Going West: True Crime - Christopher Thompkins // 372

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

In January of 2002, a 20-year-old man was working a surveying job in a Georgia forest when he vanished without a trace. When his co-workers realized he was no longer standing in the line, they began their search for him, only to find one of his boots hanging from a barbed wire fence, with his work tools, his work pants, and twelve cents laying in the grass next to it. So where did he go, and what happened to him? This is the story of Christopher Thompkins. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. The Crime Wire: https://thecrimewire.com/true-crime/The-Mysterious-Disappearance-of-Christopher-Thompkins 2. WTVM: https://www.wtvm.com/2023/07/19/20-years-later-family-officials-continue-search-answers-disappearance-harris-co-man/ 3. Ledger-Enquirer: https://www.newspapers.com/image/860192725/?terms=christopher%20thompkins&match=1 4. US Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/surveyors.htm#:~:text=Boundary%20or%20land%20surveyors%20determine,proper%20depths%20for%20building%20foundations. 5. Exit 9: https://web.archive.org/web/20201111232151/http://exit9.news/2019/03/14/christopher-thompkins-part-ii-following-the-clues/ 6. The End of Summer: https://the-end-of-summer.blogspot.com/2015/01/missing.html 7. Ledger-Enquirer: https://www.newspapers.com/image/860307726/?terms=christopher%20thompkins&match=18. 9. Ledger-Enquirer: https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/article28986784.html 10. WRBL: https://www.wrbl.com/news/vigil-for-man-missing-since-2002/ 11. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/ovx5x7/anyone_familiar_with_this_case_the_bizarre/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Teez. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody. Today's case is out of the state of Georgia and it will give you goosebumps and make you want to tell this story to everybody you know. And please do because it needs way more attention than it's gotten. So let's try to figure this one out together and share, share, share.

Yeah, I mean this one will stay with you after you listen with all kinds of ideas spiraling around in your head. So thank you for checking out this case today, and yeah, without further ado, this is episode 372 of Going West, so let's get into it. 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh

1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh In January of 2002, a 20-year-old man was working a surveying job in a Georgia forest when he vanished without a trace. When his co-workers realized he was suddenly missing, they began their search for him, only to find one of his work boots hanging from a barbed wire fence with his work tools and

12 cents laying in the grass next to it. So where did he go and what happened to him? This is the story of Christopher Tomkins was born on December 28, 1981 to his mother Martha McKenzie. And it's really all we know on that front because unfortunately, online and in the newspapers, there's no mention of his early life or family life, including anything about his father or his possible siblings. But Christopher is remembered as a happy, gregarious person who was known for his positive outlook on life.

Before he disappeared, he had more recently described himself as a devout Christian, and on this, his aunt Rosalind remembered, quote, he had recently learned what it was to be saved. He had given his life to Christ. He was just an outgoing, good guy. So that just felt kind of relevant to mention, I guess, to help show his headspace and, I guess, state of being around the time that this mystery took place. In early 2002, Christopher, who had just turned 20, was working as a lineman at a surveying

company, mapping out and measuring angles and distances before construction projects were permitted to begin. At the time of his disappearance disappearance he was living with his mom Anne in Ellersley, which is a very small community outside of Columbus, Georgia that straddles the border of Alabama. On Friday, January 25th, 2002, Christopher kissed his mom on the cheek and said goodbye before heading out the door around 8-10am to go to work for the day. He drove himself to the parking lot of his office, parked his car, and hitched a ride to the job site with a coworker who's believed to be his boss. That day, a team of four men, including Christopher, were headed to a wooded area near the intersection

of county line road and warm springs Road in Harris County, Georgia, just off of Georgia 85, which is an interstate. And this area is very lush. It's a wooded area, as you guys can see from the Google Street View that we posted across our socials. But although the area is surrounded by trees and dotted with marshland and ponds, it's also dissected by multiple major throughways and plenty of houses, so although it's forested, it is certainly not a

remote location. So the four men on the job that January day were tending to their surveying duties working in a line, spaced about 50 feet apart, with Christopher situated at the very end of the line. According to the coworker position nearest to him in line, the two were friendly and had been chatting all day like everything was going well. They took a break for lunch around noon, returning to work between 1 and 1.30 pm. And what came next is one of the most eerie cases of a victim vanishing into thin air that we have ever talked about. Christopher's colleague had been talking to him and

