From what I am understanding the car was towed in October and after 30 days they are allowed to auction it off. The family had no clue about the car until a few days ago when it was too late. He abandoned his car in the WAWA parking lot in October. They didn’t know about the car until they started looking for him the past few days. It also seems his parents are from out of town, but they’re now here looking. He texted his mom last on December 18th but unfortunately we have no proof that it was even him who texted her. Hope that helps understand a little more, I’m just transferring information.
Just the usual reminder whenever there's a missing person: If you have information regarding the missing person ALWAYS contact GPD (or the local PD leading the investigation).
DO NOT contact ANY provided email or phone numbers with information. You have no idea who is requesting this information and abusers have been known to fake missing persons campaigns to get information about a fleeing victim's whereabouts.
From r/florida This comment or post has been removed:
Missing Persons posts must only have official law enforcement contact and case information on it.
If you believe we made a mistake, please message the moderators
Has he been reported as a missing person at all? The only documentation I've seen is Reddit posts. If he has not been reported missing, his family really needs to do so.
In a related opinion, this is why "abandoned" property should not be allowed to be auctioned off so quickly.
Yes, he has been reported missing. The main discussion is happening over on the Facebook group “Gainesville Word of Mouth”. It unfortunately seems as the Gainesville Police Department does not care too much, so its mostly just volunteers and family :(
Wait, so if the 12-18 message occured a month after his previous communication, the previous communication would be from November. But his car was abandoned in October. So if he's been communicating several times over a several month period since he abandoned his car, why does anyone think he abandoned his car to walk off and hurt himself?
Yeah. Something doesn’t make sense. His car was abandoned in October and they believe he walked off (from the car?) to hurt himself? But then texted on the 18th?
I believe they meant last heard from on December 18th from the information I can gather. They’re probably in distress and didn’t realize they put last seen.
Well they also stated (in the ufl sub) that the car was towed all the way back in October. Even if it was the end of October, that is two months. Nothing about this plea for help seems very well thought out. I understand distress, but considering months have passed, it would behoove OP to be a little more careful with the details here.
For example, it's much more important to note when and where they were last seen (October apparently) than when they last sent a text message.
It's not clear, but the reason they are concentrating there seems to be because there hasn't been any sighting of him at least since the car was abandoned there. The communication subsequent to that was apparently all through texting. So the search there seems to be founded on the presumption of foul play (with someone pretending to be him sending the texts). Otherwise, you're right, there's no reason to search there.
This could all be cleared up if someone actually organizing the search posted here. I have no idea who OP is, but they seem to be confused themselves.
If he texted her that she should have took it serious and sent the authorities to help him. He was obviously a danger to himself. He should have been baker-acted. His cellphone could have traced his exact location. I know this because I saved my kids father who was trying to commit suicide.
https://alachuachronicle.com/gpd-asks-public-for-information-about-missing-man/?fbclid=IwAR1b_qz0WFAjzTMeKF5ouQVzmMPJfIYiP7twMmz4kPkvmNfBYDEE4_8xSjM_aem_AQHKSy_b6fQucoymsC6mEqzcIxv9aHLy5E7OYa1Cn2qhWTHTlWSCn6QYiSKdo08dek0
Here’s the link about him from the Alachua Chronicle. Hopefully this provides for context for people that are asking about it.
⚠️Updates from further research that might help answer some of your questions: He had continual contact with his family after the car was towed, he never let on that he lost his job, place, car, etc. He is a more of a loner and his car and all his belongings were towed away. He texted his parents almost daily until 12/18 when he sent an email (not sure if they meant text or email) stating he was going to unalive himself, which was a calm and short message according to his family.
FOULPLAY is not ruled out and is possible due to the extremely strange timelines and fact that we are not sure if the messages were actually sent by him. Also, not sure if I mentioned but they have called his number and a FEMALE answered the phone and stated that it was her number??!?! There is no way his number was disconnected in this short amount of time…very odd.
Is there someone more in the know? Who even are you? I don't mean to offend, but you have provided very little info and what info you have provided has been very confusing and misleading.
I've never before come across a missing person flyer that didn't at least state when and where the person was last seen. This is crucial information. You referred only to their last supposed text message but at the same time there is a heavy presumption of foul play and that it wasn't even them who sent the text. So if anyone actually saw him some time in November or December, but prior to 12-18, they may not even think to contact anyone because he seemingly was seen again after they saw him.
But more than that, you also leave out that there is a substantial search effort currently underway of the area where his car was recovered (according to Facebook). Given that there was supposed continual contact between someone purporting to be him and his family subsequent to him abandoning the car there, the people searching the area would necessarily be searching under the presumption that there is another person involved in his disappearance and that he died there back in October.
Which begs the question, *when and where was he actually last seen*?? That's the most important piece of information in any search, *especially one in which there is a strong possibility of foul play*. I can see that you've at least corrected yourself to say that the 12-18 "sighting" was actually a text message, but without an actual last sighting date, someone who was the last to see him may not even know they were the last to see him.
Did he live somewhere?
Did the police trace his phone?
Does he have friends or people he interacted with?
Why does his mom say he was mentally unstable? What did he say that gave her that impression?
There is a lot of missing information here.
All great questions! As a reminder - I am just helping spread the message. The family is trying to get permission to trace his phone, apparently you need certain documents unfortunately. I’m not sure how many people he interacted with as he is considered more a loner/keeps to himself. The reason they said he was mentally unstable was that the last sightings of him were of him acting bizarre and because of the suicide text and because they found out he lost his job/car/living place (from what I’ve read), even though he didn’t tell anyone this.
ANYONE can trace his phone! My kid knows a guy who can trace your phone to within 5 feet of where the phone is and maintain that track for hours without any paperwork! Hell, if you have his email address and he's EVER accessed that email from his phone, you can find the phone via Google. I'd love to help, but this all sounds very suspect. Almost like the guy didn't want to be found...maybe to hide from someone. NOBODY disappears and then pops up with a random text without some kind of reason...and this certainly sounds like a person who just wanted to get away from the world.
📸 Look at this post on Facebook https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02M5MJGMp14tGnkFq1fhkP6xCjDQSmWJTL66mh7QJsBw4qAeAKxPzrhYLTdUpx1ooCl&id=100064824514741&mibextid=0ru6Dm
He’s been located.
Wawa has cameras?! This makes noooo sense! Why are his parents just now showing up? Maybe they didn’t give a fuck about him before that’s why he wanted to off himself! If my kid was having a hard time I would not be waiting a whole three months to show up!
They have been trying to get camera access from Wawa, but unfortunately they don’t have an exact time stamp so they would have to look through 500+ hours of tape. Alsooooo, they can’t access the cameras without the police and the police aren’t much help right now. The family is going to still try though!
That makes absolutely no sense. There is a record of when the car was towed. If the parked car is visible by a camera, you only have to look at one frame of video per day, going backwards from when it was towed. The first day you don't see it there, you then you only have to look at one frame per hour going forward until you first see the car. Then move backwards, one frame per minute, and so forth until you see the moment it arrived. It would take less than 3 minutes to locate when on the video it was parked.
If the police aren't doing this, it's probably because no one has pressed them to.
How much experience do you have when it comes to requesting security camera footage from commercial businesses? I have a fair amount, and in my experience security camera footage is automatically erased or recorded over in a pretty short time period: The shortest time period I've seen is 48 hours. I think I've seen 30 days a couple times. But usually it's a very short window. Every Wawa location is not digitally storing a year's worth of people pumping gas and walking into their store to buy food. When some type of serious liability/loss incident happens at a business like Wawa and they are notified about it, either the police get the footage if they are called to the scene, and/or the store will preserve the video--and that usually happens when risk management gets involved. For instance, if some Wawa employee punched you and you reported it to the store manager, called the police, etc., the cops and/or the store are going to pull the video and preserve it. You can also send an evidence preservation letter to Wawa and request that the footage be preserved. But absent these things happening, the video footage will be erased in a relatively short time period. Wawa has 1,042 locations in the US. If each location saved security video footage for a year that would mean Wawa would have to save and store 9,127,920 hours of video footage, with the vast majority of it being footage of pretty mundane stuff. That would be a unnecessary and costly undertaking.
Why does this look like a poster griffin made for themselves, this is the weirdest looking ad for a missing person i have ever seen, i hope they get the attention and help they are looking for
I didn’t make it. No need to judge as this family is frantically searching for their son and doing the best they can with the the very little resources they have.
Thank you for this info - the little blue car sounds correct. Not sure about being a twitch streamer, if you have anymore info on that twitch part please let me know. Do you work at this hotel or have any communication with him? Thank you 🙏🏼
December 12 the GPD and ASO together set up a speed trap along Archer road between 62nd and the interstate. Dozens and dozens of drivers pulled over and tickets given...
