It’s been 57 days since Namrud “Rudy” Tessema was last seen.
The search for the lost New Yorker has centered around Iron County, which was his last known location.
An Energizer bunny.
That’s how his sister Reweina Tessema lovingly described her missing brother.
“Everywhere he goes, he’s just kind of a ray of sunshine. It's just kind of how he is generally in life, every room he walks into he’s just a very energetic and uplifting person,” she said.
She last spoke to him on October 21st in a 30 minute FaceTime call.
“He was telling me about the spiritual journeys he’d been on, what he’d been experiencing,” said Tessema.
She explained that her brother was traveling with friends around the country, while learning about some of the cultural and spiritual practices of the Lakota Sioux from a friend.
“Spirituality has always been important to him. His faith has always been important to him,” said Reweina Tessema.
He walked off in the middle of the night on October 22nd, leaving behind the friends he had been with.
His family is working hard to find him.
“It's still really hard. It's incredibly hard. My parents live outside of the country. So they were outside of the country when they found out and they flew back here to be with family, to do whatever they can for us,” said Tessema.
“Me and other family members have gone to Iron County in Wisconsin and to other counties all over Wisconsin to stop in gas stations, places of worship, truckstops, restaurants, anywhere that he might have stopped in or anywhere that there's a lot of foot traffic, so people could get familiar with his face,” she said.
They’ve been working with tribal and local police departments, as well as a private investigator.
They’ve launched social media campaigns, put up billboards, made lawn signs, and are considering setting up a reward.
Mike Randall is the Chief Deputy for the Iron County Sheriff’s Department.
He said that the department has been working with the FBI, his hometown police department, and the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
A caller in Plover, WI recently said he saw a man matching Tessema’s description per billboards in the area, but Plover Police were not able to find him.
Namrud Tessema is a 46 year old, 5 foot 10 Black man with partially gray hair and a white beard.
If you have any information, reach out to the Iron County Sheriff’s Department.
To see a photo of Tessema and more information, head to https://www.wimissing.org/post/namrud-wegahta-tessema.
