by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com

Disappearing has long been titillating fodder for writers and filmmakers. Andy Kaufman, Elvis, and even D.B. Cooper have been romanticized, exploited, and monetized, proving the long-held claim that “you can’t libel the dead.”

People have all kinds of reasons for wanting to disappear. Angst-addled teenagers run away in fits of self-righteous pique. Adults too. Generally though people cool off, change their minds, and come home. In 2024, 533,936 people were reported missing in the United States. The vast majority of these people were found safe.

But, for the loved ones of those who do not return, there is no Hollywood ending. For them there is the before and the after, and in between a question left forever unanswered: what happened?

Royse Nex has lived with this question for half his life.

The Grapevine, Texas resident is 68 years old. He, his older brother Blake, and their sister Jeannette grew up on Villanova Drive in Claremont. The kids attended Oakmont Elementary, El Roble Intermediate, and Claremont High School. The family left for Kentucky in 1973, in the middle of Blake’s senior year at Claremont High.

A young Blake Nex, his girlfriend Kate, and Blake’s 1956 Chevy Bel Air pictured in 1973 in the Claremont High School parking lot. Photo/courtesy of Royse Nex

“Blake never liked Kentucky,” Royse said. “He called it Ken#ucky. But, as soon as he graduated, you know — he was there a semester — he went back to California.”

Royse stayed in the Bluegrass State, graduating from high school in 1975. He went off to college in Texas “and just stayed there,” he said.

Blake was a serious person. Even as a youngster he had an air of authority about him. He was also meticulous. When he got into something — building hot rods, restoring vintage bicycles, or later, bodybuilding and fitness — he was all in. He grew to be a handsome man, and never lacked for female attention. His home was immaculate, as was his appearance: lean, muscular, and tanned.

Royse remembers visiting his brother in California and marveling at his lifestyle: meeting girls while riding his vintage bicycles along the Newport Beach boardwalk, keeping fit, and working hard.

Blake wanted to move up in the world financially. But he took risks. And for this, he paid a price.

“Claremont police, acting on leads from ‘several sources’ Friday seized a pound and a half nearly pure cocaine and $8945 in cash from a house near Padua Hills,” read a June 3, 1987 story in the Claremont Courier. “During the raid … police arrested Blake Nex, 32, of Claremont, on suspicion of possessing cocaine for sale.”

(L-R) Siblings Jeannette, Royse, and Blake Nex pictured in the 1960s at the family home on Villanova Drive in Claremont. Photo/courtesy of Royse Nex

Blake was convicted and spent about three years in jail, first in the California Institution for Men in Chino, and later as a trustee at the Pomona jail, Royse said.

After his 1990 release, Blake returned to Claremont, renting a house in remote Palmer Canyon. After a time, family members said he opened a private gym with a business partner. Characteristically, he became deeply involved with fitness and weightlifting.

Some say Blake got into selling illegal steroids to fellow fitness enthusiasts around this time. One of the threads that follows that assertion is in early 1993 Blake is alleged to have collected a large amount of money — Royse said it may have been up to $100,000 — from various “sketchy” sources, including $30,000 from a local fire department employee some remember as “Larry,” for an impending illegal steroid deal that was to take place in Las Vegas.

There are numerous possible explanations for what happened next. What’s known is this: Sometime around the middle of March in 1993, Blake Nex disappeared from his Palmer Canyon home in Claremont.

Among the multitude of unknowns is just how long he had been missing when his family grew concerned and sent a relative to check on him around March 20. Strangely, the relative discovered fresh groceries still on the counter. There were no signs of a break in or a struggle. Blake had left $500 in cash in a pocket of a clothing item. His Toyota pickup truck was gone, but it appeared as if he had simply stepped out for a routine errand.

“But something was afoul and I knew it because my brother had, I think, two cats in the house,” Royse said. “He wouldn’t leave them to die.”

Blake Nex’s 1972 Claremont High School yearbook photo. Photo/courtesy of Royse Nex

Blake’s mother Margaret, who was living in Arizona at the time, traveled to Claremont to help search for her son. Royse contacted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who had jurisdiction in Palmer Canyon. The exchange did not go well. He claims LASD did not take the case seriously, thus allowing key evidence to fade and potential witnesses to pass away.

“They told me it wasn’t a crime to disappear,” Royse said. “And I told them my brother didn’t disappear by himself. They couldn’t have cared less. In fact, they refused to do a missing person’s report because they didn’t have to by law, apparently, which I couldn’t believe.”

With little to no help from law enforcement and no experience in detective work, the family did what they could to track Blake down. They talked to friends and relatives, hoping his sudden leave was voluntary, but quietly fearing the worst.

The family contacted Ontario International Airport to see if Blake’s truck was on their sprawling outdoor lot. It was not, they were told. Then days later an airport representative contacted them to report the truck had been found. Again, this being 1993, Ontario International Airport’s parking lots weren’t swathed in security cameras like they are today. There was no way to determine when the truck had been parked, or see who had driven it. The family checked with all of the airlines that flew out of Ontario at the time, and none had any record of an outbound flight with Blake on board.

Blake’s family paid the parking fee and drove the truck for years before selling it. Remember, all this was all taking place at the dawn of widespread use of DNA in criminal investigations. Coupled with the fact that law enforcement had not deemed Blake’s disappearance worthy of a missing person’s report, let alone a criminal investigation, it’s not surprising that DNA samples were never taken from inside the truck or his Palmer Canyon home.

The June 3, 1987 Claremont Courier story about the arrest of 32-year-old Blake Nex for suspicion of possessing cocaine for sale. Nex was convicted, and spent about three years in jail.

Adding still more uncertainty, in the days following Blake’s disappearance his Palmer Canyon home was burglarized. Taken were some ordinary items: a pair of expensive vintage bicycles he had restored, and a valuable tool box. But another missing item was decidedly unusual: Blake’s answering machine.

Why would a random burglar take a $25 answering machine?

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Next week in Part II of this series we will learn how after decades of frustration and the deaths of his mother, father, and sister, the work of an incredibly capable amateur cold case investigator from Germany reinvigorated Royse’s resolve to find his brother.

Did you know or do you remember Blake Nex? If so, your memories may help solve a 32-year-old mystery. If you have any information, please contact the LA County Sheriff’s Department at (323) 890-5500 or send a confidential tip to findblakenex.com.

More information is at findblakenex.com.

For a deep dive into this story listen to the excellent podcast, The Vanished, hosted by Marissa Jones, which last month released two episodes about Blake’s disappearance. Check it out at thevanishedpodcast.com or wherever you get your pods.

“Each fragment that surfaces brings us one step closer to the truth,” Jones said about Blake’s case on The Vanished. “And until that truth is known, his family and those who care about him will continue to search with the hope that one day the question of what happened to Blake Nex will finally be answered.”