Tram Driver Disappearance Probed

In the 15 years he worked for Universal Studios, Thomas James gained a reputation as a steady employee whose enthusiasm shuttling tourists helped earn him the company’s employee of the year honors in 1995.

Then last month, the 41-year-old tram driver--a bachelor who enjoyed movies, investing in the stock market and horse racing--vanished, leaving behind only a discarded newspaper classified section circled for possible apartment rentals.

But even that discovery failed to turn up any hard leads for family members, who met with several landlords. No one could recall seeing the thin, dark-haired man with the bouncy walk.

“It’s such an enigma,” his mother, Clare James, 80, of Los Feliz, said Wednesday. “There hasn’t been one clue. His friends and his family agree it’s not like him to drop out of sight without letting anyone know.”

The Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Bureau concurs there is little to go on other than the discovery July 1 of the missing man’s greenish-blue Nissan Altima, which was parked at Avon and Alameda streets near NBC Studios in Burbank.

“The case is still open as a missing person case,” said LAPD Det. Doug Lemelle. “There is no evidence of foul play at this time.”

Universal Studios spokesman Jim Yeager called James, who was the assigned tram driver for VIPs, “very popular and very well liked,” describing him as “a model employee.”

The deepening mystery has unnerved Clare James, who said she was told that police found only an unmounted steering-wheel locking device in the front passenger seat of her son’s car.

“He was cautious about things,” she said. “The fact that he didn’t use The Club leads me to believe that he intended to return to the car in a reasonable amount of time.”

In the days leading up to his disappearance, James did not seem depressed or exhibit any unusual behavior, she said.

The second oldest of four brothers, James had helped organize a birthday party for his 9-year-old niece on Sunday, June 14, his mother said.

The missing man’s brother, John James, said that the last time anyone talked to him was the following Tuesday night, when he made a half-hour phone call to a friend and co-worker at Universal.

The first hint of trouble came that Wednesday, when he did not come home. After he failed to show up for work Friday, his mother called police.

Family members said that James moved in with his mother in May after his landlord raised the rent on his one-bedroom apartment in Burbank. During his free time, he had been out looking for a new apartment closer to work, his family said.

The missing man left a wallet at home with credit cards, his driver’s license, a passport and cash, John James said. Family members could not find his automatic-teller card and believed he might have been carrying it when he disappeared.

Hundreds of fliers have been distributed in the area where his car was found. Anyone with information can call (818) 759-6513.