The family of Morehouse College student Ben Jones traveled to Atlanta from all over the country to celebrate his graduation on the weekend of May 17-18. But he never showed up for the commencement ceremonies and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Jones’ immediate family in suburban Atlanta are joining the Roswell, Ga., police in searching or their son by passing out fliers in an effort to find him.
Police intimated that they don’t know if Jones is missing because of foul play or because he ashamed that he wasn’t graduating after all.
“For him to stay away for four days over the disappointment of that would be very, very much unlike him,” Jones’ father said.
Jones’ father, Richard Jones, said he does not believe son has disappeared because he learned he wouldn’t be graduating and family had arrived from all over to celebrate.
He says he isn’t sure his son even knew he hadn’t completed the requirements to graduate.
But Roswell police told Channel 2’s Tom Jones the Morehouse senior told his father he was going to pick up his graduation tickets on Friday. That’s when he vanished.
“We haven’t been able to reach him by phone, text. No one has seen or talked to him,” his father said.
Jones says Morehouse Police texted his son on Saturday and got a response that set off alarm bells for the family.
“They got a text from his phone saying, ‘I can’t call right now but I’m on the way,'” he said.
Richard Jones says this behavior is definitely out of character for their son.
Leaning on the hope that his son is unharmed but humiliated by not graduating, Jones’ father left this message for him: “Anything that you might be going through; anything you’re dealing with, we can work it out,” he said, according to WSBTV.com.
Police did reveal to the media that they got a ping from Jones’ phone Saturday indicating he was at a hotel in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. The son was no longer there when police arrived.
Morehouse and Atlanta police said they are treating this as a missing-person case.