JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — To have a family member missing is a painful experience. As the days turn into years, the unknown can be overwhelming. For the month of November, First Coast News' series "Unsolved" will be featuring five missing persons cases in Jacksonville in the hopes that someone has information to help close these cases.
We begin with the puzzling disappearance of Frank Brown.
"He ain't forgotten now," Ernest Brown, Frank's brother, said. "He ain't forgotten."
Ernest Brown has many questions about what happened to his older brother, but no answers.
"Same thing, nothing," Brown said. "Now almost nine years and nothing."
He says he has gone over the day of June 3, 2015 in his mind countless times and it just doesn't make sense to him. His brother, Frank Brown, suffered from seizures and an episode landed him in Baptist Hospital downtown.
Ernest Brown says after staying a few days at the hospital, Frank Brown called him to say he was being released and needed a pick up.
"So me and mom talked to him, we were downstairs, he said 'hey, I will be down in a few minutes,'' Ernest Brown recalled. "So me and mom were sitting there for about a half hour and were like 'Frank ain't coming down here, what's going on?' I called back up there, no answer."
He says he waited a while longer then went up to Frank's room to get him.
"I go up there and they say he's gone. I say he couldn't be gone, we've been down there waiting on him," Ernest Brown said.
He says they went back to Frank Brown's home and waited, but he never came home. The next day they reported Frank Brown as missing to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
"Upon his release he was discharged, never to be seen again," Det. Lashante Whitaker said.
Det. Whitaker with the Missing Persons Unit at JSO is the detective currently assigned Frank Brown's case. We also spoke with Det. Tonya Porter, now retired from JSO's Missing Persons Unit, but was the original detective when Frank was reported missing.
She says they immediately started trying to retrace Frank's steps.
"We went to the hospital, we went to the stairway he was seen on a still shot exiting the hospital," Det. Porter said.
She said it appears through a surveillance photo that he left from a parking garage door alone. Det. Porter said they then called out a K-9 unit to try and get a trace, as well as check the vents and tight areas around the exterior of the hospital.
"We had the dog go up in there and check as well to see if someone was sleeping there or we would find something there," she explained.
But nothing was found.
Another red flag for detectives and Brown's family was that Frank would get monthly deposits in his account on the third of every month and would immediately withdraw the money.
"My brother liked to go get his money, so on the fourth [of the month] he would have been ready to get in that car and go get his money out of the bank," Brown said.
But this time, the money sat untouched. Detectives also spoke with his neighbors along Florida Avenue who said they hadn't seen him either, leaving detectives with little to go on.
"We are steady looking, looking for leads and running things with his bank accounts and still nothing," Det. Whitaker said.
Ernest says the years have been difficult, his mother is desperate for some type of closure about what happened to her son.
"She's waiting on him, she been waiting on him. She's 82, she says every morning 'well it's another day'," Ernest Brown said. "She always say 'Frank,' that's all she thinks about, her son."
Detectives Porter and Whitaker have not given up the hope of closing this case and are open to hearing from anyone who may have seen something suspicious in the area around Baptist Hospital or the Southbank in June of 2015.
"If anything sparked your interest at that time that was kind of odd, and now that you are listening to the story you are like, you know what I did see something that seemed out of place to me at that time, contact JSO," Det. Whitaker said.
It could help give Frank Brown's family the answers they've been waiting for.
"Frank has got family, we love him," tells Ernest Brown, "We love him."
If you know anything about the disappearance of Frank Brown, contact the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office non-emergency line at 904-630-0500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS(8477) or you can email your tip at JSOCrimeTips@jaxsheriff.org.