An 18-year-old chess champion from Bloomington has not been seen in two months, and police have only now asked the public for help finding him. Troy Cavanah was last seen leaving his home on the 8500 block of Park Knoll Circle while riding a bicycle in the early morning hours of June 12, and he has not been heard from since.
Bloomington Police and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension formally broadcast a public missing person alert on Wednesday, exactly two months after Cavanah disappeared, stating that officials have concern for his well-being, according to KARE 11. As reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, Cavanah is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing 130 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.
Park Knoll Circle sits in a residential cul-de-sac in West Bloomington near Bush Lake Road, close to wooded parkland and the municipal border with Eden Prairie, per Realtor.com. The area connects two suburban communities that Cavanah appears to have moved between daily: he lived in Bloomington but attended school across the border in Eden Prairie.
A Rising Star in Minnesota Chess
Before he vanished, Cavanah was known in Twin Cities chess circles as one of the state's most promising young players. He earned his National Master title in 2021 at age 13, reached a peak U.S. Chess Federation rating of 2240, and won Minnesota's invitation-only K-12 Denker Playoff championship in April 2025, according to the US Chess Federation.
As an 11th-grade student at Eden Prairie High School, Cavanah also led the school's team to the Minnesota State Scholastic Championship title in March 2025 while separately winning the individual K-12 state title, Eden Prairie Schools noted at the time. That achievement placed him among the most accomplished young competitors in the state's scholastic chess scene, just over a year before he went missing.
Why Did It Take Two Months to Go Public?
The two-month gap between Cavanah's disappearance and the public alert raises questions about how the case was handled in its early weeks, though the dossier of available reporting does not detail what investigative steps Bloomington Police took during that period. Minnesota law is clear on one point: under Statute § 299C.53, law enforcement agencies are required to accept missing person reports without delay and cannot refuse a report simply because the person is an adult or because the disappearance might be voluntary.
Separately, Minnesota Peace Officer Standards and Training Board model guidelines call for the state's missing-persons clearinghouse to contact local police 30 days after a case is entered into the National Crime Information Center database, requesting family DNA samples, dental records, x-rays, and fingerprints for unresolved cases. It remains unknown whether that step, or any escalation, occurred in Cavanah's case before Wednesday's public alert.
Part of a Larger Pattern Statewide
Missing person cases are not uncommon in Minnesota. Local agencies statewide submitted 8,358 missing person reports into the National Crime Information Center database in 2025, including 3,874 adults aged 18 and older, according to Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension data. Nationally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation logged 498,038 missing person entries into the same database that year.
Bloomington Police have leaned on community tips before in similar cases. In March 2021, the department relied on public assistance during an extended search for a resident who had left home on foot in West Bloomington, according to CBS Minnesota. Hoodline has also covered Bloomington missing-person cases that were resolved after public tips led police to safely locate the missing residents.
The Bloomington Police Department operates out of 1800 West Old Shakopee Road and is asking anyone with information about Cavanah's whereabouts to call 911. Non-emergency tips can be directed to the department at 952-563-4900.
