JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Throughout the month of November, First Coast News has been featuring a local missing persons case every Thursday in our "Unsolved" series. This week, are taking a deeper look at the 2013 disappearance of Ricky Caldwell.
"I really don't know what happened to my grandson, but I know something happened to him," said Nancy Caldwell.
It has been more than 11 years since Nancy Caldwell has seen her great-grandson, Ricky.
"But we know something did happen to him because he would not stay away from his children or his babies," she said.
Ricky was the father of three girls and had a baby boy on the way. She said Ricky had been staying at a home on Broadway Avenue with friends, when suddenly, his contact with his family and children stopped.
"I know that something wasn't right," said Caldwell.
She said she went to the home on Broadway Avenue to find Ricky, but instead found the house empty.
"Fence was open, house was open, not a lamp, completely empty and nobody has seen him since that day," she said.
Nancy reported Ricky Caldwell as missing to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Detective Tonya Porter, now retired, worked the case in 2013. Detective Barachel Hamilton is the current investigator on the case. They say the investigation shows Ricky was last seen alive at the home on Broadway Avenue on August 31st of 2013.
They say there had been a group of around seven people at the house that night.
"Ricky ended up leaving the house later that night with two unknown black males and a female in a green Lumina vehicle and hasn't been seen since," Hamilton said.
Before he left though, he had been in an argument.
"It was verbal, it was over money," Porter said.
"The people he was in the argument with, were those the people he left with or different?" asked First Coast News' Katie Jeffries.
"Different," responded Porter.
Who those two men and woman were in the green sedan believed to be a Lumina remains unknown.
"In my heart, whatever happened to him... they killed him," said Nancy Caldwell.
Detectives say the friend Ricky was staying with did speak with detectives, but couldn't identify the people Ricky left with. Now detectives are hoping those with information about who Ricky Caldwell left with that night will come forward.
"You have family members that want answers, answers that we can't give them because we don't have any answers. So anything we can give them to shed light into what happened would be helpful," said Hamilton.
Even small information could help move this case forward.
"Anything we could follow up on, we would and we will," added Porter.
It could help Nancy Caldwell, as well as Ricky's children, get answers about what happened to him more than a decade ago.
"I would like to know what happened to him," said Nancy Caldwell "It would give me peace to know."
If you know anything about the disappearance of Ricky Caldwell or who he was with the night he disappeared, contact the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office at 904-630-0500 or Crimestoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS(8477) or email tips to JSOCrimeTips@Jaxsheriff.org