Circumstances of Disappearance
Hipp was last seen in his hometown of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina on July 1, 1991. He may have been sighted near Chapel Hill, North Carolina during the summer of 1996.
Hipp is an alcoholic and also requires medication to treat manic depression. He has occasionally been in institutions. Due to these medical conditions, Hipp's memory may be faulty.
He is a portrait sculptor. In the summer of 1991, he appeared at the home of one of his patrons, showed $5,000 in cash he said he collected on a debt. The next day he headed for New York. He called his grandmother collect from a telephone booth in Manhattan. And then he vanished. He had stopped carrying identification long before.

The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children created the following age-progressions for Hipp: