Elmhurst Missing Man Case Gone Cold?

Elmhurst IL

13 July, 2021

1:11 PM

Description

ELMHURST, IL — At least four Facebook pages are dedicated to finding Jake Cefolia, the Elmhurst resident and United Airlines executive who went missing last August. Little activity takes places these days on any of the pages. So a notification from one of them on Tuesday was surprising. On the "Please help find Jake Cefolia" page, a United employee from Bangor, Maine, said he has worked for the airline for a couple of years. He never met the 49-year-old Cefolia. The employee, Jeffrey Hallett, said he regularly looks for United news on the airline's website, but sees no mention of Cefolia. He said one of his co-workers heard about the executive's disappearance, but did not seem to care. "They had their own problems and life going on," Hallett said. "For some reason, I could not stop thinking about it, and I found this page and have been following the case right along." He may be part of a dwindling number of people. The Facebook page in question, with 1,400 members, has seen only a handful of posts this year. And most of them are unrelated to Cefolia. A few days before Hallett's post, a page member shared a nearly two-hour video in which a woman hawks wigs. In other words, it had nothing to do with Cefolia. At United Airlines, Cefolia was senior vice president of worldwide sales, leading more than 700 employees. Months ago, his name was removed from the roster of corporate executives. No one has officially filled his position. A search of the United's website yields not one reference to Cefolia. To this day, the Elmhurst Police Department, which is the lead agency in the missing person investigation, has never issued a news release or photo in relation to Cefolia's disappearance. Such information is often released to enlist the public's help. The department's silence may be an indication that the police know something about Cefolia's disappearance that the public does not. Last year, the department told Patch that it was investigating Cefolia when he went missing. It would not reveal the nature of the investigation. He was last seen Aug. 7. After his disappearance, Patch obtained the Elmhurst police report on the missing person case. According to the documents, Cefolia was drinking excessively and broke up with his girlfriend in the days leading to his disappearance. He also was said to have fantasized about going off the grid. In November, Cefolia's house at 454 S. Rex Blvd. sold for $523,000, about 7 percent less than what he bought it for in 2016. He put it up for sale a couple of months before he disappeared. The sale was made possible with Cefolia's whereabouts unknown because Cefolia granted power of attorney to a relative in May 2018.