Tarentum, Pennsylvania — The disappearance of two young boys on a frigid winter night in 1982 left an indelible mark on a small community and on the family of one of the boys. Kelly Minarcin, the youngest of five brothers and the sole surviving member of his family, reflects on the haunting legacy of his brother Gabe’s vanishing.
At just ten years old, Gabe Minarcin disappeared along with his best friend Jon Dabkowski, 11, after leaving Jon’s home to venture just a minute away to Gabe’s house. Their brief journey would end in tragedy, as neither boy ever returned home. “I remember my dad saying he had gone to get fish sandwiches, and when he got back, Gabe was gone,” Kelly recalls.
In the desperate search that followed, fears escalated that the boys may have fallen through the ice of the partially frozen Allegheny River. Witnesses claimed to have seen children on the frozen surface, but initial police investigations suggested that tracks found leading onto the ice also returned to solid ground. Despite the efforts of dive teams and the community’s vigilance, the boys were never found, and speculation arose that they may have been abducted.
As the years passed, the Minarcin family struggled with silence around Gabe’s disappearance. Kelly, born three years after the boys went missing, grew up unaware that he had an older brother. It wasn’t until he reached his late childhood that he learned of Gabe and another brother, Michael, who had tragically died as an infant. “As a kid, I never thought much about it,” he says. However, the weight of the unresolved case began to weigh heavily on him during his teenage years.
The effects of the tragedy rippled through the family. Ian, just a year younger than Gabe, faced profound sadness due to his brother’s absence. Despite being close, the brothers rarely discussed their shared loss. Ian struggled with alcoholism and ultimately drowned after suffering a seizure while swimming in 2003. Kelly lamented that he never had the chance to ask Ian about the impact of their brother’s disappearance.
The toll of such losses was compounded by the death of Patrick, another brother with cerebral palsy, in 2016. With each passing, Kelly felt the weight of being the last surviving sibling. “I tried to drink my sorrows away for a while,” he confesses. Now sober for nine years, he is learning to navigate life without the support of his brothers.
Compounding the tragedy is the ongoing mystery of Gabe and Jon’s fate, with little progress made in over four decades. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children once released age-progression images in hopes of finding leads, but they led to no breakthroughs. In a twist, a supposed lead in 1998 turned out to be false; another man had stolen Jon’s identity. Despite the heartbreak, Kelly has taken proactive steps, submitting his DNA to genealogy databases in hopes of uncovering any new connections.
“You want answers, but I also think about my parents; they’re older now and want to let it go,” he explains. Kelly acknowledges that some cases remain unsolved, and he is learning to live with the uncertainty. “I can’t dwell on it every day. It would only bring me down,” he adds.
Now residing in Northern California with his partner, Kelly strives to focus on the present and the future. While aware of the brothers he lost, he emphasizes, “As long as I don’t think about the past, I’m pretty happy.” As he continues to seek solace in everyday life, the memories of his brothers remain a bittersweet part of his journey.