Little Dickies
THE IN-BETWEEN
There are people who live in places.
And there are people who live between them.
Zachary Vidal was one of the in-between.
So am I.
We are walkers. Not romantically. Not symbolically. Practically. We move through town on foot, day after day, carrying backpacks, carrying errands, carrying the invisible expectation that familiarity equals safety. Everyone knows our faces. Everyone recognizes our routines. People say things like “I just saw him earlier” or “He’s always around.”
Always around feels like protection.
It isn’t.
People like Zach and people like me live in transitional spaces. Crosswalks. Parking lots. Store entrances. Sidewalks. The strip of pavement between “here” and “there.” We are visible but unanchored. Seen, but never stationary long enough for anyone to feel responsible for our presence.
We are remembered as movement.
And when movement stops, the world assumes it simply continued somewhere else.
Some people don’t disappear because they were alone. They disappear because they were always in between.
THE MAN BEFORE THE MYSTERY
Before the missing posters. Before the theories. Before the silence.
Zachary Vidal was a son, a nephew, and a father. He was described by his family as gentle, sweet, and easy to get along with. He was not estranged. He was not untethered. He did not slowly withdraw from his life before vanishing from it.
That distinction matters.
This was not a long goodbye disguised as routine.
This was a rupture.
Zach was deeply familiar to the rhythms of Pottsville. He walked its streets daily. He was recognized by shop owners, passersby, and locals who could place his face without always knowing his name. In a town like Pottsville, that kind of familiarity creates a false sense of security.
Familiarity is not the same thing as being watched.
THE LAST CONFIRMED MOMENT
On October 22, 2022, Zachary Vidal was captured on surveillance footage at a 7-Eleven on Claude A. Lord Boulevard in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
He was wearing a red shirt, a tan jacket, an Oakley baseball cap, and carrying a black backpack.
The footage is unremarkable.
That is what makes it unbearable.
Zach appears calm. He is not rushed. He is not distressed. He looks like a man running an errand in the middle of an ordinary afternoon.
This is the last confirmed image of Zachary Vidal.
After this moment, the record goes dark.
No additional camera footage.
No confirmed sightings.
No digital activity.
No explanation.
THE SEARCH THAT FOUND NOTHING
When Zach did not return and contact broke, his family knew this was not normal. Zach was not someone who disappeared without explanation. Concern escalated quickly, and law enforcement was notified.
The search began where it always begins: the last known location.
Investigators reviewed surveillance footage, canvassed the area around the 7-Eleven, and attempted to reconstruct Zach’s path once he exited the frame. The central question was simple and devastating:
Which direction did he go when the camera stopped watching?
No clear answer emerged.
Ground searches followed. Sidewalk routes Zach commonly walked. Cut-throughs. Downtown corridors. When those efforts yielded nothing, the search widened.
Railroad tracks.
Wooded edges.
Embankments where the city gives way to brush, steep drops, and uneven ground.
Search teams deployed dogs. Drones were launched. Volunteers combed areas that appear navigable on a map but vanish into density on foot.
They found nothing.
No phone.
No backpack.
No clothing.
No sign of a fall.
No evidence of a crime scene.
Not because no one tried.
But because some disappearances do not announce where they begin.
THE WITNESS GAP
Reports later placed Zach at a gathering at a residence after the 7-Eleven sighting. According to accounts, he left in the early morning hours.
What follows is a void.
No corroborated camera footage of his departure.
No verified sightings afterward.
No clear route home.
This is the point where many missing-person cases fracture. Not because of malice, but because of absence. Late-night hours thin out witnesses. Cameras become scarce. Memory blurs under time and pressure.
Transitional spaces that feel alive during the day go unobserved at night.
Zach did not disappear from a place where someone was waiting for him.
He disappeared from between.
THEORY SECTION: A TRANSITIONAL ENCOUNTER RESULTING IN VEHICULAR REMOVAL
Working Hypothesis
The most plausible explanation for Zachary Vidal’s disappearance is that he encountered a transitional, opportunity-based interaction while on foot, accepted a ride he would not normally have taken, and subsequently experienced an incapacitating or fatal event associated with that encounter.
This theory does not presume intent, premeditation, or criminality at the outset. It is grounded in behavioral patterns common to habitual pedestrians, the mechanics of sudden spatial displacement, and the documented absence of post-disappearance indicators.
Rationale and Supporting Factors
1) Abrupt termination of movement-based visibility:
Zachary was a known pedestrian in Pottsville. The sudden and complete cessation of sightings following the last confirmed surveillance strongly suggests a mode-of-transport shift, most plausibly entry into a vehicle.
2) Transitional spaces as high-risk interaction zones:
Sidewalks, parking lots, store entrances, and roadway edges are environments where informal interactions occur and quick decisions get made. Familiarity can lower guard and make unsafe choices feel ordinary.
3) Acceptance of a ride as a mechanism for rapid disappearance:
Vehicular entry explains the sudden blackout of confirmed sightings and the failure of area-limited searches to locate belongings or an anchor point.
4) Silence of digital and financial activity:
Total silence is consistent with sudden incapacitation shortly after the last known sighting. Voluntary disappearances tend to leave residual friction (contact, movement, transactions).
5) Compatibility with search outcomes:
If Zach departed by vehicle, extensive ground searches can come up empty without indicating lack of effort. It suggests misaligned geography relative to the event location.
Conclusion
Until contradicted by evidence, this remains a working theory. It accounts for the abrupt disappearance without relying on unsupported assumptions and aligns with what the search did not find.
THE RULE I NEVER BREAK
I walk everywhere.
In heat that clings.
In cold that cracks your breath.
In rain, snow, sleet—whatever the sky decides.
And there is one rule I do not bend.
I do not get in anyone’s car.
Not when it’s late.
Not when it’s miserable out.
Not when someone I recognize offers.
Not when it would be faster.
Not when it would be easier.
Weather passes.
Awkwardness passes.
Fatigue passes.
The wrong ride doesn’t.
This rule isn’t about fear. It’s about agency. It’s about control over direction, speed, witnesses, and exits. For people who live in motion, safety often lives in staying visible.
WHAT THE RULE MEANS NOW
Zachary Vidal didn’t disappear because he lacked rules.
He disappeared because life happens in moments, not principles.
My rule exists because his absence makes the margin visible. The thin space between ordinary and irreversible. The reality that danger doesn’t always announce itself as danger.
Zach lived the same way I do. Moving through spaces that don’t belong to anyone. Spaces where help can look like convenience. Spaces where responsibility dissolves.
His story does not demand judgment.
It asks awareness.
Until the truth comes forward, the least we can do is keep seeing the people who live in the in-between—before they become another name we wish we’d watched more closely.
IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING
Tips and Questions (official and anonymous options):
- Pottsville Police Department (main line): (570) 622-1234
- Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers (anonymous): 1-800-4PA-TIPS (1-800-472-8477)
If you have concerns but fear blowback, use the anonymous tipline. Even small details can matter.
Our next case: Dennis Nilsen the British Jeffrey Dahmer.
Thanks for dicking around with Richie.
Keep being a voice for the voiceless.
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