Hitchhiker Missing 2 ½ Years

A University of Texas student who hitchhiked to Houston to visit his girlfriend two and one-half years ago has not been seen or heard from since. UT freshman Jeffrey Alan Konen, then 18, hitchhiked to Houston with his roommate, John Lopez, of 4413 Avenue A. They caught a ride with another UT student, Bruce LeGrand on Sept. 25, 1970. LeGrand let Konen off on Houston’s Westheimer Street, and the youth said he planned to visit his girlfriend, who lived about five miles away. Then, he dropped from sight. “We haven’t heard anything about him at all,” Konen’s brother Mike said last week. “The first couple of days after he disappeared, some lady called and asked for ransom money. She never called back-it was probably just some joker trying to make a quick buck,” the 22-year-old Konen said. The salutatorian of his high school class, Jeffrey Konen was carrying with him when he disappeared a S250 scholarship check from the Jesse J. Jones Scholarship Fund. About a week after he was declared missing, Konen’s parents stopped payment on the check. No one, as far as the Konen’s know has yet tried to cash it. A vein search has continued for the youth by the missing persons division of the Houston Police Department as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation.