Overview

Date: March 8, 1986
Last seen/departure location: Kenosha, Wisconsin
Key location: Mercer, Iron County, Wisconsin, where his abandoned vehicle was found.

Main circumstances: Rawlings, 23, left Kenosha and may have intended to travel to Alaska. His vehicle was later found abandoned in a snowbank near Mercer; the keys were missing. He has not been publicly confirmed seen or heard from since. There is no publicly established homicide determination in the sources reviewed.

Detailed Case Breakdown

James Scott Rawlings Missing Person Case: What Happened After He Left Kenosha in 1986?

James Scott “Jim” Rawlings was 23 years old when he disappeared after leaving Kenosha, Wisconsin, on March 8, 1986. Nearly four decades later, the circumstances surrounding his disappearance remain unresolved.

Rawlings was reportedly considering a trip to Alaska. Instead, the vehicle he had been driving was eventually discovered abandoned in a snowbank near Mercer, Wisconsin, hundreds of miles north of Kenosha. The keys were missing from the vehicle, and Rawlings was nowhere to be found.

The Disappearance of James Scott Rawlings

On March 8, 1986, Rawlings left Kenosha, Wisconsin. Authorities have said he may have been heading for Alaska, although publicly available records provide few details about his intended route, why he planned to travel there, or whether Alaska was definitely his destination.

At some point, Rawlings reached—or at least his vehicle reached—the Mercer area in Iron County in northern Wisconsin.

The Iron County Sheriff’s Department subsequently found the vehicle abandoned in a snowbank along a road near Mercer. The keys were not inside the vehicle.

What happened between Rawlings leaving Kenosha and the discovery of the vehicle has never been publicly established.

Who Was James Rawlings?

Rawlings was 23 when he disappeared. He stood approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed about 150 pounds. Current Wisconsin records describe him as having blond hair and blue eyes.

He had a scar or small birthmark on his forehead, was left-handed and had dimples when he smiled. He may also have had a tattoo depicting a wolf’s head on his chest.

Rawlings graduated from Bradford High School in Kenosha in 1980 and served in the United States Army until 1985, according to information released when Wisconsin State Crime Stoppers and Kenosha police renewed publicity surrounding the case in 2022.

A Missing Vehicle Key and Few Answers

One of the enduring details in the case is the condition in which Rawlings’s vehicle was discovered.

The vehicle was in a snowbank, but its keys were missing. Publicly available information does not establish whether Rawlings walked away from the vehicle voluntarily, obtained another ride, encountered another person, became lost or injured, or was the victim of a crime.

There is also no publicly confirmed evidence establishing that Rawlings was killed. His case remains a missing-person investigation, and descriptions of homicide or foul play should therefore be treated as theories rather than established facts.

The exact road or location near Mercer where the vehicle was found has not been identified in the publicly available official information reviewed for this article.

The Missing-Person Report

A later Kenosha Police Department cold-case notice, preserved in case discussions, states that Rawlings’s father reported him missing on November 11, 1986—more than eight months after the March 8 date associated with his disappearance.

Kenosha Police Department records identify the investigation under case number 1986-068589 (also rendered 86068589).

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System lists Rawlings under NamUs MP93446.

Renewed Attention to the Cold Case

The case received renewed public attention in July 2022 when Wisconsin State Crime Stoppers and the Kenosha Police Department publicized Rawlings’s disappearance.

Investigators again emphasized that his vehicle had been located in Mercer by the Iron County Sheriff’s Department. Family members supplied photographs of Rawlings’s father and older brother to help illustrate how Rawlings might have aged.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice continues to list Rawlings as a missing adult and directs information to the Kenosha Police Department and Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited Children & Adults.

Latest Developments

Public case records and missing-person communities show several developments since the renewed publicity.

In August 2024, The Doe Network added Rawlings to its database as case 6269DMWI.

A Websleuths discussion reported in December 2024 that Rawlings’s NamUs information had been updated and that his listed eye color changed from hazel to blue. Blue is also the eye color currently published by the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

The same discussion documented a possible comparison between Rawlings and an unidentified man found dead in Cook County, Illinois, in March 1986. That comparison should not be confused with an official identification. In January 2025, a forum participant reported that NamUs UP14344 had been added as an exclusion in Rawlings’s case, indicating that particular unidentified man was no longer considered a possible match.

No publicly available law-enforcement announcement reviewed for this article indicates that Rawlings has been located or that authorities have determined what happened to him. The Wisconsin Department of Justice continues to publish his case as an active missing-person case.

What Investigators Still Need to Know

The central unanswered question remains what happened after Rawlings left Kenosha on March 8, 1986.

His abandoned vehicle establishes an important connection to Mercer and Iron County, but it does not establish that Rawlings himself was last physically seen there. Sources differ in how they describe the “missing from” or “last known” location: the Wisconsin Department of Justice currently lists Kenosha as the city and county from which he disappeared while identifying the abandoned vehicle in Mercer as his last-known-location information.

Anyone who remembers encountering Rawlings during his travels, seeing his vehicle in northern Wisconsin, knowing his intended destination or companions, or having information about where he stayed or stopped could potentially provide useful information.

After approximately four decades, James Scott Rawlings remains missing.