- April 24, 2024
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Ormond Beach resident Brian Mellen spent six months staring into the faces of everyone he drove past. He combed the streets in the greater Daytona area like a man on a mission — one, that in the last 16 months, has not gotten any easier or clearer.
Mellen's friend, avid and well-known biker Frank Micari, seems to have disappeared into thin air. Last summer, Micari was Baker Acted into Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach. A couple of days later, before Mellen had the chance to see him in the hospital, Micari was discharged.
No one has seen him since.
Mellen exhausted himself trying to find him. He went out almost every night and combed through different streets, altering his route each night. He made flyers with Micari's photo. He visited homeless shelters, camps and known food distributing spots.
“I’m not searching for him like I used to, but every person I drive by I look and I say, is that him?” Mellen said.
In 2012, Micari used to run a nonprofit organization called "Voice for the Missing," which was meant to help reunite missing persons with their families. Now, six years later, he's the one that needs a voice.
And Mellen is not alone in trying to raise awareness about his disappearance.
Jerry Howell met Micari line dancing at Rockin' Ranch. Micari went there almost every friday after eating a meal at Hibachi Grill in Daytona, where he would grab a "sack" of fortune cookies to distribute to everyone at the club. It was his routine.
“He danced with all the girls," Howell said. "They loved dancing with him. He was so good — better than I could ever be I think," he added, laughing.
Howell said he liked Micari from the moment they met. He doesn't know how anybody could feel any different. Micari was like a rough teddy bear with a warm heart, Howell said.
One thing Micari loved more than dancing? Riding.
“He treasured his motorcycles," Howell said. "That’s the craziest part. I mean, he had five of them.”
The last time he saw Micari was when he was in rehab. Months before his disappearance, Micari had gotten into an accident on his motorcycle. Mellen said he hit a median on East International Speedway Boulevard after a vehicle cut him off.
Howell said he and Micari spoke briefly about the accident before Micari retired to his room. The injuries Micari sustained in the accident could have prompted doctors to warn him against riding again. That could have sent him into a depression, Howell said.
“That’s a psychological zap to your brain," Howell said. "I dread the day when I can’t ride anymore.”
For many charity runs, Micari would lead the pack. His bike was easy to spot: it had two large flags, one for prisoners of war, and the other a U.S. flag. On the rear, Micari had strapped a large teddy-bear.
When people saw that bike, they knew Micari couldn't be too far away, said Joe Vece, another of Micari's friends within the biker community. He called Micari "squeaky" due to his high-pitched raspy voice. Micari only has one vocal cord.
Vece organizes an annual 9/11 Memorial run in Flagler Beach. He and Micari have been riding together since 2006.
“Every year, he didn’t miss it," Vece said.
Last thing he heard from Micari was that he was going to have surgery for his back, which was hurt during the ISB accident. That happened around the same time Mellen and Howell last saw or spoke to him.
“I’m hoping he’s okay, but as depressed as he was, anything is possible," Vece said.
Micari's Facebook page is full of links to news stories about missing persons, the last one dating back to May, 2017. If you're friends with him on Facebook, Vece said you'll be able to see people posting on his wall. They want to know if anyone's seen him.
Not too long ago, Micari was asking similar questions about someone who impacted him. Her name is Michelle Parker. She's been missing since November of 2011.
“He really did a lot to try to find her," Mellen said.
Parker was the reason Micari started "Voice for the Missing." The Palm Coast Observer wrote a story about Micari and his organization in 2012 when he launched it. Micari invested countless hours and much of his own money to raise awareness in the community.
“I’m tired of these (people) going missing," Micari told the Observer in 2012. "I’m tired of kids getting snatched out of their bedrooms,” he said. “You can’t even put a kid in their own bed anymore and know that they’re safe.”
The fact that he's now the one that is missing is ironic, Howell said.
The only indication Mellen has that Micari hasn't disappeared is based on word of mouth. It comes from one of Micari's friends, known to Mellen as "A.J."
She held on to his wallet when he was Baker Acted at Halifax, and continued to do so when he didn't turn up, Mellen said. Micari had a storage unit in South Daytona for a few of his tools and a couple of his motorcycles, and A.J. was using his debit card to pay the unit's monthly fee until they could find him.
A couple of months after his disappearance, the debit card was no longer valid. Mellen said A.J. went to Micari's bank, and the manager told her that Micari came in to notify the bank his card was being misused.
Mellen said the bank manager also told A.J. that Micari was fine and that somebody was "taking care of him." The Ormond Beach Observer reached out to Micari's bank, but they could not deny or confirm any information on Micari, citing banking privacy laws.
Could it be that Micari has simply moved away?
"It's possible," Mellen said.
But the biker community was his family, he said, adding that Micari didn't have contact with his biological family. He and Micari used to talk all the time. All his close friends were here.
Vece said Micari rarely mentioned his family. They mostly talked about bikes.
Howell echoed the same sentiment. The people here that knew him, loved him, he said.
“It hurts my heart that nobody knows anything," Howell said.
Mellen suspects Micari must've had "some sort of breakdown." After his accident, Mellen said Micari became increasingly paranoid in thinking that he was going to be arrested because he owed a lot of money in medical bills. Mellen tried to calm his fears, but Micari wouldn't budge.
When he found out the hospital discharged Micari and that no one knew where he was, Mellen said he was upset. Micari had been talking about killing himself — it's why he was Baker Acted in the first place.
All his friends want is closure.
“I’d like to know one way or the other," Mellen said. "Does he not want to bothered by anybody or is he… I don’t know. It’s just strange when you have somebody that’s so close to you and then is just like, gone.”
