Billboard of man who disappeared from EF hopefully leads to answers for his family

Billboard of man who disappeared from EF hopefully leads to answers for his family

Kevin Graves

ROTHBURY — As tens of thousands of excited festival goers pour into the Electric Forest grounds this week, they will observe a somber reminder of a young man who disappeared from EF five years ago.

Hopefully, the billboard will lead to answers for the family of Kevin Graves who went missing at EF July 1, 2018 when he was 28 years old.

Graves’ parents, Kathy and Gary Graves of Howell, doubt they will ever see their beloved son again, although they are not abandoning all hope.

“But we haven’t given up and we won’t give up until we have an answer,” Gary Graves, 78, told MLive.

The Graves family began passing out missing person fliers to festival attendees outside the festival entrance last year, but state police asked them to leave, Mr. Graves said.

“Since Electric Forest ‘quietly escorted’ my family out last year as they were asking around for their son that has been missing for five years now, my parents decided to put up a billboard on the highway while the festival is going on. And it just so happens to be visible right from the middle of it this year. Game on,” Kevin Graves’ sister, Kellie Farley posted in a Facebook group aimed at locating her brother and offers a $10,000 reward.

Gary Graves told MLive that AEG Presents festival producer Chad Cheek apologized for the way the parents were treated last year. Kathy Graves said Cheek agreed to put up a missing person poster at the festival’s four information booths but declined to have staff pass out fliers to arriving festival goers.

Graves’ girlfriend, who last saw Graves, told police that he was acting “odd all week,” and somewhat paranoid, fighting with her, accusing her of calling the FBI on him and having a sexual relationship with another friend who attended the festival, Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Det. Sgt. David Bach told MLive. She reported Kevin Graves missing.

Kevin Graves

“I don’t have anything to lead me in a direction that something criminal happened to him,” Bach told MLive. “Everyone has told me the same story, that he left the group of people that he went with and after that he disappeared.”

There has been no cell phone use or bank activity since Kevin Graves vanished.

Police conducted flyovers and ground searches using K-9s, and dive teams searched nearby lakes. Several private searches of the Double JJ Resort, the venue where the festival is held, have not yielded any clues.

There have been many rumors about what happened to Kevin including him joining a cult and working at a marijuana farm, Gary Graves told MLive.

Kevin Graves has sandy blond hair and blue eyes and is about 6-feet tall and 185 pounds with a medium build. He has a USMC tattoo on his left shoulder.

Kevin Graves

The Electric Forest runs from Thursday through Sunday, June 22-25.

Anyone who has tips as to Kevin Graves’ whereabouts, should contact Oakland County Sheriff’s Det. Sgt. David Bach at 248-858-4950. Reference case No. 18-124834.