looked away for what he recalled was only a few seconds. And when he looked back, Christopher was gone. Now according to Christopher's coworker, the two were actively engaged in a conversation at the time that Christopher just completely disappeared out of nowhere. The coworker momentarily turned his head to look at something outside of his line of vision, but when he looked back, Christopher was gone, having seemingly vanished from his place in line without a sound or trace. However, he'd left his tools behind, so despite the fact that he'd vanished so quickly

and abruptly without a word, his co-workers just assumed that he'd gone into the brush to maybe use the bathroom and that he'd be right back. It was the only conclusion that made any sense for how sudden this was. The co-worker alerted the other two men on the survey line that Christopher had stepped away, but they both assumed that Christopher was in the vicinity and probably hadn't gone very far. So at this point, they just kind of held off on being concerned, even though Christopher's manner of departure was odd and very abrupt.

Yeah, you'd imagine if not out of courtesy alone, but at least had a safety for the job, because being a lineman by the way is one of the most dangerous jobs, like you would imagine that Christopher would have said that he was stepping away from the line to relieve himself and that he'd be right back, but he didn't say anything. Exactly, but as the minutes ticked by and he didn't return, his puzzled co-workers decided to check on him, circling the forested area and calling for him by name. Yet they found no trace of Christopher, or even footprints that would lead them in the

right direction. So completely dumbfounded, the men eventually called the police for assistance in finding him. However, they have been heavily criticized for not contacting the Sheriff's Department immediately and instead just waiting it out, assuming that he was in the area and that he was coming right back, but if they're honest about how everything went down, hindsight is 2020. But they also alerted the police about Christopher's disappearance hours before they alerted

his mom. One of the men believed to be Christopher's boss actually phoned his wife to tell her what had happened before the men placed a call to Christopher's mom Martha, to alert her to the shocking disappearance of her son, as Martha wasn't notified until almost 5 p.m. that day. All these years later, Martha still wonders why they waited so long to report it to her, saying quote, they called me about a report it to her, saying, quote, They called me about a few minutes to 5 to tell me that they couldn't find him.

I was shocked that it had happened that morning, and they hadn't said anything to me, so I think it happened around lunchtime. Only hours after Christopher's confounding disappearance, there were already discrepancies in the timeline and the sequence of events that led to his departure. Based on the various sources who published reports on Christopher's case, he vanished between noon and 1.30 pm, which is a pretty broad time gap in what is an incredibly time-sensitive situation.

And as with many of these small town disappearances where the victim seems to have just vanished into thin air, the local law enforcement, which is the Harris County Sheriff's Office, declined to act with swiftness or process the case with the urgency that it required. By Martha's own recollection of the timeline quote, Christopher left home about 810 AM. He parked his car at work and drove to the job site with the surveyor that he worked for. He worked that morning with three other employees in a lightly wooded area of county line road.

All the workers were about 50 feet from each other, walking in the same direction. Some time after lunch, around 1 PM, the surveyor phoned his wife to inform her that Christopher was missing. One of Christopher's co-workers stated that, Chris was walking in the same direction as the others when he looked away and then looked back, Chris was gone. I was not informed of his disappearance until 4.15pm. And obviously 50 feet apart means they weren't right next to each other, so something technically

could have happened without anyone hearing or seeing it, but it's so strange that he disappeared so suddenly with his coworkers as close as they were, because for reference I know it's kind of hard to picture what 50 feet looks like, but it's about the length of three to four cars or about the length of a semi truck. So that's not that far apart. Yeah, and the most strange thing to me is that he was having a conversation with this coworker and then what, the conversation just all of a sudden stopped and they didn't hear anything else, they didn't hear him leaving, they didn't hear him saying anything, he's just gone. But that's what I mean when I said earlier like that it's weird that he wouldn't say,

oh I'm gonna go like take leak or whatever, that he didn't say anything about where he was going, especially because like we're saying, the coworker is claiming to have been in a conversation with him, so who just like walks off without saying word? And unfortunately, the only witness, or witnesses that we have are these other co-workers, and they're the only people that can testify to this. Exactly. Well, when Christopher's co-workers called 911 to report their missing colleague, they were told that the investigators would be waiting 24 hours to begin their investigation

based on the fact that Christopher was an adult. Again, he was 20 years old and that he could technically elect to disappear if he wanted to. Of course, his family was shocked at this revelation and decided to take matters into their own hands for the time being. Christopher's Aunt Roslin remembered quote, So early Saturday morning we got together as a family and friends and everyone that could come and we all combed the woods, the area where they were surveying supposedly and we

