A missing Morehouse student Ben Jones found safe this morning at the Doraville MARTA station blamed disappointment over not graduating for his disappearance, a Roswell police spokesman said.
Roswell detectives and MARTA police located him about 1:30 a.m., nearly two weeks after he told his father he was heading to pick up tickets for his graduation from Morehouse and run some errands.
When Ben Jones didn’t return to the family’s Roswell home the evening of May 16, Richard Jones said he wasn’t worried.
“It’s not unusual for him to go over to a friend’s house or go out for a run with friends,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this week. “When he didn’t get home at midnight, I remember thinking, ‘Where is that boy?’”
Early the next morning, worry set in, Richard Jones said. He drove to Morehouse, his own alma mater, and started looking for his son. When he talked with college leaders, Richard Jones found out Ben Jones wasn’t scheduled to graduate after all.
That’s when the family reported their son’s disappearance to police.
Ben Jones “reported that due to the disappointment regarding graduation at Morehouse, he felt that he needed to get away from things,” Roswell police spokesman Zachary Frommer said late this morning.
He parked his vehicle at the North Springs MARTA station and traveled to various locations, Frommer said. He told police his phone was broken and lost on May 17.
Frommer said a tip Wednesday night that the missing student had been at the Five Points MARTA station led investigators to Ben Jones at the Doraville station.
“Mr. Jones was convinced to go home to his family and he will not face any charges,” he said.
In a statement posted Thursday on the agency's Facebook page, Roswell police said it appears Ben Jones "was gone voluntarily with no indication of foul play."
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