JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A dented mailbox down a long, dirt road still carries his name: Gibson.
But down the overgrown drive, Clarence Gibson Jr’s trailer sits empty. Just as it has since 2006.
"I don’t think he just walked off in the woods and hid under a rock somewhere, you know," says his son Nick Gibson. "Something happened."
But what exactly that 'something' is has remained a mystery to his son, siblings and parents.
In the original Baker County police report, Clarence Gibson Junior was reported missing by his father on June 24, 2006.
"I don’t think we really started figuring stuff out until that evening when the man he was supposed to work for said he didn’t show up for work," tells brother, Steve Gibson.
Deputies searched the trailer home in a remote area near the Baker/ Union County line and found nothing disturbed, but rather, something important left behind.
"One of the doors of the house was unlocked and his insulin, medicine had been left at the house," tells Lt. David Mancini with the Baker County Sheriff's Office.
A major red flag to the family because Clarence was diabetic and leaving behind his insulin is not something he would have done. Clarence and his vehicle, a gray Nissan Pathfinder with the Florida tag A163QT, were both entered into a law enforcement database for the missing.
Yet, there has never been a hit back on either.
The area he went missing also poses a major challenge, as much of it dirt roads and forest. Lt. Mancini says the sheriff's office even brought in radar to scan bodies of water nearby.
"We have pulled vehicles out of certain bodies of water we thought were his vehicle, and it just hasn’t panned out," tells Lt. Mancini.
It leaves the question, did he leave willingly or was he harmed?
Nick says he remembers, as a kid, his father telling him to use the gun if he ever saw anyone near the trailer home.
"He was always a little nervous about somebody, it seemed like," tells Nick.
But Lt. Mancini says the Marine Corps veteran didn’t have a criminal history.
"He was kind of one of those guys who was bigger than life, he was the life of the party kind of guy," tells his brother, Steve. "He liked to make people laugh."
Steve also says his brother battled with depression during his life and remembers the odd feeling he had when Clarence was telling him about a picturesque spot near Live Oak.
"This was two weeks before he disappeared, and he told me this is just a beautiful place to him," says Steve with a heavy sigh.
Still, to have no one even spot Gibson’s Pathfinder in all these years is strange to investigators and family. Whether he left, committed suicide or was killed, the family just wants closure. Lt. Mancini says there are some people he wants to re-interview.
"We are actively interviewing people and doing some follow-ups on things the investigators at the time didn’t originally know about," says Lt. Mancini.
He isn’t releasing details on what that may be, but Nick hopes it will bring answers. Filling the hole left in their family and helping them to finally know what happened.
"We ain't got nothing," tells Nick. "We ain’t no closer to knowing what happened to him today than the day after it happened."
If you know anything about the disappearance of Clarence Gibson Junior or have information about his vehicle, please contact the Baker County Sheriff’s Office at 904-259-2231.