In 2016, the teen’s car was abandoned on Interstate 5 near Tumwater with his wallet, cash and cellphone inside. Haven’t seen him since.
THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. — A vigil was held this month to mark the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of 19-year-old Logan Schiendelman from Thurston County, where his family remains desperate for answers and law enforcement continues to work to solve the case.
Logan Schiendelman disappeared on May 20, 2016. The day before, his grandmother, the last family member to see him, said he seemed disturbed.
“He was acting a little nervous and he said he had an epiphany about who he was and he needed to work it out,” Ginnie Schiendelman told KING 5 News in 2016.
She said she went to work that evening and planned to continue the conversation when she returned. She never had a chance.
The next day, Logan Schiendelman’s car was found unoccupied on Interstate 5.
Detectives found cash, food, wallets and cellphones inside. Witnesses said they saw a white man exit the car before it plowed into the median.
Another witness described seeing a tall, thin white man with a black man on a different stretch of Interstate 5 the day before.
“His disappearance is very suspicious,” said Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders, who attended Tumwater High School at the same time as Sean Delman. “He’s always been a really good kid.”
“He would never have just gotten out of the car and run away, and I knew something was seriously wrong,” said Mary Ware, Logan Schiendelman’s aunt.
In 2024, Sheriff Sanders assigned a dedicated detective to focus on unsolved homicides and missing persons cases in Thurston County. The disappearance of Logan Schiendelman is one of the cases about to get a new look.
At a recent vigil, the detective urged anyone with information to come forward. “If you were interviewed by the Sheriff’s Office nine or 10 years ago, you probably would have gotten a call,” the detective said. George Oplinger. “Sometimes people remember things but they don’t always come forward and that’s really important.”
Logan’s aunt, Tina Roberts Crary, who only recently made contact with her nephew before he disappeared, urged the public not to reduce him to a statistic.
“He is not a face on a poster or a case number,” she said. “He is a young man full of expectations for life.”
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office at 360-786-5500.
