David Grann

They really didn't know.

His mother had worked at the business, and the only clues was the mother had reported...

that somebody had called the office in kind of a demanding state, asking to speak with Darius for business.

And she had then given him her son's cell phone.

And then later when Darius came back into the office,

The mother asked him, you know, did you speak with this client, this customer who called?

And he said, yes, and I'm going to see him this afternoon.

And that was really the only kind of clue that possibly he had gone to meet this person and then disappear.

But nobody knew who that person was.

There was no sense of motive.

You know, the authorities kind of considered it almost a perfect crime because there were so few clues.

And eventually, out of frustration and being stymied, the case was closed, and it gradually became the coldest of cold cases.

He was a really interesting figure.

He had had many professions.

He had been a mechanic.

He had been a municipal clerk.

But then after the fall of communism, he joins the police department, and he kind of finally found his calling.

He was a large man, but he was very unthreatening.

And people said they trusted him because they didn't think there was anything to fear him.

And he was able to solve many cases.