The “Found Magazine” Roadshow Tracks Down Authors of Anonymous Notes

In 2006, a Portland woman working in Oregon City came across a sealed envelope tucked in the grass of a churchyard. Upon opening the envelope, she discovered a five-page letter from a man named Casey to a waitress named Trisha.

The letter tells, in detail, of trials and tribulations Casey had faced up to that point and includes a heartfelt thank-you to Trisha for always lending a listening ear. The letter ends with Casey telling Trisha about his plans for the future.

“I have found my mission in life after all these years and all these ups and downs,” Casey’s letter reads. “My mission in life is to build and race the baddest Nissans in the Northwest.”

Seventeen years later, the note has been read across all 50 states and in multiple countries as part of Found Magazine’s touring live show. Now, Found Magazine founder Davy Rothbart hopes to find Casey and Trisha and is coming to Portland and Oregon City to continue the search.

Found Magazine published nine issues at irregular intervals between 2001 and 2013, and lives on as a website, book series, podcast, live show, and periodic magazine. It presents various notes and photos that have since lost their owners. Rothbart started Found Magazine after he noticed a vaguely threatening note on the windshield of his car addressed to someone named Mario.

The letter lambastes Mario for parking in front of a woman’s house while claiming to be at work. Filled with expletives and concluding with “I fucking hate you, Amber. P.S. Page me,” the note sparked an interest in compiling inexplicable found items that made Rothbart’s career.

Thriving on context-free finds, Found Magazine’s humor and intrigue are fueled by the unsolvable mystery that readers will likely never know why the notes were written.

“That’s actually kind of the fun of it; it’s just a fragment of the story,” Rothbart says. “There is a small subset of finds, maybe one in a hundred, that are just my all-time favorites where the mystery is so intriguing, like reading the middle chapter of some great novel, where I’m just like, I really want to know who these people really were.”

Rothbart has toured Found Magazine for years, reading notes aloud accompanied by original music about the notes created by Rothbart’s brother, Peter. This year’s “Getting Sh*t Done” tour visits Portland and Oregon City on Saturday, Aug. 3. Oregon is the only state with two tour stops. Both performances will be filmed for a docuseries that follows the Found Magazine crew as it tracks down favorite notes’ authors. So far, Found Magazine has lined up interviews with note authors at every tour stop. Oregon City remains the exception.

Casey, the illusive Nissan fanatic, has so far eluded Found Magazine.

“We love this guy and we love this letter,” Rothbart says. It’s really kind of eloquent and self-reflective. It’s funny, it’s heavy in moments. He clearly has a cool sense of humor. He just seems like an awesome guy.”

Rothbart hopes the two tour stops in Oregon will lead to enough extra exposure to help identify Casey and Trisha.

“This woman seemed like she worked at this diner for a long time,” Rothbart says. “Maybe somebody remembers going into this diner 20 years ago and a kind waitress named Trisha.”

Casey and Trisha may still be out there, but Rothbart has found one promising lead so far. Casey’s letter says he “would always love going to the bottom of the hill and getting cup after cup of coffee.” Locals have informed Found Magazine that “the bottom of the hill” could refer to a part of downtown Oregon City that has a Shari’s Cafe nearby.

Found Magazine tracked down an employee who worked at the famed regional chain for 30 years, and claims to remember an employee named Trisha. Unfortunately, this employee doesn’t remember Trisha’s last name.

Rothbart encourages anyone who may have any information leading to Casey and Trisha to contact founddocuseries@gmail.com.

“I feel like just by being there in person we may be able to find them and just tell Casey how much this letter has meant to us,” Rothbart says. “It resonates to me. I didn’t have the same troubles in my teens and early 20s, but I can relate to the struggles he was having. It’ll be cool to be there and actually trying to find him.”

SEE IT: Found Magazine Get Sh*t Done Tour stops at Kickstand Comedy, 1006 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-719-5685, kickstandcomedy.org. 8 pm Saturday, Aug. 3. The tour also stops at End of the Oregon Trail Visitor & Interpretive Center, 1726 Washington St., Oregon City, 503 657-9336, historicoregoncity.org. 2 pm Saturday, Aug. 3. $5–$15. All ages.