Police, family searching for Phenix City man missing for weeks

PHENIX CITY, Ala. (WTVM) - A Phenix City man is still missing 21 days after a neighbor says he was last seen suddenly walking away from his truck that was running.

The family is skeptical about where 38-year-old Marcus Jones is and what happened to him.

Jones’ uncle, brother, sister-in-law, and best friend all say Jones’ disappearance was all of a sudden and that parts of the neighbors story is not adding up.

“Thursday, we had a good day and everything,” said Janika Hall, neighbor. “And he was in high spirits when he came home.”

Hall says she and Jones spent Thursday, January 26 together, going to different stores. An hour after they got back to their duplex on North Railroad Street, she says Jones came over distressed about some personal issues.

“He was having some issues with the baby’s mom and probably some other personal issues no one knows about, but that was the main one,” Hall said.

Travis Jones says his brother didn’t express those issues to anyone in the family and he says that’s not like him.

“Whenever Marcus had a problem on his mind, he would talk to one of us about it no matter who it was,” Travis Jones said.

Hall says Marcus Jones came over again later around 1 a.m. and she suggested they ride up to a store.

Parked in a driveway with the keys still in the ignition and ready to pull off, Hall says Jones got a call that made him get out of the car and walk up this road and she says that was the last time she saw Jones.

“I still have his keys and everything,” Hall expressed.

The family says they also found out Hall had driven Jones’ truck out of state after he went missing.

Marcus Jones’ uncle, Christopher Jones, says it’s hard for them to believe Marcus would just walk away and not come back.

“I had spoke to him that same day,” Christopher Jones said. “So, him just walking off, for some reason, is just not believable to us.”

“We’re, basically, going off of what the neighbor says - that he walked off down the street,” expressed Maurice Shack, best friend of Marcus Jones. “Who’s to says if that’s even true.”

“It doesn’t look like we have a location where his phone was last active and we don’t have his phone records to see the last person he was talking to,” Christopher Jones said.

The neighbor says Jones was her best friend and she wants him to be found safe.

The family also says they were told by an investigator that Jones told his job he was going away for a while. However, right now, the family says all they have is assumptions and no believable leads as to where Marcus Jones could be.

Copyright 2022 WTVM. All rights reserved.