went through and we could not find Chris. In the 22 years since Chris went missing, there have only been two concrete developments. And one of them came within hours of Chris's departure, but the source of the discovery is still widely disputed. So some time following the afternoon of January 25th, searchers came across a few items that Christopher left behind. Now as they canvas the area, they found Christopher's work boot as in singular. That was either Fubu or Timberland brand, depending on who you asked, hanging from the top

of a barbed wire fence. Though his co-workers already knew based on what he had been wearing that day that the boot belonged to Christopher, it was collected and processed, and the connection was confirmed. Plunked from the same barbed wire fence near the survey site, were strands of blue thread that were believed to be from Christopher's work pants. Twelve cents lay on the ground in front of the fence on which the boot was hooked, and his tools were dropped on the ground next to them. But there was no shoe prints or tracks from Christopher or anyone else in the vicinity,

despite it being wet and a bit marshy in the area. And I just want to mention there is a little discrepancy here because we mentioned earlier that he didn't take his tools with him when his co-workers noticed that he was not in line anymore, but now they're found over here so we don't know if there was like tools in both places, but this is definitely a confusing aspect of the story, but his work tools allegedly were sitting next to this fence where his shoe was hanging, and 12 cents was laying on the ground. Well, there was also no blood or sign of a struggle, a scuffle, or an animal attack.

And according to his co-workers, there had been no one and nothing else with them in the brush that day. And based on the lack of tracks and disturbed grass, it didn't appear that anything had chased him to that fence. Yet, there hung his work boot from the top of it and is belonging's late on the ground next to it. From the looks of it, Christopher jumped the fence, losing a few items in the process and taken off.

But what did prompted him to do so? Or had those items been placed there as a red herring? In one interview with the local news outlet, Christopher's mom Martha stated that Christopher's colleagues came upon his boot and tools, but in others, that discovery is attributed to the police. And some report that both of these claims are false because neither Christopher's colleagues nor the police took his disappearance seriously in the immediate aftermath. According to Roslyn, his aunt, it was up to his family, friends, and local volunteers to conduct the search for him, so other sources actually alleged that it was

Christopher's family who were the ones to find this boot. But with so many conflicting timelines and reports, it's really hard to know exactly when the discovery was made and by whom, which was a crucial detail of the investigation that sadly seemed to fall by the wayside. Due to carelessness and inattention to detail on behalf of Christopher's colleagues and the police, who didn't take the case seriously in its first 24 hours. Though it took them a day to launch a full-scale investigation, the police did report to the job site the following day, which was January 26, 2002, to begin their

search efforts. But Christopher's frustrated family maintained that by then, it may have been too late to recover any indication of the fate that befell Christopher. As the Sun set on their second day of searching, Martha said, quote, what we found was puzzling and did not make sense in light of what Christopher's co-workers told authorities. We found one of his boots, his work tools, a blue fiber from his pants, and 12 cents on the ground near the items. This statement by his employer and co-workers indicated that they believed Christopher just walked off the job site without telling anyone.

That crisp winter Friday hovered in the 50s and 60s Fahrenheit, or between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius, so it wasn't very cold, but certainly not weather in which you'd be comfortable to be wandering off with only one shoe. The temperatures would also drop at night, and Christopher had nothing with him to protect him from the elements. Like even if he had run off on his own volition, what is the likelihood that he would take off with one shoe and nothing to keep him warm, and then we're what he'd have gone, and why? As two days gave way to a week, Martha felt that her son was slipping away from her,

and no updates came from Christopher, or from members of law enforcement who were processing his case. While Martha waited helplessly for answers and updates, the Harris County Sheriff, Mike Jolly, claimed to be doing everything in his power to bring closure to this frustrating case. The Sheriff's Office dispatched bloodhounds armed with items of doing everything in his power to bring closure to this frustrating case. The sheriff's office dispatched bloodhounds armed with items of Christopher's to track the scent, as well as cadaver dogs to search for decay. And just as Christopher's colleagues, friends, family, and then law enforcement had done before them, the dogs combed the area where Christopher vanished, gradually expanding their

search area, but they also found nothing. So in the early days of their search, investigators toyed with the idea that Christopher had been met with foul play. Because based on how quickly he vanished without a trace from the area, it seemed plausible that he had been abducted and placed into a vehicle or that he was hitchhiking and fell into the hands of an opportunist. Sheriff Jolly explained, quote,

