WAYCROSS, Ga. — For nearly seven years, a Waycross mother has pushed for answers about her son's disappearance, but the case has only gotten murkier with time as rumors swirl.
Some of those close to the case have also died, leaving no answers.
Stapled to a tree, against the backdrop of the unforgiving Florida woodlands, a face on a flyer stands out.
"I just want to know where he is at," Launa Hall said. "I know something has happened to him."
Austin Wise was 24 years old at the time of his disappearance.
"I have a million questions with no answers," Hall, his mother, said.
The questions begin the morning of May 27, 2017. Investigators say Austin was at a friend's home on Griffin Road in Waycross around 7 a.m. and he tried calling his mother who didn't answer because she was at work. He then called his father, reportedly saying he needed a ride, but when his father got Griffin Road, Austin was nowhere to be found.
Two days later, Austin was officially reported as missing.
"That was the house on Griffin Road they were outside and he ends up walking off from there," Ware County Sheriff's Office Capt. Melissa Thrift said.
Capt. Thrift is now the lead on the case, she took us out to the area on Griffin Road where Austin was last seen. She said Austin and his friend visited the friend's uncle nearby that night.
"They would go over to his camper and then they had been back over to the home on Griffin Road," she explained.
She said investigators were told there was an argument and Austin walked off into the woods, but a search of the area turned up nothing.
"We brought cadaver dogs in and had them search too, but we still were not able to find Austin," said Capt. Thrift.
Not even any articles of clothing. A trace of Austin's phone showed its last known location as near the highway, but the phone was not recovered either.
For Hall, the story that Austin just walked off into the woods never made sense.
"He is terrified of spiders, he doesn't like the woods, he doesn't like to camp, he doesn't like to fish. His shoes were always clean," his mother explained," He would have never gone into those woods willingly."
She tells us two days before he went missing, she had picked him up from the same home on Griffin Road.
"He was terrified, he got into my car and said that a person pulled a gun on him that was related to the people at that house and that he was never going to go back out there again," she said.
Unfortunately, he did and this nightmare for her and her family began. She said her gut tells her he's dead and his body never left the area and she wants more extensive searches to be done.
"Its been a nightmare to hear all the things that could have or may have happened to your child, as a mother it is horrifying and I just want to bring him home," she said with tears in her eyes.
To add to the challenges of this case, the friend Austin was visiting and her uncle in the nearby trailer have both died in the years since his disappearance.
"Though critical circumstances, they were not criminal circumstances or had anything to do with this case we are aware of," tells Capt. Thrift.
Capt. Thrift said currently there are no suspects in this case and though the tips have slowed down over the years in Austin's case, they will not give up the pursuit of answers for Austin's family.
"We have the role as law enforcement, but we are also parents, we also have children, brothers and sisters. So we definitely want to make sure we keep looking for Austin and find out what has happened to Austin," she said.
Until those answers come to light, Launa Hall said she will not give up either. She is determined to find her son and lay him to rest.
"I have to, as a mother, I am not going to stop until I find him or I find what happened to him," she said," There is no end for me. It is like my world stopped the day he went missing."
If you know anything about the disappearance of Austin Wise please contact the Ware County Sheriff's Office Tipline at 912-287-TIPS(8477). You can also contact the Ware County Sheriff's Office, Criminal Investigations Division at 912-287-4327. To submit a tip electronically, you can visit waresheriff.com and click the TIP LINE button.