HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Sept. 5, 2022 marks two years that Jesus Mancilla-Velez went missing.
The Houston county man's disappearance ignited a joint task force spanning across several county lines.
Sept. 5, 2020 — Jesus Mancilla-Velez was set to meet his friend for a trip to Savannah, instead that's the day he went missing after leaving his home in Warner Robins.
"It’s going to be two years now and it’s hard for us,” Mancilla’s sister-in-law Lizbeth Mancilla said in a phone interview.
Hours later, investigators found Mancilla-Velez's Black Chevy Tahoe stranded on a dirt road in Crawford County, almost 30 minutes away from his home.
Inside, no signs of Jesus-- leaving authorities even more suspicious about what happened to him.
11 days after investigators found his car, his disappearance launched a joint task force--combining the GBI, Houston, Crawford, and Peach County Sheriff's Offices and the Byron and Fort Valley Police Departments.
"We have conducted wood searches on foot, we've used logs looking for his cell phone. Unfortunately, used cadaver dogs looking for a body," Todd Crosby said in a 2020 interview.
Things took a turn when investigators found a camera in the mans abandoned car.
"We're trying to identify where that camera came from, see if we can find footage from that camera wherever it may have come from,” he continued.
What could have been a break in the case lead nowhere.
"He tell us nothing new and that he's open the case again so it’s nothing at all,” Mancilla-Velez’s brother Leo Mancilla said.
The family says along with sadness, the two year wait for answers has brought frustration.
"In this case, were feeling more because we're Latinos and we're feeling like they don't take it very serious or like they don't care about our brother-in-law," Lizbeth Mancilla said.
Special Agent Jerry Jones says there have been no new developments in the investigation.
Jones told 13WMAZ the combined efforts of Houston, Crawford, and Peach County Sheriff's Offices and the Byron and Fort Valley Police Departments are still being utilized.
If you have any information regarding this case, contact Macon Crime Stoppers at (478) 742- 2330.
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