Family continues to hope for missing Federal Way man’s return

Over a year and a half since his disappearance, a missing Federal Way man’s family still hopes to find him safe.

Curtis Crockett has been missing since April 2024, and despite reports of him being seen in late 2024, there have been no confirmed sightings, and he is still listed as missing. Crockett’s family says they have yet to see him, and his sisters, alongside his kids, say they just want to know he is alive.

According to a Federal Way Police Department report, Crockett was last seen on April 23, 2024. However, it was not until July 29, 2024, that a report was filed with the department to report Crockett as missing.

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database, Crockett was 37 years old when he went missing, and he is now 38. Crockett is Black, has black hair and brown eyes, stands 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 215 pounds.

Details of his disappearance

According to the police report, the last time family and friends saw Crockett, he was living at an apartment complex on South 320th Street in Federal Way with his girlfriend. Crockett’s girlfriend said the day he went missing, Crockett drove her kids to school and then drove her to work.

Crockett’s girlfriend said that she called and texted him throughout the day, but he never responded. Later that day, she got a call from her kids because Crockett never picked them up from school as he was supposed to.

Crockett’s girlfriend stated that when she went to their apartment, all of his property was still there, except for some tools and a hard hat. She said he did not use drugs, and he stopped drinking alcohol about six months before his disappearance.

According to the police report, on June 24, 2024, Crockett’s car was parked at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, and security called Valley Communications to check whether the car was stolen. That car had been parked at the justice center since at least May 2024, and then it was reported as abandoned in July 2024. According to the report, Crockett’s vehicle was not reported stolen, but it was not towed until Oct. 3, 2024.

The last time someone stated that they had seen Crockett was on Nov. 25, 2024. According to the police report, a Federal Way police officer went to the Catholic Community Services Kent Family Center and spoke with a staff member who said they had seen Crockett. According to the staff member, it appeared that Crockett was “going down the same road” as others, indicating that he possibly had substance abuse or mental health issues, as many other clients do.

According to Federal Way Police Department Cmdr. Thaddeus Hodge, detectives have found evidence suggesting that Crockett is homeless in Kent and has been spotted utilizing available resources. Hodge said that Crockett is classified as missing only because police and family members have not had direct contact with him. According to the police report, Crockett’s case was listed as inactive on Nov. 25, 2024, the day that he was allegedly sighted.

“Family members are aware of his situation and are actively trying to reach out to him,” Hodge said. “We will continue to list him as missing until we receive visual confirmation of his well-being.”

Family response

Despite this possible but unconfirmed sighting, Crockett’s younger sister, Kevonna Watson, stated that Crockett not contacting his kids is particularly unusual. She spoke to Crockett often, and said he would at least call or text his kids every single day, no matter what. Kevonna Watson said she was close with her brother and misses him.

One of Crockett’s older sisters, Deonza Watson, said that at the end of 2024, she and her family came to the area to search for Crockett at homeless shelters and homeless support programs, but they could not find him. She said that at one location, he had been seen, but it had been over a month. Despite reports of Crockett being sighted, because no law enforcement or family has sighted him, Deonza Watson worries that sightings could instead be someone who looks like him or someone using his identity.

Deonza Watson said she just wants to know whether Crockett is alive. She said officers told her they believed Crockett could just be avoiding family, but she found that weird. She stated that Crockett cutting off communication with his kids was strange because, no matter what was going on in his life, Crockett always maintained daily communication with his kids.

“They’re really struggling because they don’t know where their dad is. And if for nothing else, we need to figure out what’s going on because again. His relationship with his kids is so tight,” Deonza Watson said. “This ain’t like him. Something’s weird. I feel like something did happen.”

Deonza Watson said that she and Crockett have had arguments in the past, but that he is still her little brother, and his missing is heartbreaking. She has worries that Crockett might not be alive anymore, and she has even called the morgues to no avail. She said that if Crockett really just does not want to associate with his family anymore and he’s still out there, she would like to know.

“As long as he’s breathing, he’s decent and trying to figure things out, if that’s what he needs, that’s what he needs,” Deonza Watson said. “But I’ve got to be able to give his kids answers, and I don’t have no answers for my nieces and nephews, and that ain’t cool.”

Crockett grew up in Portland and eventually became a cement mason. Deonza Watson said that, despite Crockett getting into arguments with the mothers of his children at times, his kids were the most important thing in his life, and he was a family man, which makes his disappearance even stranger.

“It’s one thing to know if something happened and he’s no longer with us on Earth,” Deonza Watson said. “But it’s a whole other thing to just have somebody vanish without a trace, and that’s literally what has happened with him.”

Watson said if Crockett is out there, she wants him to know he’s loved and his family is worried about him. But firstly, she said his kids need him.

“He was very active with his kids. He just always wanted to be around his kids and love on his kids as much as possible. Everything he did was about his kids,” she said. “Not saying that my brother is perfect, because ain’t nobody perfect, but this ain’t him. He wasn’t a deadbeat. He did what he was supposed to do. He looked out for his family.”