It has been more than 10 days since Richard and Millicent Jones have heard from their son, Ben.
No text messages, no phone calls. The Morehouse College student hasn’t contacted friends, hasn’t used his credit card and his phone isn’t on.
Still, his parents told other family members, friends and neighbors at a vigil Tuesday night they are optimistic the 22-year-old will return safely to the family’s Roswell home.
“I have to rely on my faith and my confidence that he is well and that he will return safely,” Richard Jones said outside World Harvest Church in Roswell.
Richard Jones last spoke to his son May 16, when Ben told his father he was heading to pick up tickets for his graduation from Morehouse and run some errands.
When Ben didn’t return home that night, his father 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,” Jones said. “When he didn’t get home at midnight, I remember thinking, ‘Where is that boy?’”
Early the next morning, Richard Jones said he began to worry.
When he couldn’t reach Ben by phone, Richard Jones said he drove to Morehouse, his own alma mater, and started looking for him. When he talked with college leaders, Richard Jones found out his son wasn’t scheduled to graduate after all. But no one on campus recalled a recent conversation with Ben about graduation.
The Jones family then reported Ben’s disappearance to police.
“You think all of the things that you prefer not to think,” Richard Jones said. “Then you realize you don’t have the answers. You don’t have a clue.”
Richard Jones said it’s unlike his son to leave without being in touch with his family. And even if he was upset about not being able to graduate and disappointing his parents, the family said that doesn’t matter. The Jones family just wants Ben home.
“This is a parent’s worse nightmare,” Millicent Jones told those gathered at the vigil. “But just having so many people show up who love us and love Ben, we know that we’re going to have a positive outcome and that Ben is coming home, and that he’s going to be OK.”
About the Author
