BANGOR – Donald Lee apparently grew tired of his life in Bangor and decided to start anew. So the former homeless man, who had managed to secure a job and an apartment and had started saving money, disappeared.

More than six weeks after he vanished, the 58-year-old who once said he was tired of the cold was located this month in Chicago, living in a mission for the homeless. A Bangor police detective effectively closed the missing-person case saying that Lee appears to be safe and had left on his own accord.

When he disappeared around Oct. 8, Lee left everything behind.

In searching the man’s Ohio Street apartment last month, Bangor police Detective Brent Beaulieu reported that everything seemed in place.

Lee’s employer, the manager at Shaw’s Supermarket on Main Street, said he was a good employee and consistently showed up for work, that is, until after Columbus Day when Lee didn’t show up, period. He didn’t even come to pick up his paycheck. His pastor at the Columbia Street Baptist Church said Lee had attended services regularly, only missing them two or three times a year.

On Nov. 10, a friend of Lee’s who had met him in the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter and who also attended church with Lee said that Lee planned to hitch a ride on one of the trucks he unloaded at Shaw’s, where he had worked since last year. He told her that he wanted to start over, according to police.

It was Lee’s bank records, subpoenaed by Beaulieu, that solved the mystery of his disappearance. On Oct. 12, Lee withdrew $1,000 from his account at Merrill Bank. And in a letter dated Oct. 29, Lee asked the bank to close his account and forward the money to the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago.

The bank called to confirm the transaction with Lee and later forwarded a check for the remainder of his account.

Beaulieu tried to reach Lee at the mission, but Lee did not answer a page. In his report, the detective said mission officials said they have 500 guests daily and that they aren’t required to sign in or out.