Since Halloween, six college-aged men have vanished -- most while walking home alone late at night after drinking at parties or bars.

Officials say the disappearances are not connected, but their families disagree.

From St. John's University west of Minneapolis to Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., bells toll and tears flow for six young men who've vanished without a trace. Their anguished families are begging for answers and assistance from law enforcement in unraveling their heart-wrenching mysteries, 12 News investigative reporter Colleen Henry said.

"We have a sliver of hope that he's alive," Steve Jenkins said.

Three-and-a-half months ago, Steve Jenkins got the call that rocked his family's life -- his son, Chris, never made it home from a Halloween party. He was a star athlete and honor student at the University of Minnesota. Chris Jenkins was the first of six who disappeared.

• Oct. 31: Friends saw the 21-year-old Jenkins, from Racine County, leaving a downtown Minneapolis bar dressed in his Halloween costume. No one's seen him since.
• Nov. 6: 75 miles east, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire student Michael Noll vanished after leaving a party at the Nasty Habit tavern. It was his 22nd birthday.
• Nov. 9: 75 miles west, 20-year-old Josh Guimond disappeared as he headed home from a card party in a dorm at St. John's University.
• Dec. 12: 18-year-old Chad Sharon was going back to the dorm after an off-campus party near Notre Dame. There's been no trace of the northern Wisconsin teenager.
• Dec. 20: 17-year-old Brian Carrick was seen walking into the Johnsburg, Ill., grocery store where he worked. No one saw him walk out.
• Jan. 10: 21-year-old Nathan Herr headed home from Thursday's $10-all-you-can-drink night at a Sheboygan sports bar and vanished without a trace.

Chris Jenkins' dad takes each disappearance personally.

"When the first disappeared, I heard about it. When Josh disappeared, then I became concerned, and I started comparing cases," Jenkins said.

Jenkins sees a pattern.

"Someone is taking these kids when they're vulnerable and premeditatedly making them go missing," Jenkins said.

Yet Jenkins said the Minneapolis police officer assigned to investigate his son's vanishing is handling it as a suicide, even though Chris has no history of depression.

"Within two weeks he had Chris as a suicide -- jumping into the Mississippi River, and we were going to have to wait until his body decomposes, floats to the surface and that will be next spring some time," Jenkins said.

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The FBI cites more than 10,000 open cases for missing college-aged adults nationwide, but according to the Center for Missing Adults, the number of actual college students reported missing each year is much smaller. Jenkins sees danger in those numbers.

"You can't have this many kids go missing with no evidence, meaning, no body. A body will show up somehow -- accident, murder, suicide," Jenkins said.

"It is clearly the pattern of a serial killer, and I can't understand why the individual law enforcement doesn't see that," Jenkins said.

"It's the worst thing ever," Cindy Herr said.

In Sheboygan, the parents of Nathan Herr are still shell-shocked a month after their son vanished.The Herrs don't know if the disappearances are connected, but they, too, see a pattern.

"I had a map here even trying to figure out how they went, who picked up who first, how they went and it almost looks like they're going around Lake Michigan," Herr said.

From Minneapolis to South Bend, Herr noted the kids share similar ages, similar appearances, similar circumstances and their disappearances all seem to skirt the interstate system.

"The only thing that isn't the same is all of these (others) are in college. Nathan is not, but how does anybody know that?" Herr said.

Nathan Herr is a landscaper, but was partying that night along a strip of bars popular with Sheboygan's college crowd.

Sheboygan's deputy police chief said Nathan's disappearance did prompt reports of strangers offering residents rides late at night. Still, he sees no evidence of foul play.

"Those people that had the rides offered to them are fine -- some took rides," Sheboygan Police Deputy Chief Robert Wojs said. "I think offering a ride on a cold night doesn't in and of itself connect itself with the disappearance of somebody."

Late last month, Sheboygan police met with investigators from Minnesota, Eau Claire and Notre Dame to compare notes. The group concluded the only common threads they see are age, alcohol and water.

Since many of the young men disappeared near lakes or rivers, investigators suspect accidents or suicide and they're hoping the spring thaw will bring answers.

Jenkins believes spring may be too late.

"Somebody else will die. Maybe when we get nine, 10, maybe when we get 22, will they think it's important to step forward," Jenkins said.

So Jenkins (pictured, right)has taken the investigation into his own hands, hiring a private eye to work the case full time. With the help of psychics and search dogs, Jenkins believes they've developed some credible leads.

Jenkins said a Milwaukee-based bloodhound tracked the scents of two of the missing to the abbey at St. John's University, where Guimond disappeared. Hoover identified Guimond's scent and the scent of Chris Jenkins, who had no known connection to the school.

Many in law enforcement dismiss Hoover and his trainer as unreliable, but Jenkins is hopeful.

"12 News has uncovered one lead the FBI is currently tracking -- Milwaukee agents are investigating an Ann Arbor, Mich., man accused of stalking an old girlfriend and her family. In threatening e-mail messages, he uses the initials of some of the missing men," 12 News investigative reporter Colleen Henry said.

Most interesting is how closely his path mirrors the map of the missing men. He recently moved from Ann Arbor to the Minneapolis area. His old girlfriend is a student at Concordia University in Mequon, just 35 miles south of Sheboygan on Interstate 43.

The FBI declined comment and the bureau's official position remains that these disappearances are not related.

"Law enforcement's mentality is the longer we wait, they're going away -- meaning, parents. Well, I assure you, we're not going away," Jenkins said.

Jenkins is now working with relatives of the other missing men to pressure the FBI to set up a special task force and to stop the rising toll of heartbroken families.

"We're going to fight until we find Chris and when we find Chris or when we find Josh, or when we find Brian or when we find Michael. You know what -- we're going to start finding a lot of them," Jenkins said.

While the FBI declined to investigate these cases, it has agreed to forward information to its behavioral sciences unit for review. The bureau said results will take some time since the bureau said this case is not high priority.

Meanwhile, Chris Jenkins' birthday is next week. The Jenkins family will mark the date with a ceremony at Minnesota's state Capitol as they continue to rally the FBI to set up a special task force.