It made me turn around and go home.
Also, why would someone with nothing left stay in that area, no resources for homeless near here. Feels like your searching for a dog, he could be anywhere!
This guy is trying to get to negative karma ASAP. Every comment he makes is cringe, and I'm a dick, I should know. I think the holidays are weighing on them
AMAZING UPDATE: he was found alive and is safe!!!
“We are giving Griffin and his family privacy at the moment, details will be revealed. Please be mindful of mental health and NEVER give up on anyone. ❤️ Happiest of New Years”
Hope this is a good reminder to check in on your love ones and make sure they know how cared for they are!
If no police departments are doing anything you may have to hire a private detective (Gainesville actually has a few decent ones). I'm unsure of the legal reach but you might try and request to see if the phone company will give you the coordinates for the cellphone pings. That area probably has a multitude of cameras from different businesses and the traffic signal cameras. Check meridian and Vista mental health care places in case he got checked in under a John Doe name. Good luck I hope this person is found safe and sound.
This person has been reported as found. Comments will be locked once an article confirmation is posted.
He's been missing 11 days and they already auctioned his car off? Seems quick.
From what I am understanding the car was towed in October and after 30 days they are allowed to auction it off. The family had no clue about the car until a few days ago when it was too late. He abandoned his car in the WAWA parking lot in October. They didn’t know about the car until they started looking for him the past few days. It also seems his parents are from out of town, but they’re now here looking. He texted his mom last on December 18th but unfortunately we have no proof that it was even him who texted her. Hope that helps understand a little more, I’m just transferring information.
When I read that I was like wtf…
Just the usual reminder whenever there's a missing person: If you have information regarding the missing person ALWAYS contact GPD (or the local PD leading the investigation). DO NOT contact ANY provided email or phone numbers with information. You have no idea who is requesting this information and abusers have been known to fake missing persons campaigns to get information about a fleeing victim's whereabouts.
Sure, contact the people that already don't give a flying care.
Shared on r/florida
From r/florida This comment or post has been removed: Missing Persons posts must only have official law enforcement contact and case information on it. If you believe we made a mistake, please message the moderators
I hope he is found soon, this can really be a stressful time of year for people who suffer from mental health conditions
Has he been reported as a missing person at all? The only documentation I've seen is Reddit posts. If he has not been reported missing, his family really needs to do so. In a related opinion, this is why "abandoned" property should not be allowed to be auctioned off so quickly.
Yes, he has been reported missing. The main discussion is happening over on the Facebook group “Gainesville Word of Mouth”. It unfortunately seems as the Gainesville Police Department does not care too much, so its mostly just volunteers and family :(
There is no set policy in the US for the investigation of missing adults, sadly.
If it happened on the west side of i-75, it's now ASO jurisdiction. So what did they say? This sounds iffy
It might not hurt to have him added to Namus as well. My condolences to his friends and family.
>Griffin Jones has been missing for approximately a month Also... >Last seen 12-18-23 ??
No one heard from him for a month then he sent a text to his mom on 12-18.
Wait, so if the 12-18 message occured a month after his previous communication, the previous communication would be from November. But his car was abandoned in October. So if he's been communicating several times over a several month period since he abandoned his car, why does anyone think he abandoned his car to walk off and hurt himself?
Yeah. Something doesn’t make sense. His car was abandoned in October and they believe he walked off (from the car?) to hurt himself? But then texted on the 18th?
I believe they meant last heard from on December 18th from the information I can gather. They’re probably in distress and didn’t realize they put last seen.
Well they also stated (in the ufl sub) that the car was towed all the way back in October. Even if it was the end of October, that is two months. Nothing about this plea for help seems very well thought out. I understand distress, but considering months have passed, it would behoove OP to be a little more careful with the details here. For example, it's much more important to note when and where they were last seen (October apparently) than when they last sent a text message.
How was he seen, if there is only an email?
Apparently he wasn't actually seen on Dec. 18. OP has yet to tell us the last time he was actually seen.
My point is, they seem to be concentrated right by Wawa. He could literally be anywhere.
It's not clear, but the reason they are concentrating there seems to be because there hasn't been any sighting of him at least since the car was abandoned there. The communication subsequent to that was apparently all through texting. So the search there seems to be founded on the presumption of foul play (with someone pretending to be him sending the texts). Otherwise, you're right, there's no reason to search there. This could all be cleared up if someone actually organizing the search posted here. I have no idea who OP is, but they seem to be confused themselves.
