PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla — Family of a missing Putnam County man believe his body has been found.
A tip in Chad Mullen’s missing persons case led investigators to an abandoned house where they found a body buried Monday. The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office has not yet identified the body, but Mullen’s mother, Willette Arnett, believes it's her youngest son.
“You are afraid of the worst, but you keep hoping and having faith that, you know, he's, you know, maybe in Mexico on the beach having a piña colada or something," Arnett said. "You keep hoping that he's, you know, somewhere, but not dead.”
Arnett said her hope of finding her son is now gone. She is searching for answers about what happened to him.
“All of a sudden it kind of hits you," Arnett said. "Like, I'm not gonna ever talk to him again. I'm never gonna see him again, you know, no mother's day things, no birthdays.”
Mullen was reported missing in early September at 52 years old, Arnett said.
The sheriff’s office said he was last seen on San Mateo Road in Satsuma and that his phone last pinged in that location, which is a business owned by his on-again, off-again girlfriend, they said.
“He loved living there," Arnett said. "He just, he thought it was the greatest place in the world.”
Arnett said Mullen loved fishing, exercising and living on a blueberry farm.
“He had silly little jokes, funny little jokes," she said. "Actually, they were kinda dumb jokes but we laughed at them because they were so funny the way he told them.”
Now she holds tightly to special memories of her son.
“He would call me in the morning and we would say a prayer together," Arnett said. "He called me at night after he got off work and we'd have prayers together.”
The body that was found is undergoing an autopsy. First Coast Crimestoppers and Mullen’s family had been offering a $15,000 reward for any tip leading them to Mullen. There's no word yet on what will happen to that reward.