"'So the assumption at the time was that he walked off the job site, which was consistent with what the co-worker said, walked through the woods, went over toward the interstate. We believe that he got into an automobile and just left the area. But when progress stopped coming, Sheriff Jolly changed his tune. Six months after Christopher vanished in July of 2002, the last new development came in his disappearance. His second boot was recovered on a farm about a mile or 1.6 kilometers away from the job site. With the discovery of Christopher's second boot, which the owner of the farm property discovered and reported himself, and with no new information coming their way, investigators were forced

to resign to what they believed was the most likely possibility from the very beginning. That Christopher had elected to disappear himself. I just think it's all too weird for me to agree with that, like with one shoe and no one coming forward with witness sightings of him, like how did he travel one mile to then lose the other shoe somehow and go missing? And why would he do all this while he was at work just having a normal day talking to his coworker a bunch? Like, so did somebody else drop his shoe there?

And what do you think? Yeah, I agree with you. I think it's very, very weird to lose one work bootot right next to the job site or close to the job site and then a mile away There's your other boot like it's just it kind of it blows my mind That investigators aren't kind of connecting more dots here and they're they're thinking that you know He's just trying to take off on his life But it really does not seem like that's the case here Yeah, and for him to lose that second boot, again, it's so weird to just to travel a mile

with one shoe and then lose or take the other one off, and for him to run or walk a mile with nobody seeing him even though this area was not remote, and nobody coming forward saying they gave him a ride, it's just too weird. It doesn't make sense. Yeah, and then on top of this, again, they didn't find any footprints near that fence. They also did not find any footprints around where they found the second boot either. So it's like, how in the hell did he even get there?

If there's no prints anywhere, like it's just very, very strange. Yeah, and again, why do this in such a hurry so much of a hurry that you leave your shoe. How did your shoe come off and get attached to the top of the fence anyway and why wouldn't you go back and grab it and why are you trying to leave in the middle of work? Yeah like this is not the most opportune moment to disappear. No. Like if you wanted to leave on your own volition you could do it at any point. You could pack a bag.

Would that work? Yeah, you could do it after work. You could pack a bag. You could, I mean, there's so many other ways that you could have done this. It just seems all too convenient that it was, you know, this time. That's why I just cannot agree with the police here.

So let's talk about the search that they did of this farm. Led by Sheriff Mike Jolly, the investigators refocus their efforts on the vicinity of the farm, from which his second boot was recovered, but yet again, found no sign that Christopher had ever been there. There was no blood, no sign of a struggle or an animal attack, and no indication of foul play discovered there or anywhere else. So how did she get there? Why was it there?

Who put it there? What the hell? Too many questions. So with that, Sheriff Jolly broke the news to Christopher's devastated mom that they believed her son to have elected to leave on his own accord. But again, Daphne and I do not agree with that assessment. Though the manner in which he did so was sudden and shocking, law enforcement indicated that they assumed Christopher's mental health had been in turmoil at the time.

When his co-workers were questioned about his behavior at work in the days and weeks before that fateful Friday, his employer claimed that he had been acting strangely, though he did not elaborate on what he meant by this. And why not yeah i don't know why you wouldn't say what this means like was he talking to himself but that makes me so suspicious of this claim at all that it's like oh yeah he was acting weird well how and the what yeah and the more we talk about this the more we talk about these co-workers the fact that he had driven to

the job site with his boss and now is boss is saying, oh yeah, no, he was acting erratically, it just feels, it stinks of cover-up. Agreed. And though this was a very painful possibility for his family to entertain, police also questioned the notion that Christopher could have run off of his own volition with the intention of ending his life, and not to just simply start a new somewhere else. If this were the case, it may have been his very intention not to be found as he may have

thought that it would have been even more painful to the loved ones that he left behind. But again, this just was not clicking, so frustrated at this, Martha said she knows her son, and she doesn't believe that he was capable or remotely interested in abandoning his life and the career that he had built for himself. And especially not in the middle of a work day and without proper supplies, including shoes. Martha argued, quote, Chris lived with me and I saw him every day. There was neither strange behavior on his part nor any distress.

