Marcus Freiberger was a strapping 6-foot tall, 225 pound member of our gay community here in Phoenix, AZ. Handsome, smart and active in contributing his passion for life the community he is very much missed by those who knew and loved him.
He went missing on or about February 21st of this year from downtown Phoenix where he was last reported to be heading out on a blind date. In the following weeks many of those close to him started sounding the alarm bells. Posters were broadcast on the internet, a missing persons report was filed. Sadly, this story ends with him eventually being found deceased in a desolate South Phoenix rock quarry.
In the preceding paragraph I left a lot of details out, a timeline, nuances of who, what, where, and when. Some of the details exist but so many more do not. This is in part because the Phoenix Police Department seemed uninterested in taking his disappearance seriously from the very start.
It’s not like they weren’t pushed, prodded and begged to look into the details. Mine and search his phone data they were urged, track the GPS data from his truck. Do something please!
Early on his family and friends shared with the police that he had been struggling with drug addiction. They did the right thing. You should always share everything you know to equip law enforcement with all the background you can. In this case however it seemed to change the mindset of the police.
It appears from how all this has shaken out that they made a conscious decision at this early stage to cast his disappearance of Marcus as just another gay man who probably fell victim to his own devices. In our current backdrop of toxic politics toward the LQBTQ+ community the perceived attitude tracks.
As weeks passed family and friends trying to get the police to seek some answers experienced little communication at best and even an aura of push-back at worst. The community however reacted quite different. News and concern of his disappearance became a social media firestorm in gay circles and eventually rose to flow in international mainstream news media.
When his lifeless body was found floating in the waters of a South Phoenix rock quarry on March 19th, the police department was finally under pressure to lift a finger and investigate what happened – at least for a while.
His body was found unclothed and floating in the water at the bottom of a steep embankment with no personal effects with him or nearby. No phone, no wallet, no clothes. Nothing. His truck was reported to be found parked nearly a mile away at the entrance to the trail-head that lead to the quarry.
It took the Maricopa County Coroner two months to issue their report and when they finally did there were few answers. In fact their official conclusion was a stated lack of one. There were blunt force injuries to his head, two broken ribs, and various cuts and scrapes here and there. A toxicology report shows findings of methamphetamine and THC his system at the time of death.
Their final analysis however does not conclude if any one of these factors or the combination of them was the official cause of death. If anything they stated the matter needed further investigation. The problem is, the police had already closed the case without a conclusion as to what happened.
They’re already done. That’s it. Nothing to see here. No!
Let me be clear that I did not know Marcus personally though I did meet him once, maybe twice. My connection here comes as his core social circle and mine overlap in some key ways. A few of my close friends were close friends of his.
Through their stories, their hurt, their anger, their loss I am connected. Because we share much of the same journey my heart is moved to use my journalistic and investigative skills to try and do something to help bring more understanding to what happened to our brother.
We need a single set of facts. We need answers. Why? His family, his loved ones, his friends and his community deserve his life to be taken seriously. We deserve for what happened to him to matter because his story could be any one of ours. But for the grace of God go we.
If I am intellectually honest and open minded I have to admit that there is a universe in which he could have walked out into the dangerous desolation on a cold dark February night and found his demise all on his own. Nobody wants to taste that, but it has to be admitted as a possibility.
Known circumstances however just don’t point to that being as likely as another person or persons being involved. The location in which he was found between 7th and 15th Avenues in South Phoenix along the river is a sketchy and dangerous area known for gang activity and transients living in the underbrush. Even in the daylight when I visited the area where he was found, I felt vulnerable being by myself. If he were there at night, this is a perilous place to meet bad people.
He may be been lured to this place by someone, he may have been out for a hike or trail walk as he was known to do. Perhaps he was looking meet someone. Whatever took him there, the likelihood he crossed paths with people who either witnessed or participated in what happened to him is very high.
In that way, if you know something, saw something or heard something that can help the police call them at 602-534-2121. If you were close to Marcus and have something to share with me that you truly believe can help me in putting the pieces together, please email me. sam@growingoldergay.com.
Smoker of fine tires, eater of natural foods, connoisseur of aromatic leathers, pusher of limits.