Steven Clark: Vanished From a Public Restroom?
A 23-year-old man vanishes under mysterious circumstances, leaving not a shred of evidence behind
Mystery at a Seaside Restroom
On the afternoon of December 28th, 1992, 23-year-old Steven Clark went for a walk with his mother Doris. They made what was meant to be a brief stop at the public restrooms in Saltburn (England) before returning home.
According to Doris, she last saw her son entering the men’s room, but when she exited the ladies’ room just minutes later, he was already gone.
More than 30 years have passed with no answers and no sign of Steven.
What happened to Steven Clark?
Steven Charles Clark
One of two children, Steven Charles Clark was born on August 30th, 1969, in Colchester, Essex, England, to parents Charles and Doris, who had both served as police officers.
Steven was in a terrible accident when he was only two years old. Doris left the family home to go shopping one day when, unbeknownst to her, Steven found his way out of the house and had started to follow her. She didn’t become aware of this fact until she heard a commotion and saw that her son had been hit by a truck.
It’s unclear whether or not anyone else was at home watching Steven that day.
Sadly, he spent a month in a coma and was left with a permanently damaged arm and a pronounced limp.
Despite his early misfortune, Steven grew up to be a funny, intelligent, and generally happy person who loved music, bowling, and hanging out at the local pub. He also enjoyed swimming and had an avid interest in computers.
Steven and his sister Victoria grew up in South Africa, but the Clark family eventually returned to England and settled in Marske-by-the-Sea in 1990.
He attended the Rathbone Society, an organization in Redcar that assists disabled individuals in finding employment. He worked hard and excelled in his studies, even earning an award for “Apprentice of the Year.”
His achievements notwithstanding, he found that employers often hesitated to give him a chance due to his disability and his limitations sometimes got him down.
Saturday Football
Steven and his father Charles enjoyed attending football games together, usually on Saturdays. Charles often purchased tickets for both of them but, for unknown reasons, he refused to buy Steven a ticket to the local Middlesbrough match on December 28th, 1992, telling him that if he wanted to attend, he’d have to pay for his own ticket.
According to Doris and Charles, it was a running joke in the family that Steven didn’t like to pay for anything with his own money.
He ultimately opted not to go to the game with his father.
Doris and Steven’s Last Walk Together
Charles left home at approximately 2 p.m. on December 28th to drive the 10 miles to the stadium, where Middlesbrough would be playing against Crystal Palace.
After he departed, Doris and Steven decided to take a long walk together on the nearby beach in Saltburn.
According to Doris, as they were heading back, Steven told her he needed to use the restroom. They stopped at a public restroom near the seafront pier of the Promenade, located roughly three miles away from their home. Doris went into the women’s room shortly after her son went into the men’s.
When Doris came out a few minutes later, she didn’t see Steven anywhere. Assuming he was still in the bathroom, she waited outside the door for several minutes before coming to the conclusion that he must have already left and started walking home without her. Thinking she’d catch up with him along the way, she headed back to the Clark residence on her own.
However, she never spotted her son at any point during this walk and when she arrived home she found it empty. Strangely, there was no sign of Steven anywhere.
When asked later why she didn’t go into the bathroom to see if her son was all right or to at least confirm that he wasn’t in there anymore, she explained: “He would have been horrified. He was 23, not a child.”
Steven Is Gone
It’s unknown exactly when Charles got back from the game, but it was sometime after that that Doris realized their son was missing. She told him what had happened and the couple immediately went out to look for him.
“I got my car to Saltburn, went all over the place screaming. 28 years, we never heard a word,” explained Charles in 2020.
Steven, who was described as being 6’3’’ with a medium build, blue eyes, and dark brown hair, was last seen wearing a maroon crew neck jumper, a navy-blue parka with a fur hood, blue denim jeans, and grey trainers.
After a fruitless search, they knew it was time to get the police involved. They reported Steven missing at 6 p.m. that evening.
Doris let them know that she’d witnessed two men with a little girl enter the restroom right after Steven did.
These people have never been identified or located. In fact, no one has ever come forward to corroborate Doris’s story that she and Steven were there that day.
Nevertheless, the authorities, much like the Clarks, came up with nothing during their search. Not a shred of evidence was discovered that would explain what had happened to Steven Clark that afternoon.
Alleged Sightings
In the days and weeks following Steven’s disappearance, several sightings were reported to investigators.
A witness who knew Steven placed him near the Clark house at approximately 3:45 p.m. on the day he went missing.
A woman claimed to have seen Steven from her apartment window two days after he vanished. According to her, he was leaving the beach in the company of an older man wearing glasses.
However, the police were skeptical of her story. Given the distance between her living room window and the area where the two men were allegedly seen, it was unlikely that she would have gotten a clear enough view of Steven to identify him. It’s unknown if she owned a pair of binoculars.
On January 14th, 1993, Stan Camaish—a friend of the Clarks—supposedly saw Steven in Redcar, less than 10 miles away from Saltburn. He said that he spoke to Steven but didn’t think anything of the encounter because he wasn’t yet aware that the young man had been reported missing.
Interestingly, Stan changed his story years later, confessing that he not only didn’t talk to Steven Clark that day but that the man he spotted wasn’t actually Steven, rather someone who merely resembled him. Why he initially lied remains a mystery, and Stan has since passed away.
