Girlfriend of missing Chicago man pleas for return after he vanished from concert venue
Noah Enos’ girlfriend Nicole Wijs told The Independent on Thursday that she last spoke with him around 9pm on Monday
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The family of a missing Chicago man is desperately looking for him after he vanished from a concert venue.
Twenty-six-year-old Noah Enos was last seen around 10pm on Monday at The Salt Shed in the city’s Goose Island neighbourhood. Mr Enos’s phone died around the time he went missing and he has not been in contact with his family since, prompting an investigation into the disappearance by the Chicago Police Department.
Mr Enos’ girlfriend Nicole Wijs, 26, told The Independent on Thursday that he had been sending Snapchat videos to her throughout the concert until about an hour before he vanished. She messaged him at 10pm but his phone was dead and it has not been turned on since.
“I was waiting up for Noah to come home after the concert. I waited up all night. I called hospitals,” Ms Wijs said. “I was going crazy not hearing from him. So, I got up and drove to the venue. Obviously, I couldn’t go in because it was closed but I drove around and didn’t see anybody.”
Ms Wijs said she eventually reached out to a coworker of Mr Enos’, who attended the concert with him. He told Mr Enos’ family that he briefly left Mr Enos’ side and couldn’t find him afterwards. The coworker said he waited for Mr Enos for a while but left the venue at the end of the night after failing to locate him.
The last location of Mr Enos’ phone appears to be the Salt Shed. However, when his girlfriend scoured the venue and its parking lot with security guards, they were not able to find his phones or any items that belonged to him.
Ms Wijs said she is especially concerned because their home is just 15 minutes away from the venue. She also noted Mr Enos knows her cellphone number by heart and would have at least tried to call her from another phone.
When reached by The Independent, a Chicago police detective declined to confirm or deny whether the disappearance is being treated as suspicious, only saying an investigation is underway.
“He went to the concert. His phone died, and he vanished. There’s no sign of him anywhere else,” Ms Wijs told The Independent. “I need everybody that went to that concert to recognize him. I need his face to reach every single person that was at that venue, somebody that was at the show saw him leave and knows which direction he went.”
According to the family, Mr Enos was last seen on surveillance video at the venue. In the footage, he is seen by the exit as bouncers were ushering concertgoers out, but detectives have reportedly not been able to find video of him leaving the venue.
Mr Wijs said that it is extremely unusual for Mr Enos to go hours, let alone days, without communicating with her and his family.
“There have been a few people that have reached out to me that recognized him from being at the concert and [they] do not remember anything strange about his demeanour ... or him being intoxicated, or stumbling or anything like that.”
Mr Enos moved to Chicago last September from Missouri. Ms Wijs said that they’re still getting used to the city and haven’t had the chance to make many friends and that it is highly unusual her boyfriend would leave on his own with a potential stranger.
“We’ve been together for a little under two years now. We were childhood sweethearts. We we’ve had strong feelings for each other since we were about 13-14 years old, and then he moved [with me last year,]” Ms Wijs told The Independent.
Mr Enos is white and has black hair and brown eyes. His height is 5’11’ ft and he weighs 140 pounds.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Chicago Police Department detectives at (312) 746-6554.