After working in the broadcast documentary world for fifteen years I decided it was time to make my own film. I knew that if I was going to commit the time and effort it takes to create an independent feature length documentary the topic would have to be something I cared deeply about. It would have to be the story that kept me up at night. In 1998 I naively decided I would try to find out what happened to my childhood friend, Andy Puglisi, who disappeared in the summer of ’76. I was with Andy the day he vanished and while it had been years since he was missing I would still stop dead in my tracks at the mention of his name. One time in 1984 I came home from school and the news was on. They were searching for Andy again after a psychic said he had a vision. And a year or two later a friend went to the Cape and brought me back a picture from a real estate magazine – it was the first age progression of Andy done by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Back in August of 1976 the search for Andy was called off after only six days. I couldn’t understand why the adults stopped looking for him. And I made a promise. When I grew up I would try to find him. “Have You Seen Andy?” tells the personal story of my search for answers to Andy’s disappearance. The film was produced over the course of approximately 7 years before ultimately being picked up by HBO / Cinemax for broadcast in June of 2007. Composer John Kusiak worked magic in putting my search for Andy (with all of the emotions involved) into a beautiful score for the film. Our editor, Rachel Clark, spent months in the edit room reliving a traumatic event with an anxious director all while creating a compelling and raw narrative. In 2008 “Have You Seen Andy?” won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism. It was incredible to be in NYC standing on stage at Lincoln Center in front of so many colleagues – a 9 year old kid inside – accepting the award on Andy’s behalf for recognition of our shared story. As I said in the acceptance speech “what is telling a story, what is telling the truth if no body is going to listen.” Giving voice to the truth has been critical and empowering in the sharing of Andy’s story.
After the film’s broadcast I began receiving tips and information from multiple sources. Over the next decade I compiled those tips, recording everything in notebooks, built databases, saved every email and piece of correspondence while sharing with law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children important leads in Andy’s case. In 2017 as a direct result of a tip I received the FBI began excavating the backyard of a Georgetown, MA home searching for the body of a young boy. I recognize now that event was a trauma trigger propelling me into the next phase of this project; I am researching, documenting and producing a 10-part investigative podcast to be launched on August 22, 2021 – 45 years after Andy’s abduction. The podcast begins with an update to Andy’s story from 2007 until today. It expands beyond Andy’s story into the investigation of multiple unresolved cases of missing and murdered children many of them with striking similarities to Andy’s case. It also explores networks of abuse and child trafficking while empowering survivors to share their story and advocate for systemic change. Please listen, download and share the podcast “Have You Seen Andy: Open Investigation” (launching in August 2021). You never know what piece of the puzzle will finish the picture. In the meantime, my relationship with Andy’s family continues. We will never give up.