The family of missing Marine veteran Troy Galloway is renewing calls to find him over eight years after his disappearance.
Galloway left his Sonora, California home on January 13, 2016, and he has not been seen since. He was 34 at the time of his disappearance.
“His wife walked into the basement and caught him shooting up. And he ran out in January with snow on the ground in a T-shirt, tennis shoes and Levis,” Rich Galloway, Troy’s father, told NewsNation.
The family said Troy Galloway struggled with mental health and addiction and he often self-medicated.
Nancy Galloway, Troy’s mother, said he was happy growing up.
“He was a really good kid. He got good grades. He had lots of friends. People always love Troy,” Nancy Galloway said.
After graduating from high school, Troy Galloway decided to join the Marines. Rich Galloway also served as a Marine in Vietnam.
“I didn’t know if it had anything to do with my background, or it was just a choice that he made,” Rich Galloway said. “And he really changed at that period. He became a man.”
Troy Galloway initially thrived in the military, earning a spot in the Marine Corps Honor Guard in Washington, D.C., but his behavior changed around his mid-20s.
“Out of nowhere, he just started doing some crazy stuff, buying a car and not making the payments on it,” Rich Galloway said. “Going AWOL a lot. He developed a schizoaffective disorder. And the military didn’t know anything about it. And it took a while to diagnose it.”
He was honorably discharged from the Marines.
The family said that, despite his personal struggles, he took good care of his son, got married and had a daughter.
“I even told him, ‘You know,’ I said, ‘you’re really blessed. You have these kids, and you have a good wife and all that,'” Nancy Galloway said. “And he said, ‘I know Mom, I know.'”
Nancy Galloway said she did not learn of his disappearance until two days later.
“If I would’ve known, the day he went missing, I would have driven up there three hours just to look for him,” she said.
After speaking to neighbors, she learned there was police activity by a nearby lake the night Troy Galloway went missing.
“There was an incident near the lake, there was a man-made lake by their house, and they sent down a deputy to check it out. They didn’t see anything,” Nancy Galloway said. “That was a mistake, because they should have connected that.”
Crystal Falls Lake was drained and searched five years later, but the investigative team did not find anything.
Despite the lack of progress in the case, Nancy Galloway has not given up yet.
“Sometimes I have that hope, you know, he could be you could be walking around somewhere and I get really joyful. Oh, maybe he’ll come home,” she said.
Troy Galloway, now 42, is described as 6-foot-1 with brown hair, weighing around 170 pounds.
The Tuolumne Sheriff’s Office is leading the investigation. Anyone with information should contact the Tuolumne Sheriff’s Office at (209) 533-5855.
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