friends for dinner and got into a fender bender, Perry said. He said Richardson exchanged insurance information with the driver of the other car.

Perry said Richardson inexplicably walked away, leaving his vehicle behind with his two cell phones and laptop computer inside. Police responded and towed the vehicle away, Perry said.

Perry said he received a report that Richardson was spotted on May 5 walking toward downtown Raleigh, but there have been no sightings since.

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Worried that Richardson may have been injured in the crash and has become disoriented, friends have called local hospitals and homeless shelters looking for the man. Friends and volunteers spent Wednesday plastering downtown Raleigh with missing person fliers containing Richardson's photo.

Richardson is described as 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-3 and around 280 pounds.

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"He's got tattoos so he sticks out," Perry said.

Asked if Richardson, who moved to North Carolina from Pennsylvania a year ago, had disappeared before or has a history of substance abuse, Perry said, "He's not that type of guy. No history of that, to our knowledge, whatsoever."

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Perry said Richardson is a "nice, fun-loving social dude."

"Always got a smile on his face," Perry said of his friend.