Family seeks answers six months after man goes missing




HAPPIER TIMES–Jack Stein, 24, is a University of Minnesota economics graduate who had a promising career in finance when he went missing from an Agoura Hills treatment center six months ago. He had been suffering from depression and bipolar disorder. His whereabouts remains unknown.                                                                                                  Courtesy photos

Zoë Kustritz was in the mood for celebrating July 13, 2021 when she went to Basta restaurant in Agoura Hills for an Italian dinner.

The then 26-year-old and her mother were in town from the East Coast to witness what seemed to be a turning point for Zoë’s 24-year-old brother, Jack Stein, a Minnesota resident who had been staying at the drug and alcohol treatment center, Inspire Malibu.

Jack, a strong 6-foot-3-inch, 180-pound surfer and skateboarder, had spent time enjoying the outdoors in Malibu and Venice, all the while suffering from depression and bipolar disorder, which Zoë said seemed to be under control thanks to the counseling and proper medication provided at the luxury live-in facility off Kanan Road south of Agoura Hills.

If ever there was a day that things were looking bright for Jack, this was that day.

“And then, he left,” the 27-year-old Kustritz told The Acorn from her home in Boston. His family has neither seen nor heard from him since.

With the six-month anniversary of his disappearance approaching, Kustritz and her family are pleading with the public to help find Jack.

Missing in California

For adults 21 and older, men who go missing far outpace women, according to the National Crime Information Center: 95,000 to 59,000, respectively, in 2020. In California, the number of active missing person cases averages around 20,000. There’s no waiting period for reporting a person missing, and all California law enforcement agencies must accept any report—including by telephone—of a missing person, including runaways, without delay and give priority to the handling of the report.

Studies indicate that adults ages 18-25 have the highest prevalence of mental illness, and they are the ones prone to disappearing.

“Many people develop mood disorders as young adults, at a time of life when they are juggling living on their own, launching careers and starting families,” says Ken Duckworth, chief medical officer for NAMI, National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Jack Stein came to the Golden State from his home state, whose motto is “The Star of the North,” in May of last year seeking help, said his sister. A couple months later his mother, who lives in Minnesota, and sister visited—and they were pleased with what they saw.

SIBLING LOVE–Jack and his older sister Zoë shared a tight bond at the time of his disappearance. “We were probably closer than we’ve ever been,” she said. Below, surfer Jack showing toughness at the beach.

“The day he disappeared, he was happy. We were discussing plans for moving forward,” Kustritz said.

After their visit that day, the women dropped Jack off at the center and then headed to dinner.

“I think we were gone for three hours or something,” his sister said. “We were eating, having a really great time, imagining this really great future for Jack.”

A year earlier, Stein graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in economics and had landed a good job, working as a broker for financial services firm Securian Financial. Before he went missing, Stein was about to start a job as a recruiter for the staffing firm Tundra Technical Solutions, recruiting for food safety company Ecolab.

“He just kept wanting to move up and do better,” Kustritz said.

“We were really close,” she continued. “We would talk about career advice, investing. In these last two years, we were probably closer than we’ve ever been.”

‘Vanished without a trace’

For all the business acumen, Jack Stein also has an artistic side, said Kustritz, and one day he shared how grateful they were to have parents that exposed them to art. Kustritz went on to recount the joy that she and her brother shared when he came to visit her once in New York City.

“I got to take him to a Michelin star restaurant. We meditated in Central Park. We were walking down Fifth Avenue, marveling that we’d both made it, we both have careers,” said Kustritz. “Then the mental health crisis.”

California, however, had seemingly changed all of that.

“At dinner,” Kustritz recalled, “my mom and I were even saying, wouldn’t it be great if he started dating a nice girl?”

The jubilation came to an abrupt end when a call came later from an employee at Inspire: Jack had left on foot and was nowhere to be found.

“The guy on the phone said, ‘We called the police and then we called you,’” said Kustritz. “We just fled.”

Driving away at lightning speed, they caught up with a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy, who raced with them to an area where Jack was presumed to be: the Lady Face trailhead, about 2 miles north of the treatment facility.

“Two helicopters did a search that night,” recalled Kustritz. “They used a bloodhound. They caught (his scent), not in the mountains, but along the road” leading toward Highway 101. And then, the trail went cold.

The next day, Kustritz and her mom were at it again. The Sheriff’s Department even sent up another helicopter. “But he vanished without a trace,” said Kustritz. “We looked through every wilderness area and nothing.”

The case is eerily reminiscent of another young adult who had been dealing with a mental health crisis and was last seen walking in the Santa Monica Mountains south of Agoura, Mitrice Richardson. The then 24-year-old Richardson was released from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station jail late in the night on Sept. 17, 2009 following a restaurant bill payment dispute in Malibu. She wandered in the hills toward Calabasas alone and on foot, and disappeared. Her remains were found one year later in a Monte Nido canyon.

A sister’s lament

The day after Stein’s reported disappearance, the Sheriff’s Department issued a missing person bulletin with Jack’s picture.

“The week after Jack disappeared, we must have driven down every road in Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, Westlake,” said Kustritz.

“He used to teach surfing at a Malibu surf shop; we left word with them. He was a huge skateboarder, so we went to all those spots. He had a friend in Newbury Park. We looked in Venice, which is where he also spent time skateboarding and surfing.”

Kustritz recalled showing her brother’s picture to just about every person they met on the street.

“We’d be crying and all of these Californians would stop us and say, what’s wrong, how can we help?”

The staff at Inspire also pitched in. “We used their space as a staging ground,” said Kustritz. “They printed up flyers for us. They were really helpful.”

In addition to posting fliers, the family told his story on national news programs. They have even put up a billboard in Venice seeking help in locating Jack. But to Kustritz’s lament, Jan. 13 will mark six months since she’s seen or heard from her brother.

“It’s just obliteratingly painful,” she said. “It’s like unbearable.”

Could the stress of what the future held, of the hopes of two important women in his life make Jack “run away,” seek privacy? Adults, after all, can legally do that in the United States.

“I don’t think this was a premeditated thing, him leaving,” said Kustritz. “I was kind of concerned about his state of mind then, but he promised he would tell someone if he was distressed. He promised.”

If Jack is out there, by choice, simply living a new life, Kustritz has a message for him:

“Jack, I love you deeply and I’m super proud of you and all I want is for you to be OK and come home.

“I can feel the last hug I gave him,” the sister added. “It feels like he was just with me and now he’s gone.”

Anyone with information on Jack Stein’s whereabouts is asked to contact Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Det. Shannon Rincon at (323) 890-5500.

Follow Scott Steepleton on Twitter @scottsteepleton.