Reuben Waithaka flew more than 8,000 miles from Kenya to Alabama to witness his first grandson graduate from high school. But just one day after his arrival, the 72-year-old grandfather mysteriously vanished and has not been seen since.
Waithaka arrived in Calera, a small city south of Birmingham, on May 14 alongside his wife, Elizabeth Barua. He had come bearing sentimental gifts, including matching African print shirts for three generations of men himself, his son, and his grandson. They never got the chance to wear them together.
On the morning of May 15, a doorbell camera captured Waithaka stepping outside his son’s home dressed in khakis and a blue-and-white checkered shirt. About 30 minutes later, surveillance footage recorded him entering a gas station nearly two miles away. He waved to the attendant, entered the restroom, exited through a back door and disappeared.
Despite extensive efforts involving drones, helicopters, search dogs, and infrared cameras, authorities have found no trace of Waithaka. The case has drawn widespread attention and raised painful questions for his family, who have retraced every step he took in search of clues.
His son, Willington Barua, says his father began showing signs of distress during their flight from Nairobi to Atlanta. He became agitated during the final leg of the journey and even fell at the airport. Though a hospital visit found nothing alarming, the family now fears he may have been suffering from an undiagnosed cognitive condition.
Police say Waithaka received two rides from strangers the morning he disappeared, which may have taken him farther from home. His last confirmed sighting was at the gas station around 11:43 a.m., though a local resident reported seeing someone matching his description entering nearby woods later that day.
Calera Police Chief David Hyche says the department threw all its resources into the search, with officers working 18 straight days at one point. The family also pleaded publicly for people to stop offering rides to the elderly man, fearing each ride moved him farther away and deepened the mystery.
Waithaka’s Kenyan cell phone was reportedly last pinged in Frankfurt, likely due to being in airplane mode. He did not have his passport or U.S. dollars with him when he vanished. Authorities continue checking hospitals, shelters, and abandoned buildings while also working with federal and international partners.
His grandson Byron graduated five days after the disappearance, walking across the stage without the man he had hoped would be watching. The family held a silent moment for Waithaka before the ceremony, clinging to hope while grappling with fear and sorrow.
June 3 marked Waithaka’s 73rd birthday, and a celebration had been planned for Father’s Day the final weekend before his parents were scheduled to return to Kenya. Instead, the family taped missing posters around truck stops and wooded areas, hoping for a breakthrough that never came.
What happened to Reuben Waithaka remains a heartbreaking mystery. Each phone call brings both hope and dread to his son, who says the hardest part is the silence and the not knowing
