On the anniversary of his disappearance, a missing teen's girlfriend shares her perspective of his life.
Police Sketch by Daniel Winfield
We know him now as an urban legend;
She knew him as Archie.
It was this unique insight from our website's founder, Samantha Hatchins, that we sought when speaking with her for our sit-down interview, acknowledging the anniversary of Klatos' disappearance. We decided to refrain from asking her age old questions about Thomas Michaels, or the gun in the river, or even her recent attempts to make the day of his disappearance national missing persons day. We instead decided to ask her about the real person, rather than the urban legend we have collectively turned him into.
Samantha, how are you?
HATCHINS: I'm well, thank you.
With the new year upon us, especially given this tragic anniversary, what reflections or emotions has it brought back?
HATCHINS: I think at this point, just indifference; Disappointed indifference.
And why's that?
HATCHINS: It's like... I've accepted we'll never know what happened to him. We could've, but we never will. It doesn't mean I'm happy about it, but that's the way it is at this point and I've accepted it. Hence, indifference; disappointed indifference.
“We'll never know what happened to him. We could've, but we never will.”
Do you wish more had been done to find him?
HATCHINS: Oh, absolutely! Hence the disappointment, but at this point I could spend a thousand years contemplating every alternate scenario that could've happened. Unfortunately none of them did. But it's too late for that, that's then and this is now.
You feel you have to accept things as they are now?
HATCHINS: I do.
So when you think back to a relationship that you two shared, which was sacred and intimate, how do you cope with that? Or do you cope with that?
HATCHINS: It's funny you should say it that way, actually, because I think he never viewed himself as much of a romantic. I can just picture him rolling his eyes at the very notion (laughs). And maybe that's why I liked him, he was much more... forward and mundane about it.
Was he more open, then?
HATCHINS: You know, in some ways he was and in some ways he wasn't.
How do you mean?
HATCHINS: Well like... he told me things I know he would never have told anyone else in the world, and then there were things he wouldn't tell me... either because he didn't think I could handle it or because he was obsessively protective of me, and didn't want to burden me with some darker aspect of himself.
Did you sense there was a darker part of him we never saw?
HATCHINS: Not... you know, not in terms of his character. He was as harmless as a hummingbird. But I think in terms of... just things he was dealing with. And he never told me what those things were, so at this point I can only guess, but um... yeah he was definitely troubled. That's what I felt, he was troubled. And he didn't want to share that with other people, he only liked to share his joy and his happiness but he didn't like to share any of his hardships with other people; he just kept them to himself and then they bottled up and... he was alone with them.
I see.
HATCHINS: So, only he could ever really understand the full scope of what troubled him, because only he knew what troubled him. And he took that with him, so... we'll never know.
So we the larger world, the outside observers looking in, only know him as this urban legend who's almost become this mythological analogy for missing teens. You knew him as a person.
HATCHINS: As my Archie.
What's something about him the world doesn't know that you know?
HATCHINS: You know, just how incredibly sweet he was. I mean, I'm biased of course, but he was so gentle and so harmless and so... unmalicious. Every time he saw me, he brought me green tea (laughs) just because he knew how tired I was in the mornings. Every time I came over, he'd just... on a whim cook a souffle for me (laughs). It makes what happened to him even more infuriating, because he was just such an outgoingly gentle individual. He's the last person this should have happened to.
My last question; what do you miss about him the most.
HATCHINS: Every morning, him just... ecstatically telling me some thing he was excited about, when I was only half awake or half listening (laughs).
It seems, from her perspective, Klatos was an angel. He was a gentle, loyal companion. He was a much lighter character, in stark contrast to the almost ominous, foreboding figure the media portrayed him as. It begs the question of who really knew him best; those who loved him, or those who claimed to in the name of attention?
Why were they shut out?
Missing persons investigations have historically brought out the worst in people, be it fake friends or malicious suspicions coming to light. But it begs the question why these people, like Thomas Michaels and Morton Higgins, were more valued for their insights during the investigation than people who knew him best. His own mother and his girlfriend were sidelined from the investigation completely, leading to their founding this site which now memorializes him.
So it should be no surprise they knew him better than we did...
or perhaps ever will.
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