Missing in Chicago: What Happened to Jesse Ross?
A college student vanished during a school trip, and 15 years later his family is still searching for answers.
Jesse Ross was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Missouri — Kansas City. He was majoring in communications and minoring in political science, and he was active in a number of different clubs on campus. He became a member of the university’s Model United Nations (MUN) as a freshman, and getting to go to the 2005 Model United Nations Conference at the University of Chicago had been one of the highlights of his year. Students from all over the country attended the conference, and it was a great way to meet new people. He was excited about taking part in MUN his sophomore year, and had been looking forward to the 2006 conference since the beginning of the semester.
Derek Moorhead was the faculty advisor of MUN and the chaperone for the 2006 conference. It was a role that was new to him. Up until the previous year, Derek had been a partner at a law firm; tired of the stress and long hours he decided to embark on a new career as a college professor at UMKC. It was a decision that would have a profound impact on his life.
The conference was scheduled to begin on Saturday, November 18, 2006. Jesse woke his father up before…