Hernando County Sheriff Seeks Public Help Locating Missing Brooksville Man

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office is searching for Michael Enoch Hires, a 21-year-old Brooksville man who has not been seen since the evening of March 30, 2025. Hires was last spotted around 7 p.m. that Monday at a relative's home on Fairway Drive in Brooksville. He was wearing black cargo shorts and a brown jacket and was possibly carrying a backpack. No vehicle information has been released.

Anyone who has seen Hires or knows his whereabouts should call the HCSO at 352-754-6830. Det. Goerge Loydgren, who handles missing persons and cold case inquiries for the agency, can be reached at that same number. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call 1-866-990-8477 or submit a tip through the HCSO's online tip portal.

The public appeal was issued Wednesday morning, three days after Hires was last seen on Fairway Drive. That gap means any surveillance footage, transaction records, or sightings from the intervening days could prove critical. Hernando County covers 478.3 square miles, much of it rural and wooded terrain that complicates ground searches significantly.

Fairway Drive is a residential street in Brooksville, the county seat of Hernando County, situated roughly 50 miles north of Tampa. The neighborhood connects to the city's main commercial and traffic corridors. Businesses and traffic cameras along U.S. 41, the primary artery through central Brooksville, as well as along Broad Street to the south, may have captured movement from the night of March 30. Residents with doorbell or home security cameras in the Fairway Drive area are among the most likely to hold useful footage.

Brooksville carries a poverty rate of 19.73% and a median household income of $54,926, figures that reflect the economic pressures facing many in the community. The broader county counted 212,807 residents as of 2024. The HCSO's alert had been shared more than 46 times on social media by Wednesday morning, pushing the call for information well beyond the immediate neighborhood.