It was a Wednesday evening in January 2020 when security cameras last caught a glimpse of him. Porter Taylor Albert was strolling through a Big Lots in North Fort Myers, Florida, doing his shopping just like any other day.
It was 6:45 p.m. on January 15. The footage shows the 77-year-old man dressed for a casual evening, wearing a two-tone shirt—red or orange with long black sleeves—paired with khaki cargo shorts and dark Croc-style clogs. After he walked out of that store’s view, he vanished. No one has heard his voice or seen his face since.
When investigators went to his home, the scene was unsettling in its normalcy. The house was unlocked, with no broken windows or smashed doors to suggest a struggle. His life seemed paused in mid-air. His cell phone was still there, along with all his personal belongings. His second vehicle sat parked in the driveway. In the years since he disappeared, his bank accounts, retirement funds, and credit cards haven’t been touched once.
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Something Was Not Right
The silence didn’t sit right with his friends. By January 19, a friend reached out to the police. He told them he and Porter spoke every single day, so four days of radio silence was completely out of character. This friend also alerted Porter’s relatives, who lived out of state, leading them to file a formal missing persons report on January 21. But just a day before that report was filed, the case took a strange turn.
On January 20, police found Albert’s car. It wasn’t at his house, though. It was being driven in Cape Coral by an 18-year-old woman named Tiffany Zora Rachel Contestabile. When officers pulled her over, she admitted she didn’t have a driver’s license.
She told police the car was Porter’s and claimed she had driven to Cape Coral specifically to look for him because he had been missing for a few days. She was arrested for unlicensed driving, and the car was towed, though police found nothing suspicious inside the vehicle. She was released from custody.
The connection between the missing man and the teenager wasn’t random. Porter was known as a kind man who spent his retirement helping people who were struggling, including recovering alcoholics. He had met Contestabile and her mother while they were homeless and living in the woods.
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Trying to get them back on their feet, Porter had arranged housing for them in a trailer and was even working to get Tiffany enrolled in school.
Today, Porter Taylor Albert remains missing and is classified as Endangered Missing.
He would be 83 years old today. He is a white male with brown hair and blue eyes, standing about 5’5 “tall and weighing about 144 pounds.
Authorities have named Tiffany Contestabile as a person of interest in his disappearance, noting she may now be living in Arkansas, though they stated her mother is not a suspect.
Albert, a father of two, is remembered for his love of the beaches in Sarasota and Venice, and his willingness to help those in need. His case remains unsolved.
If you have any information on this case, you are asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS, where you will remain anonymous.
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