Family: Sighting of missing New York man in Elton was mistaken

ELTON — A sighting of Namrud Tessema, a New York man last seen in Mercer, Wisconsin, was reported at the Evergreene Shoppe in Elton last week Thursday around 3 p.m.

It wasn’t him, according to Reweina Tessema, the man’s sister.

“I knew almost immediately that it wasn’t him,” she said over the phone Friday evening, not long after being sent the photo from the Iron County Sheriff’s Office, which has been actively investigating the disappearance. “Just for safety’s sake, I took a solid five minutes after seeing the photo to relieve my eyes and come back to it, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t him. But I forwarded it to my other brother Heiyab to have his eyes on it as well, and he was certain it wasn’t him, either.”

Namrud had been traveling the country on a spiritual journey with friends last fall when he reportedly left them in the middle of the night.

“He’s very committed to his faith,” Reweina said. “He’s a Christian. He was all about mind, body, and spirit practice, and that was part of what this trip was for, to kind of revitalize his spirit and learn from Native American teachers that he had been studying from in New York. So this journey was kind of to supplement and further deepen that.”

Reweina said she and Heiyab came to Wisconsin from late October to early November to search for Namrud. Though unsure whether he is still in northern Wisconsin, she hopes those in the area will continue looking for him.

“I think it’s still worth keeping an eye out in that area because he was getting to know people in that area, and we’re thinking if at some point he wanted to try and make his way back home, he would either do that on his own or try to reconnect with his friends in Mercer,” Reweina said. “So I really can’t tell you we have any specific idea of where he is. But it makes more sense to put our efforts towards what we know.”

Another similar false sighting occurred last fall, according to Reweina.

“You try not to get your hopes up when you hear about a sighting or see a photo, but you, or at least I, couldn’t help it to some degree, no matter how much I suppressed that,” she said. “Then of course, to find out it wasn’t him, again, it’s heartbreaking. But you suppress as much as possible because I think it can be really volatile, that roller coaster of emotions, and that volatility is exhausting. And the most important resource to me right now is energy. So it’s hard. It’s really, really hard. But my family and I have been trying to not allow those feelings to overtake us or go too deep, because if so, we run out of energy, and then there’s no one looking for him.”

Reweina described Namrud as an extremely gentle person.

“He’s really tender,” she said. “I think when people hear about stuff like this, like missing persons or spiritual journeys and stuff like that, they make their assumptions. I think any one of those assumptions could be dismissed once they met my brother. I just want people to know that he’s an extremely good person and he deserves time and attention to be found.”

Narmud is a 46 year old, 5 foot 10 inch black man with a white beard. Those with information about his whereabouts should contact the Iron County Sheriff’s Office.