I'm not a citizen with great influence. I'm simply a grieving mother who wants to keep this case in the public light in hopes that one day, someone will come forward with some information in what happened to my son. But police just kept pushing this idea that he left to his own volition and saying that it was possible that if he did, he eventually succumbed to the elements or had a fatal accident

after running from the job site, or that he was met with a deadly animal attack, even though there was no evidence of that. There are multiple small bodies of water nearby, so an accidental drowning was also feasible, although it was puzzling that in such a residential area, no one saw or heard anything to support any findings. With no evidence of an actual fatality, speculation was all that law enforcement could offer his family. Of course, the theory of drug influence came up up and his mom stated that he was an occasional

marijuana smoker like many of us out here, but they argued that he had never had a drug problem, and if he had, he would not have been able to conceal it from his mother. Christopher's Aunt Roslyn remarked quote, �I don't believe that Chris walked away. I don't believe he disappeared with one shoe. Who's going to walk around with one boot on in the cold weather on a rural road? I just don't believe that happened. They know what happened to Chris.

They're just not telling. Martha added, quote, They had houses with locked doors out there they could have checked. There were wells in the area. We literally begged them to search wells and lakes. He wouldn't have walked off like that. Though his co-workers were never formally considered persons of interest with no one else to suspect, many feel strongly that these three men were involved.

And this is obviously what his family thinks as well. Now one of them proactively retained a lawyer shortly after the incident, which sent rumors spiraling in the small community of Ellersley, and although this may have been out of an abundance of caution, it certainly raised the eyebrows of those following the case. Given that the three people with Christopher at the time were the only witnesses, it seemed possible that they could have teamed up to conceal what had really happened to Christopher that day. Perhaps an accident had occurred on the site. Remember, linemen are constantly topping lists of the most dangerous jobs, or maybe even an accident that was the fault of one of Christopher's fellow surveyors, and then maybe the men teamed up to protect one of their own. There's also the potential that a disagreement or conflict occurred, and that the three men turned on Christopher, teaming up against him.

The time when they claimed to have been looking for him could have been spent planting Christopher's boot, the piece of his pants, the change that was found on the ground, and the tools. And this is pure speculation, but suspiciously, one of the men was convicted of a violent crime separate from Christopher's disappearance shortly after it occurred, and this man was handed a very lengthy prison sentence. The identities of two of the three men have been concealed by the police to protect their safety, but it is known that the third man was Gary White, the son of the man who owned the surveying company.

And Christopher's mom Martha actually worked as a babysitter for Gary's children, though their professional relationship ended after Christopher disappeared. Christopher's family and the community continued to emphasize the fact that he simply did not seem like a priority to law enforcement. However, Sheriff Mike Jolly issued a statement to a report that said quote,

�I could do no more if it had been one of my own sons who is missing. As a matter of fact, I would hope if it was one of my own sons missing that they would do just what we did. My heart goes out to the family and we continue to hope that something can be done. If additional information does come to light in the future, we will investigate it." The bewildering nature of the case caught the attention of David Palitis, who is a former police officer for the San Jose California Police Department, who eventually became a member

of its elite SWAT team. After he retired, David began fostering a conspiracy theory that he had long upheld after investigating so many just strange and unexplainable deaths, murders, and missing persons cases. And it's probably something that's crossed many of your minds throughout this episode because of how sudden everything happened.

But of course, we mean no disrespect bringing this up. It was just heavily mentioned in our research, but take this next part very lightly. So essentially, he hatched this theory that a hybrid primate human being, likely resembling a bigfoot or sasquatch character, was to blame for many of these disappearances that, like Christopher's, cannot be attributed to any human source. David published two books specifically about his findings on Bigfoot in historical papers, as well as modern day sightings and reports. And in addition to the pieces that he authored about Bigfoot, David wrote a book series called Missing 411, which focused on eerie, unexplainable disappearances, particularly from within

national parks, which was thought to attribute to a Bigfoot character, and this book series includes Christopher's story. So according to David, he has witnessed people disappearing so quickly that it appeared as if they had been lifted right out of their shoes, such as Christopher's situation. Due to the fallen coins on the ground, David believes it's entirely possible that Christopher was lifted upside down and that the change fell to the ground out of his pocket. So he didn't think that maybe after jumping over this fence, it occurred that maybe change could fall out

of his fucking pocket? I mean, again, this is this dude's game. He's all about Bigfoot, but this case has actually been covered by a few different, more lower-type podcasts because he has pushed this theory so much that's the only reason why I'm bringing this up. So anyway, he basically blamed Bigfoot for Christopher having vanished, claiming that the creature was likely moving so swiftly and quietly that Christopher was scooped up

and never stood a chance at getting away. But then also, if that was the case and he was scooped right up, wouldn't he be screaming for help and his co- coworkers would have heard him, you know, being pulled off into the woods? I mean, it's interesting because, again, of how sudden this happened and how it really feels like he just vanished in a thin air, like I had that exact thought of like,

