On the evening of August 30, 2001, 44-year-old Edgar Sanchez drove to the Baldwin, New York, home of his older brother, 53-year-old Frank Sanchez. Edgar left his car there, and the brothers headed out together in Frank’s white Chevrolet Lumina. They were believed to be meeting someone they had known for years.
The brothers were close, and cars had always been a major part of both of their lives. Frank was a mechanic and accomplished racer, while Edgar had also built a career around cars. There was nothing unusual about them spending time together, but Frank seemed different that night. He was unusually quiet, and when he left the house, he did something his family immediately noticed: he didn’t kiss his wife goodbye. Frank and Edgar never came home.
By the following day, Frank’s Lumina was parked on Grand Street in Chinatown, more than an hour away from where the brothers were believed to have been headed, and in the opposite direction. The car began accumulating parking tickets, but it would take time before anyone connected it to the missing brothers from Long Island.
Then, just twelve days after Frank and Edgar disappeared, September 11 changed everything. As law enforcement resources across the region were redirected, the Sanchez family was already searching for answers of their own. Over time, they learned more about what may have been troubling Frank that night, a large amount of money the brothers may have been trying to retrieve, and parts of Frank and Edgar’s past that raised an entirely different set of questions.
Twenty-five years later, Frank and Edgar Sanchez have never been found. Their family is still trying to understand where they went that night, how Frank’s car ended up in Chinatown, and what happened after the brothers drove away from Frank’s home.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Frank and Edgar Sanchez, please contact the Nassau County Police Department Missing Persons Squad at 516-573-7347.
