Family seeks help finding missing father

PALMER — After three months with no trace of 30-year-old Shanon Lovell, his family has decided to break its silence.

“We were kind of keeping it close to us because the cops were doing some investigating,” said his father, Steven Lovell, a Wasilla city councilman.

Lovell was last seen leaving a house on McLeod Road in Palmer at around midnight, Oct. 5, according to a flier seeking information about his disappearance.

“His wife dropped him off at some guy’s house and went back to get him (but he was gone) and nobody’s seen him since,” said councilman Lovell. “It’s way out of character for him. He never just drops off the face of the earth.”

Deja Franco, a family friend, said she is working with Lovell’s family to see if putting word out through the media can shake loose any more leads. There are still people, she said, who don’t even know he’s missing.

“We’re heard lots of rumors, but nothing has panned out,” she said.

They’ve started up a Facebook page — “Where is Shanon D. Lovell” — to help spread the word and gather leads.

Steven Lovell said his son has had his share of problems. He’s got a drug habit that had him in and out of jail.

“He got out and he was doing good, but my understanding was that he kind of went back to not doing so good,” Steven Lovell said. “He was making some bad decisions in his life.”

Steven Lovell said he’s raising his 12-year-old grandson now and at the time his son went missing, he didn’t have that great a relationship with his son. There had been some friction over Shanon Lovell’s son and whether it was a good idea for Shanon to visit.

“Every time you see him you make promises you don’t keep and it upsets him,” Steven Lovell said he eventually had to tell his son.

He said that so far the investigation seems to have run down a bunch of dead-end leads.

“I know that the police have gotten a lot of information that turns out to be just rumors,” Steven Lovell said. “I think they do have some leads, but I’m not positive.”

He said he has few illusions about whether a man missing for three months will return in good shape. But he also doesn’t like not knowing.

“I would like to find out what happened to him if nothing else,” he said.

Just after Christmas he sat his grandson down and told him what was going on with Shanon.

“That was hard,” Steven Lovell said. “He wasn’t all that surprised.”

He said his son also has a wife. They got married in August, just months before he disappeared. The couple came by his house so Steven Lovell could meet her. He took them out to lunch.

“That was actually the last time I’d seen him,” he said.

The flier seeking to find Lovell asks anyone with information to call Alaska State Troopers at 745-2131 and reference incident No. AK12241249. People can also call the state’s Missing Person’s Clearing House at (800) 478-9333 or 269-5497. To remain anonymous call Mat-Su Crime Stoppers at 745-3333.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.