Broughty Cole went missing on Monday, March 3. He is 28 years old,
5 foot 10 inches, brown hair, hazel eyes. Learn more at www.facebook.com/findbroughtycole and contact law enforcement with any information.

Local musician Broughty Cole disappeared more than a week ago.

A friend discovered his abandoned car near the Sacramento River this past Saturday, but today there’s still no sign of the missing 28 year old.

His disappearance took place the evening of Monday, March 3, when Broughty allegedly drove from Sacramento to meet with bandmates in Nevada City.

“He called me that night at about 6:45ish,” says Cole’s friend, who lives in Sacramento and goes by the name Grey Cat. “He called me to ask if he could stay the night at my house” after returning from Nevada City, to which he obliged.

Turns out, Broughty used to live at Grey Cat’s Oak Park home but had recently decided to move out. Instead, he started living out of his car, so as to save money. Grey Cat says Broughty’s been doing that and couch-surfing for the past month-and-a-half.

Broughty is also the drummer in Nevada City-based band Lasher Keen, and he would travel to the foothills regularly to practice and hang out. He had called a bandmate on the Monday he disappeared, telling them he needed to stop at an ATM but would be arriving in their town shortly.

He never made it.

“It’s totally out of character,” says Broughty’s brother Kalan Sorion. The two siblings last saw one another mid-afternoon the day Broughty went missing.

“He seemed fine,” Sorion says. “Just sounded like he was busy, like he had things to do.”

Grey Cat became concerned when Broughty didn’t show up the next day for a concert in San Francisco, Skinny Puppy, which they both were excited to see. Family filed a report with law enforcement after Broughty didn’t appear for a gig with his band on Wednesday, March 5. A search effort and fliering of missing-person posters began in Sacramento and the foothills soon after.

This past Saturday, March 8, a friend decided to look for Broughty near Miller Park, “just on a hunch,” according to his sister Jamaica Cole. The friend had seen Broughty at this spot a week or two beforehand.

That’s when his car was discovered, near the Miller Park river access just south of Broadway, adjacent to the Sacramento River, at 2710 Ramp Way. Inside the car were some personal belongings, including a backpack, food and a receipt from the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. But not his wallet, keys or phone, nor his his black-and-white checkered flannel jacket, which Sorion recalls his brother wearing earlier that day.

Marina security said Broughty’s car had been parked there since the day he went missing, on March 3.

“It’s a place that he would have gone to,” Jamaica says of the marina and waterfront. “I just don’t understand why he would have gone there when he did.”

Sacramento police are investigating Broughty’s disappearance. So far, there is no sign of foul play. Jamaica says law enforcement is trying to get access to bank and phone records and that investigators have been helpful.

Broughty is originally from Placerville and moved here five years ago. He and his older brother lived in Oak Park as roommates and also played together in a band called Eye of the Architect. Broughty once worked at the Naked Lounge coffeehouse on 11 and H streets.

Volunteers, friends and family continue the search for Broughty, an effort now focused along the bike trail and Sacramento River near the marina. They’re encouraging the Sacramento community to continue getting the word out on his disappearance with a Facebook campaign, and ask that anyone with information to contact the police department, particularly if they were around the Sacramento Marina the evening of Monday, March 3.

A candelight vigil will be held tonight at the Miller Park marina (see above fliers for details, for visit this Facebook event page).

“We’ve been surrounded by a lot of close friends and family members,” Sorion said. “We’re just doing everything we can.”

There aren’t really any clues about Broughty’s disapparance online, although he did write the following post on Faceboook on January 27: “You have been hardwired with too many beliefs. They must be disassemble [sic] one by one until a chain reaction occurs that can take you back to a state of transient identity. -My advice to myself for this year.”

Jamaica says she doesn’t think his disappearance was planned and calls his disappearance “out of the ordinary.”

“At this point I’m praying it’s some sort of amnesia episode,” she says.

Dave Kempa contributed to this report.