Wayne resident Dallyn Pavey has been searching for her missing father for nearly 40 years, but the answers to her many questions still elude her, writes Victor Fiorillo for Philadelphia magazine.
Eugene “Gene” Pavey, who was 50 at the time, left Fort Lauderdale, where he used to live, in his cigarette boat with his new teenage bride, Melanie Mass, on July 1, 1982. He was never seen or heard from again.
Pavey’s mother divorced Eugene, a notorious womanizer, when Pavey was three years old. He fled to Europe to avoid paying child support while the mother and the daughter settled in Narberth.
Pavey started searching for her father when she was 15. She knew he had returned to the U.S. at some point, but she lost any trace of him on that July 1.
She suspects that he may have fallen victim to the murderous Medellín cartel. Or he could have escaped and started living in another country, hiding from his past. There are a lot of theories, but very few answers.
“He’d be 90 today,” said Pavey. “I just want to know what happened.”
Read more about Dallyn Pavey and her search in Philadelphia magazine.