A Wave From a Passing Truck: The Disappearance of Gene McPherson

Author

Benjamin Hayes

Publication Date

November 28, 2025

Gene Allen McPherson was 42 years old when he disappeared from Craig County, Virginia, on the evening of May 23, 1987. He had told friends he was heading out to a cabin for a meeting, and the last confirmed sighting of him alive came from his own son, watching from a spot in town as his father's silver pickup truck rolled past. Gene waved. His son waved back. Neither of them had any idea it would be the final time they would ever see one another.

An Ordinary Saturday Evening

On the evening of Saturday, May 23, 1987, Gene McPherson was seen driving his silver 1978 Ford pickup truck at approximately 5:50 p.m., heading along Virginia Route 615 in the direction of Botetourt County, in the rural, mountainous stretch of southwestern Virginia where he lived. He had mentioned to friends beforehand that he was on his way to a cabin for some kind of meeting, though the specifics of that meeting, and whether it had anything to do with what happened to him afterward, have never been fully established. Gene never returned home that night, and he was never seen alive again.

A Truck Found, A Wallet Later

Three days after he vanished, Gene's pickup truck turned up abandoned at a rest area along Interstate 81 near Radford, Virginia, considerably far from where he had last been seen driving. Inside the truck, investigators found cassette tapes scattered about along with a pair of sunglasses, ordinary items that offered no clear indication of what had happened, though Gene's rifle, which he was known to typically keep with him, was conspicuously missing. Months later, in September of that year, Gene's wallet turned up in the grass along the shoulder of Interstate 81, a discovery that only deepened the mystery surrounding his disappearance rather than resolving it.

A Confession From a Career Criminal

The case remained unsolved for months until November 1987, when a man named John Edwin Colclasure Jr. came forward with a confession. Colclasure was, by that point, already a well established career criminal, serving a sentence of life plus 156 years connected to more than forty separate offenses, the overwhelming majority of them armed robberies and prison escapes. According to Colclasure's account, he and an unnamed accomplice had been paid 10,000 dollars to kill Gene McPherson, hired specifically by the husband of a woman with whom Gene had reportedly been having an affair. Colclasure identified the man who hired him as a local physician whose wife had been involved with Gene, framing the entire killing as an act of jealous retaliation for the affair.

A Guilty Plea, But No Location

Facing the possibility of a death sentence for his role in Gene's killing, Colclasure pleaded guilty in May 1989 in exchange for a sentence of life in prison. Despite his confession and guilty plea, the alleged accomplice he described was never publicly identified or formally charged, and the physician he named as the man who orchestrated the killing was likewise never charged in connection with Gene's death. Gene's remains, meanwhile, were never located, despite Colclasure's admitted role in the killing itself.

An Escape Attempt During a Search

At one point, authorities arranged to have Colclasure removed from prison so that he could lead investigators to the specific location where Gene's remains had allegedly been buried. During this supervised search, Colclasure managed to retrieve a concealed firearm from the area, and when he drew the weapon on the accompanying officers, he was shot and wounded, though not fatally, by police. The search that day, like every other effort to recover Gene's remains, ultimately produced nothing.

A Deathbed Hint That Never Came

Colclasure spent his remaining years in prison, and in November 2001, seriously ill with hepatitis C, he reportedly hinted from his infirmary bed to authorities that he might finally be willing to reveal where Gene's body had been buried. That revelation never came. Colclasure died in prison in 2002, taking whatever specific knowledge he held about the location of Gene's remains with him, and leaving the case in the same unresolved state it had occupied for the previous fifteen years.

A Son Who Still Calls Every Year

Gene's son, Paul McPherson, has spent decades since his father's disappearance pushing for the kind of answer that Colclasure's death made permanently impossible to obtain directly from the man responsible. Paul has committed to checking in annually with state police investigators on the anniversary of his father's disappearance, a ritual of persistence stretched now across nearly four decades. He has spoken publicly about the day he last saw his father, describing how he had been sitting in town with friends when Gene drove past in his pickup truck, the two of them exchanging a simple wave without either one realizing it would be their final goodbye. Paul has made repeated public appeals for anyone with information, however small, to come forward, whether to the Craig County Sheriff's Office, to local news outlets, or directly to Virginia State Police, emphasizing that any tip could remain anonymous and that all his family is asking for, after all these years, is some form of closure.

A Family Connection to Law Enforcement

Gene's own brother, B.B. McPherson, served as a local sheriff for 32 years, a tenure that included his own direct involvement in investigating his brother's disappearance and death over the decades, adding a deeply personal dimension to the law enforcement effort surrounding the case that few cold cases carry in quite the same way.

A Case Reopened With New Tools

As of 2025, nearly four decades after Gene disappeared, Virginia State Police have continued actively working what investigators now describe specifically as the missing persons component of the case. Senior Special Agent Douglas Hubert has stated publicly that the department continues pursuing the case, noting that investigators have identified inconsistencies within the original narrative surrounding Gene's death that merit continued scrutiny. As part of this renewed effort, authorities have digitized the case's original files, collected DNA samples from McPherson family members to assist with any eventual identification of remains, and conducted new interviews with witnesses connected to the case. Both Colclasure and the physician he named as having orchestrated the killing have since died, but investigators believe that witnesses located in both Virginia and North Carolina may still hold valuable information that could finally help resolve where Gene's remains actually are.

Still Missing

Nearly forty years after Gene Allen McPherson waved to his son from the window of a pickup truck and drove out of view for the final time, his remains have never been recovered, and the full truth behind the murder for hire scheme that ended his life has never been completely unraveled. The man who confessed to killing him died without ever revealing where he had hidden the body. The man allegedly responsible for ordering the killing was never charged and has since died as well. What remains is a case Virginia State Police continue to actively work using modern investigative tools unavailable in 1987, and a son who still calls every single year, hoping that this will finally be the anniversary someone comes forward with the answer his family has been waiting for since that ordinary Saturday evening wave.

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