wow, this seems like bigfoot took him. It seems like something that is supernatural and we're going to that because it can't be explained in our normal realm of thinking. Sure, and I'll admit that I had a little bit of that thought process because we've covered UFOs and things like that, but I really do. On our other pocket, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the thing is, with this case, everything just leads my heart and my brain back to his co-workers because it just doesn't something just doesn't feel right there. I agree with you, especially because as I've been harbing on, the fact that the one co-worker claims that, oh, we were like in the middle of talking and I looked away for just a second and then he was gone. The only way you could explain that is if a supernatural creature took him that

doesn't happen, you don't literally just vanish into thin air. So something had to have happened and it feels like to me and to you, they were the only ones that could have done it. Yeah, it feels like to me that it is a lie because again, how far are you going to run? Your 50 feet away from your other coworker? How far is that person going to run in the blink of an eye? This guy turns his head for just a few short seconds. What is Christopher sprinting off?

Well, the weird thing to think about is that something had to happen to Christopher and Christopher's body, right? Where is his physical body? And if we're talking about the fact that there's no crime scene, there's no blood, then what could have happened, what type of accident or fight or attack or whatever could have happened where there's no blood evidence of it? And then what happened to his body?

Where was it put? You know, like he has to be somewhere then what happened to his body? Where was it put? Like he has to be somewhere, something happened to him. Well, I do agree with that as far as like, you know, they had cadaver dogs in that area, searching for the scent of decay, and the dogs didn't find anything. And that's just what's frustrating about this case is that there's virtually no clues.

Yeah, I mean, it's like you said, like the thoughts are just swirling around and around in our heads and there's nowhere for them to go. So in the fall of 2002, Christopher's family successfully petitioned for his case to be picked up by the GBI or the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, though sadly this did not make a difference in the momentum of the case. Hoping to bring awareness and notoriety, his friends and family staged multiple peaceful protests as well as vigils in Christopher's memory. The first protest took place on September 20, 2002, when 50 of Christopher's friends, family

and concerned citizens from the area marched in front of the Harris County Sheriff's Office, objecting that not enough had been done to investigate the source of Christopher's disappearance. Antonio D. Carter, who is the head of National Action Network Columbus, organized the march on behalf of Christopher's family and friends. And this organization seeks to dissolve discrimination against minorities in employment, housing, and education. Now addressing the protest, Antonio stated, quote, we are not satisfied until a proper investigation is launched. We

will remain involved until the end. Did he walk out of those shoes when it was 55 degrees? I think those other three men know something that they haven't told. Though she may never know what fate really befell her son that day, Martha has admitted that she's accepted his likely death and is given up on finding him alive. She does, however, hope for closure and justice for him, and she said, quote, I truly believe in my heart that my son is no longer alive. However, I need closure. I need to know what happened that day and where my son's body is." Sadly, authorities have admitted that Christopher's case is cold and that they are no longer

actively seeking resolution. Meaning there haven't been any new developments in years, so in 2011 Martha petitioned for Christopher to be legally declared dead. At the time of his disappearance, Christopher was about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed about 130 pounds. He had black hair which he was wearing in braids at the time and brown eyes. On the day he disappeared he was wearing dark blue Dickie's brand work pants, a black skull cap over his hair, a black wristwatch, a plaid jacket

with a grey hood, and tan work boots. He had a tattoo of his own name written vertically inside of an ice cream cone, with a jokers had a top the ice cream. And he often grew out his facial hair into a beard, mustache, or goatee. We urge everyone to view photos of him across our socials, and tell someone about his story, and most importantly, if you have any information about the mysterious disappearance of Christopher Tomkins please call the Harris County Sheriff's Department at 706 628 421 Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Tuesday we'll have an

all-new case for you guys to dive into. I won't set Friday, but it will be Tuesday. The day is Friday. Yes, ma'am. Well, the day this comes out. Thank you guys for tuning in. Again, please share this case. I'd also love to know what each of you are thinking about this case, which is why it's important to go follow our socials not only to see photos, bizarre to go cold forever. So please, please comment and share with love to hear your thoughts. Absolutely. You know, it's very devastating that it seems like the legal system just really failed Christopher and his family. And again, yeah, his case deserves answers and he deserves

justice. So please, like Daphne said, don't forget about this episode, please share it, please let's talk about it. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% you