A 52-year-old North Philadelphia man has been missing for three days, and police have designated his disappearance an endangered case, raising the stakes on a search that stretches from a busy North Broad Street transit corridor to a Center City park miles away. Kevin King was last seen at 2 p.m. on August 30 in the 2700 block of North Broad Street, wearing a blue shirt, gray sweatpants, and a black and white baseball cap.
The Philadelphia Police Department issued the endangered missing person advisory on Tuesday, according to the Philadelphia Police Department. King is described as 6 feet tall and 215 pounds. As Newport Dispatch first reported, police have asked anyone with information to contact the East Detective Division directly at 215-686-3243.
A Search Spanning Two Neighborhoods
The spot where King was last seen sits directly adjacent to SEPTA's North Philadelphia transit hub near Lehigh Avenue, a station that connects to regional rail and rapid transit lines. That hub feeds directly into the Broad Street Line subway, which runs straight from North Broad Street into Center City near Rittenhouse Square in roughly 10 to 15 minutes, per the transit data. Police have identified Rittenhouse Square as an area King is known to frequent, even though it sits roughly 3.5 to 4 miles south of where he disappeared, according to the department's advisory.
The 2700 block of North Broad Street also sits about a mile north of Temple University's main campus, along a corridor lined with commercial storefronts and institutional surveillance cameras. Whether investigators have reviewed footage from those cameras, or from the transit hub and Rittenhouse Square itself, remains an open question that has not been addressed publicly.
Why Police Are Calling King Endangered
Pennsylvania State Police protocol reserves the endangered designation, known as a Missing Endangered Person Advisory, for adult missing persons when unexplained circumstances, physical or mental conditions, or environmental risks place them at special risk of harm, according to the Pennsylvania State Police. It is not clear what specific factors led investigators to apply that label to King's case. Once filed, missing person reports like King's are automatically uploaded to the Commonwealth Law Enforcement Assistance Network and the FBI's National Crime Information Center database, giving state troopers and transit police the ability to identify him during routine field contacts statewide.
The case falls under the jurisdiction of the 25th Police District, which covers the area where King vanished and is headquartered at 3901 Whitaker Avenue. That district operates under the department's East Police Division, and the East Detective Division that is leading the investigation typically handles major crimes and missing person cases across North Philadelphia's 24th, 25th, and 26th districts.
How to Help
Anyone with information can also submit anonymous tips through the Philadelphia Police Department's central tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477) or online at phillypolice.com. King's disappearance is the third missing-person case out of North Philadelphia that Hoodline has covered in recent weeks, following searches for a missing teenager last seen on Randolph Street and another near Love Park. No further updates on King's whereabouts have been released as of this writing.