Ultimately, none of the reported sightings could be verified, and with no leads or viable suspects to work with, the case quickly went cold.
Additional Information
All of Steven’s personal belongings, including his glasses, wallet, and watch, were left behind.
Neither his bank account nor his savings account were ever touched following his disappearance.
He never claimed his £1,000 reward money for his “Apprentice of the Year” prize.
Anonymous Letter Leads to Shocking Arrest
In 1999, investigators received an anonymous letter that made shocking claims about the true fate of the missing man.
Detective Chief Inspector Shaun Page described the contents:
“The letter is very precise in nature. The letter writer intimated that Steven was dead and that they claim to know the person responsible.”
The full contents of this letter were never released to the public. In fact, the existence of the letter was unknown to the public until 2020, when it was finally released in a heavily redacted form. That same year, the case was suddenly reclassified as a murder investigation.
Evidently, the author of the letter implicated Charles and Doris in the alleged murder of their son. Following a cold case review by the Cleveland Police in September 2020, the couple was arrested. If the letter was the catalyst for probable cause and arrest—and it appears it was—it’s unclear why law enforcement waited so many years to make an arrest.
The woman who wrote the letter—whose identity was never revealed—eventually came forward, but she was unable to produce any evidence of the Clarks’ guilt.
Doris and Charles were released on bail.
An extensive forensic search was conducted in the Clark home, as well as their yard, garden, and nearby wooded area, but police found nothing relevant to the case.
In February 2021, after a grueling 17-week investigation, Doris and Charles were officially cleared of suspicion in their son’s disappearance.
Accused of Murdering Our Son Documentary
The couple’s ordeal was explored in a documentary entitled Accused of Murdering Our Son: The Steven Clark Story, which featured the Clarks’ interacting with former police officer turned investigative journalist, Mark Williams-Thomas.
Williams-Thomas concluded:
“If Charles and Doris killed Steven, then … they’re the best actors I’ve ever met … I don’t think they killed Steven.”
However, a review by the Guardian stated: “Even as William-Thomas proclaims their innocence, certain framing and editing choices subtly undermine him, allowing the film to have it both ways.”
The Family Speaks Out
After decades of silence, Steven Clark’s sister, Victoria Orr, spoke to The Missing podcast and defended her parents.
“Our relationship as a family was love-filled, Steven and I couldn’t have wished for a happier childhood,” Victoria recalled. “Steven going missing has been a living nightmare for all of us,” she added.
Victoria said there was no way her parents would have ever hurt Steven and criticized the police for relying on the anonymous letter.
“I mean the letter was even addressed to the wrong police force. The name was wrong. It went to a different police force in Guisborough, which is not the police that we’re dealing with. So, why it was taken so seriously, I really don’t know, but it has devastated our family,” she said.
“It was just awful. The way they were treated was diabolical.”
Victoria said the Clarks were filing a formal complaint against the police through their solicitor.
Was Steven Dating Someone?
According to Doris and Charles, Steven was dating a girl he met at the local pub, The Ship Inn, prior to his disappearance.
“This relationship with the girl lasted about a week or 10 days,” Charles said. “He liked to go to the local pub. She was there, they were about the same age. They never met other than in the pub, it was days before he went missing. It was not a serious girlfriend, he had not had a serious one, we lived in South Africa, then near London before he came here.”
Neither parent believed this relationship was related in any way to their son going missing.
The Clarks also noted that Steven’s behavior appeared to be normal both on and leading up to December 28th and that there was no family strife or other problems as far as they knew.
The family released a joint statement in 2022:
“The constant painful limbo of not knowing is a horrible thing to live with. We still hope that he will walk through the door one day, but we appreciate that as each year passes it becomes more and more unlikely.”
What Happened to Steven?
Detective Mark Williams referred to the case as one of the “most bizarre” he’s ever investigated.
Detective Chief Inspector Shaun Page said that there are “no active lines” of inquiry currently, but that they’d “continue to respond to any intelligence and information which may help us locate Steven.”
The Cleveland and North Yorkshire Police indicated that they believe Steven was in a relationship with a girl he’d met at the Rathbone Society at the time of his disappearance. It’s unclear if there was any significance attached to this piece of information.
Aside from his parents, no other suspects have ever been identified in Steven’s case. Theories for why he vanished include suicide, abduction, murder, and leaving to start a new life, but to this day nothing substantial has ever been discovered to lend credence to any of them.
What happened to 23-year-old Steven Clark during that brief window of time on the afternoon of December 28th, 1992? For now, at least, that remains unknown.
Additional Sources
Cup of Coffee and Crime, Medium
(This article was originally published on HubPages on August 8th, 2023)
Realistically there are only 2 options: murder or suicide, with the latter being the most likely. If it is murder, the most logical perps would be the parents. If they were indeed at the seaboard together, I don’t see how his mom could have killed and disposed of a 6’3 man in plain sight. That’s why the key is establishing if they were indeed there. Shouldn't be too hard with all the cctv in England, even in the early 90s.
That this can’t be corroborated makes me suspicious. Did they buy anything, get gas, go to a pub, run into anyone? They must have been seen by someone. Since that didn’t happen, I think they’re lying about the trip and there can only be one reason to do so.