Family members offer reward for missing North Side man

The family of a missing North Side man is offering a $10,000 reward to locate him.

Dakota James, 23, was last seen Jan. 25. Surveillance video from 11:49 p.m. that night shows James at the Wood Street T Station. The video shows James and a co-worker, who got into an Uber. The video then shows James alone in front of the T Station, but it does not show where he went next.

"The family is requesting information from the public that can be corroborated by the Pittsburgh police in order to qualify for this reward. Information must lead to locating their son, Dakota," said Larry Forletta, a family spokesman and private investigator, at a news conference Thursday.

Anyone will information is asked to call a toll-free tip line at 810-294-4858, or the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Missing Persons Unit at 412-323-7141.

Family members from Maryland traveled to Pittsburgh earlier this week to hang nearly 400 posters and to help search for James. At Thursday's news conference, Jeff James pleaded with the public to help find his son.

"We've walked every street in this town and we need that person who knows what we don't know... to find him," Jeff James said. "Every day, more people get here than leave, so this group is growing."

Pam James said earlier this week that her son visited Station Square, Market Square and 941 Saloon on Liberty Avenue before the video was recorded.

"This is the thing we're trying to find out ... whether he got on the subway at 11:49 or it closed too soon for him to get on the subway and he walked," Pam James said.

The family said that  Dakota James has been in Pittsburgh since August 2015, when he moved to the area to earn his MBA at Duquesne University.

When he didn’t show up to work at his full-time job at J.B. Hunt last Thursday, company officials called authorities.

"He's a good kid," Jeff James said. "He's very punctual, doesn't miss work, doesn't miss school. He doesn't miss anything."

He is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds. Both of his ears are pierced with an extra earring on the upper part of his right ear lobe. He also has a triangle tattoo on the inside of one ankle. It is uncertain which ankle is tattooed.

He was last seen wearing jeans, an olive-green hooded sweatshirt and tan moccasins.

Cox Media Group