Former Naples middle/high school teacher missing in Italy for more than a month

NAPLES, Italy — A former teacher at the local Defense Department school who has dementia is missing in Italy after recently attempting to enter a Navy base without authorization.

Jack “Duke” Marlow has not been seen or heard from since early August, family members say. He once was a teacher and head baseball coach at the middle/high school at Naval Support Activity Naples.

The family reported the 70-year-old’s disappearance to U.S. and Italian authorities, but there has been no communication from him or any indication of his whereabouts for more than a month, they say.

A resident of Cheyenne, Wyo., Marlow is listed on a statewide missing persons website, and the Cheyenne Police Department said it had turned the case over to the FBI.

The status of any law enforcement investigation into Marlow’s disappearance wasn’t clear Friday. But police checks reveal that he is not at home, his family said.

The FBI referred comment Friday to Italian police, saying that the agency stood ready “to assist in any way that the Italian government may request.”

His ex-wife Kathy Marlow, mother of the couple’s adult son, and other family members say they are worried for the safety of Marlow, who left his luggage at the Naples airport after arriving in July, has no working phone and does not speak Italian.

“The fact he hasn’t been found is really what makes me think things have gone terribly wrong,” Kathy Marlow said.

Family members say they were unaware of Marlow’s travel plans and the extent of his mental impairment but have pieced together his movements since he left the U.S. and arrived in Naples on July 18.

That same day, he tried to enter an NSA Naples recreational facility in Pozzuoli, the base said in a statement Thursday.

“Consistent with standard installation access-control procedures, security personnel denied Mr. Marlow entry to Carney Park because he did not possess the required identification or authorization,” the base said.

Base security personnel gave Marlow information about nearby services and he left the area, according to the statement.

Marlow later was found wandering along a nearby highway and taken by Italian police to a Pozzuoli hospital, where he stayed for a few days and was released, said another former wife who did not want to be identified due to privacy concerns.

It was the first of three encounters with Italian police and subsequent hospitalizations over about three weeks. Each time, the U.S. Consulate in Naples was notified, the former wife said.

The last reported sighting of Marlow was Aug. 10 at a hospital in the Naples commune of Nola. The consulate was attempting to arrange his return to the U.S., but he walked away from the hospital, she said.

It’s unknown how Marlow made his way to Nola, on the outskirts of Naples, after his second hospitalization in late July or whether anyone had contact with or assisted him along the way.

“Those missing two weeks may also be important to locating him now,” the former wife said. “Someone may remember seeing or interacting with him during that period.”

It’s unclear when Marlow stopped working for the Department of Defense Education Activity, but he is pictured with other teachers in a 2012 Naples Middle/High School yearbook and was the baseball coach in 2014.

Family members are hopeful that Marlow, who traveled to Italy frequently, may have reached out to friends in the DODEA community in Naples.

They believe someone may have information that could help find him.

“He’s a father and he needs to be found,” Kathy Marlow said. “He’s struggling.”

Anyone with information about Marlow is asked to call the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation at 307-777-7181 or the FBI at 800-225-5324.