Katie Nielsen, worried at the omen, asked her 30-year-old son, Mark Thompson, to stay in for the evening. He lightly scoffed at her fears.

``I'll be home,'' Nielsen remembered him saying. ``I have to work in the morning.''

She hasn't seen him since.

Now, Nielsen is wondering whether there's a connection between her son's disappearance and those of other gay men.

Last week, an affidavit described the deaths of two local gay men. The affidavit says Steven Lorenzo and Scott Schweickert picked up Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz, both 26, from a Tampa bar, killed them and ditched their bodies.

Neither Lorenzo nor Schweickert have been charged in the deaths. Both are being held without bail on other charges.

Police said they are continuing to investigate the possibility of more victims, including Thompson.

Members of the Tampa Bay gay community have identified five gay men, who have disappeared since 1995, who they think might have ties to Lorenzo: Wachholtz, Galehouse, Thompson, Bradley Lee Williams and James Shumaker.

In the past few months, Nielsen - like other mothers of men on the list - was asked by investigators to provide DNA in case they discover physical evidence of her son.

That Halloween night, Nielsen said, Thompson headed to a Clearwater bar. Days later, she said, his Ford Ranger was found on North Street in Tampa, less than 10 blocks from Lorenzo's bungalow at 213 W. Powhattan Ave.

Nielsen, of Dunedin, said her son frequented the same Tampa gay bar where the affidavit says Galehouse and Wachholtz were picked up by Lorenzo and Schweickert.

``When you see their pictures in the paper, they all look the same, and they're about the same age,'' Nielsen said.

Police have spoken with Nielsen as recently as Sunday, she said. Still, she said, she wishes they would say more.

She wants to know whether her son's picture was among photographs found at Lorenzo's home. She wants to know whether her son's clothing was there. She wants to know whether newspaper articles, collected by Lorenzo and found by police, include accounts of her son's disappearance.

Nielsen said she and her son always had a strong bond. In high school, when he tried gently to break the news that he was gay, she told him she already knew.

Years later, after a long relationship soured, he moved from Seattle to the Clearwater apartment she was living in. Nielsen said he made friends quickly but didn't date much.

He lived in Florida for six months, then disappeared.

Nielsen has traveled to Jacksonville, Gainesville and Miami following leads fed to her by Thompson's friends. None has proved fruitful.

After news broke about Lorenzo, Nielsen drove to Orient Road Jail. She wanted to show Lorenzo a picture of her son and ask whether he was responsible for the disappearance.

Jail officials said she could not meet with him, although she could send a letter. She hasn't decided whether she will.

Nielsen said she knows the investigation may never positively link Lorenzo to the disappearance of her son. The thought worries her.

``I know friends through Missing Children's Network who have been looking for their sons for 15 to 20 years,'' she said. ``I don't know if I can do that.''

Nielsen said she tries hard to move on, to enjoy her life, to - maybe - forget for a little while.

That's just not possible.

``It's like somebody hits you in the gut,'' she said. ``It's like if you cut yourself, then start to heal, and someone comes and cuts you open again. That's how I feel.''

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698.