Missing Lyft Driver Family Raises Money For Private Investigator

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — After struggling with the bureaucratic hurdles of the NYPD, the family of a missing 31-year-old in Williamsburg are hoping to raise enough money to hire a private investigator.

The family and friends of James Johnston, who also goes by Jamie, have already raised about $2,000 of their $20,000 through a GoFundMe set up to help find the Johnston, who went missing from his Williamsburg apartment on Jan. 29.

The money, the fundraiser said, will be used to hire a private investigator, pay for the family, who is from Rochester, to travel to New York City, and any medical expenses needed after Johnston is found. Any additional money will be be donated to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a group that has helped Jonhnston's family when he was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

"My hopes are someone will see him soon," the friend who set up the fundraiser wrote. "He is missed and loved by many, especially his immediate family."

Johnston was last seen the night of Jan. 29 in his apartment on Morgan Avenue. He had made it home after his car was towed from an accident earlier that day in North Bergen, NJ, where he was working as a Lyft driver, but disappeared by the next morning, his mom, Nancy, said.

"He took a Lyft or Uber back to his apartment and was talking to his roommates that night," she said. "They woke up the next morning and he was gone."

Johnston said they reported James missing to NYPD that Thursday, three days after he was last seen, when she began to worry after he didn't answer messages or calls.

They have since worked with three separate detectives and searched the neighborhood on their own, but have struggled to make progress. Since he is not a senior or a child and there wasn't evidence of criminal activity, the department wasn't able to subpoena James' cell phone records, despite his family's concerns about his mental health.

James had been stable for the last six months before he went missing, Johnston said, but was scheduled for a shot of his medication Feb. 20. Because the medication is newer, she added, they aren't sure how his body will react to going off of it.

Johnson said that she also worries because James might have suffered a head injury from the accident. He refused medical attention at the scene, but the air-bag had deployed when he hit a car that stopped short in front of him, Johnston said. The airbag debris had made him so sick that he told her he got out of the car and threw up after the crash.

The family has set up a Facebook page to help find James and is asking anyone who has information to contact NYPD Det. Joseph Augello at (718) 265-7488 or (929) 334-6940. James has black hair, brown eyes, stands about 5-foot-8 tall and has a large scar above his elbow.

"We just hope that he will call so we can find him, get him whatever help he might need and get him home," she said. "He is an amazing young man and I miss him horribly."