Death of David Glenn Lewis

David Glenn Lewis was a lawyer and former county court-at-law judge from Dumas, Texas, near Amarillo. Born in Borger, Texas, in 1953, he earned degrees from Texas Tech and worked in private practice, as an assistant county attorney, and briefly as an elected judge before losing a bid for a district court judgeship. On January 28, 1993, Lewis left his law firm early, saying he felt unwell, and taught an evening class at Amarillo College until 10 p.m. This was the last confirmed sighting of him in the Amarillo area released to the public.

Over the following days, his movements grew increasingly difficult to trace. His wife and daughter left for a weekend trip to Dallas without seeing him again. A church member reported seeing him hurrying through the Amarillo airport without luggage, and his car was seen parked near the Potter County courthouse on multiple occasions, once with a man resembling him apparently photographing the building. When his family returned home Sunday evening after Super Bowl XXVII, Lewis was missing; his wedding ring, watch, and food were left behind, and the VCR was recording the game. His wife reported him missing on February 1 after he missed work appointments. Financial records showed a $5,000 deposit into his account and two plane tickets purchased in his name, the circumstances of which were never resolved. Police speculated Lewis may have disappeared voluntarily, citing possible personal and professional stress, including an unresolved lawsuit naming him and past election loss, though his family and friends maintained they saw no signs he intended to leave.

That same night, February 1, 1993, in Moxee, Washington, near Yakima, motorists saw a disoriented man walking in the road along SR 24 and, minutes later, found him fatally struck by a vehicle. He carried no identification and was classified as an unidentified decedent. An autopsy confirmed death from injuries consistent with being struck by a vehicle; toxicology found no tested drugs in his system. The vehicle and driver were never identified, and it could not be determined whether the incident was accidental.

The case remained unsolved for over a decade until early 2003, when Washington State Patrol detective Pat Ditter, prompted by a Seattle Post-Intelligencer series on unidentified persons cases, used Google to search for missing men matching the decedent's height and weight. This led him to Lewis's photograph on missing-persons websites. A comparison of eyeglasses found among the decedent's effects with Lewis's known eyewear, followed by DNA testing in October 2004 by the University of North Texas comparing decedent tissue with Lewis's mother's DNA, confirmed a 99.91 percent probability of identity match. Both the Texas missing-person case and the Washington unidentified-decedent case were formally closed, and Lewis was reburied near his family. Questions about how and why he traveled to Washington, and the circumstances of his death, remain unanswered.