Recently retired Washington Park employee hasn’t been seen in nearly a week, family says
A former Washington Park village employee has not been seen for several days and family, friends, and former colleagues are concerned about his well being.
James Montgomery, 65, a retiree, who worked 40 years in the Public Works Department, has not been seen since Tuesday. His car, a black 1994 Chevy Camaro also is missing.
“Our family is worried sick about my uncle,” said Demetra Kidd, Montgomery’s neice. “My brother speaks to him everyday and he has not spoken to him in several days. This s very unusual.”
Kidd said her uncled is a “creature of habit,” who doesn’t leave home often, least of all overnight and without contacting family.
“He doesn’t travel at night,” she said. “He talks to my brother and a good friend that he talks to everyday. They have not heard from him.
“One of my aunts talks to him at least once or twice a week if not more. ... He never goes anywhere , but to Caseyville to buy a lottery ticket, or to Pontoon Beach to that meat market.”
Kidd said the family knows of nobody who would want to harm her uncle, who she described as “a loner.”
“He did not visit around or have people coming to him,” she said. “We don’t know if his car steered off the road or if he’s been led somewhere. We don’t know anything. We can’t get any answers. We don’t know. This is so unusual.”
Montgomery is recently retired from the Washington Park Public Works Department and was a commissioner for East St. Louis, where he lived.
He recently purchased a black 1994 Z28 Chevy Camaro with a drop top, which is also missing. He purchased the car in Pontoon Beach. It is also missing.
The vehicle’s VIN number is 2G1FP32P1R2179803.
Montgomery is 6-feet, 2-inches tall and weighs about 240 pounds. The last time anyone is known to have seen him is “talking to two young guys” at a business on Kingshighway between 10 a.m. at 3:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 29.
Washington Park resident and civic leader Deb Moore says she’s known Montgomery for 40 years and says he’s a warm and kind person. She’s worried about his well-being, she said.
“We cannot believe he has just disappeared,” she said. “It makes no sense to us. Of course we need to hear something. No one has seen his car or him for days and that is extremely unusual.”
She said Montgomery liked to play lottery games and was a frequent winner. Workers at the Caseyville business where he purchased tickets said on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday that they hadn’t seen him.
But he typically “played every day two and three times a day. He would win sometimes,” Moore said.
Asked by a BND reporter if she believed lottery winnings played a role in Montgomery’s disappearance, she said she wasn’t sure.
“I was told he was happy because his numbers had come in,” Moore said. “Something is just not right. There is no way he would not answer calls from his family and friends, and he has not.
“He would be answering somebody’s calls. If the phone battery was dead, he would charge it up. If he had to buy another charger he would go get another charger.”
Moore said Montgomery was known to travel a regular route on Illinois 111 between Pontoon Beach, Caseyville and back to his East St. Louis home. Every place he goes is on that route.
“He’s routine,” she said.
“James is very dear to me. He mentored my sons. and one of them is following in his footsteps. He motivated him very much. We are very grateful to him for that. We want to see him alive and well. Hopefully this nightmare will end very soon and we can get back to normalcy with James.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2024 at 4:30 PM.