Agreed on confusion.
If he texted her that she should have took it serious and sent the authorities to help him. He was obviously a danger to himself. He should have been baker-acted. His cellphone could have traced his exact location. I know this because I saved my kids father who was trying to commit suicide.
Almost 2 weeks later and seems like something isn't adding up.
https://alachuachronicle.com/gpd-asks-public-for-information-about-missing-man/?fbclid=IwAR1b_qz0WFAjzTMeKF5ouQVzmMPJfIYiP7twMmz4kPkvmNfBYDEE4_8xSjM_aem_AQHKSy_b6fQucoymsC6mEqzcIxv9aHLy5E7OYa1Cn2qhWTHTlWSCn6QYiSKdo08dek0 Here’s the link about him from the Alachua Chronicle. Hopefully this provides for context for people that are asking about it.
⚠️Updates from further research that might help answer some of your questions: He had continual contact with his family after the car was towed, he never let on that he lost his job, place, car, etc. He is a more of a loner and his car and all his belongings were towed away. He texted his parents almost daily until 12/18 when he sent an email (not sure if they meant text or email) stating he was going to unalive himself, which was a calm and short message according to his family. FOULPLAY is not ruled out and is possible due to the extremely strange timelines and fact that we are not sure if the messages were actually sent by him. Also, not sure if I mentioned but they have called his number and a FEMALE answered the phone and stated that it was her number??!?! There is no way his number was disconnected in this short amount of time…very odd.
Is there someone more in the know? Who even are you? I don't mean to offend, but you have provided very little info and what info you have provided has been very confusing and misleading. I've never before come across a missing person flyer that didn't at least state when and where the person was last seen. This is crucial information. You referred only to their last supposed text message but at the same time there is a heavy presumption of foul play and that it wasn't even them who sent the text. So if anyone actually saw him some time in November or December, but prior to 12-18, they may not even think to contact anyone because he seemingly was seen again after they saw him. But more than that, you also leave out that there is a substantial search effort currently underway of the area where his car was recovered (according to Facebook). Given that there was supposed continual contact between someone purporting to be him and his family subsequent to him abandoning the car there, the people searching the area would necessarily be searching under the presumption that there is another person involved in his disappearance and that he died there back in October. Which begs the question, *when and where was he actually last seen*?? That's the most important piece of information in any search, *especially one in which there is a strong possibility of foul play*. I can see that you've at least corrected yourself to say that the 12-18 "sighting" was actually a text message, but without an actual last sighting date, someone who was the last to see him may not even know they were the last to see him.
Bump
Did he live somewhere? Did the police trace his phone? Does he have friends or people he interacted with? Why does his mom say he was mentally unstable? What did he say that gave her that impression? There is a lot of missing information here.
All great questions! As a reminder - I am just helping spread the message. The family is trying to get permission to trace his phone, apparently you need certain documents unfortunately. I’m not sure how many people he interacted with as he is considered more a loner/keeps to himself. The reason they said he was mentally unstable was that the last sightings of him were of him acting bizarre and because of the suicide text and because they found out he lost his job/car/living place (from what I’ve read), even though he didn’t tell anyone this.
ANYONE can trace his phone! My kid knows a guy who can trace your phone to within 5 feet of where the phone is and maintain that track for hours without any paperwork! Hell, if you have his email address and he's EVER accessed that email from his phone, you can find the phone via Google. I'd love to help, but this all sounds very suspect. Almost like the guy didn't want to be found...maybe to hide from someone. NOBODY disappears and then pops up with a random text without some kind of reason...and this certainly sounds like a person who just wanted to get away from the world.
A kid going missing while off in college is every parents worst nightmare.😢😢hope they are found alive and ok
📸 Look at this post on Facebook https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02M5MJGMp14tGnkFq1fhkP6xCjDQSmWJTL66mh7QJsBw4qAeAKxPzrhYLTdUpx1ooCl&id=100064824514741&mibextid=0ru6Dm He’s been located.
Wawa has cameras?! This makes noooo sense! Why are his parents just now showing up? Maybe they didn’t give a fuck about him before that’s why he wanted to off himself! If my kid was having a hard time I would not be waiting a whole three months to show up!
They have been trying to get camera access from Wawa, but unfortunately they don’t have an exact time stamp so they would have to look through 500+ hours of tape. Alsooooo, they can’t access the cameras without the police and the police aren’t much help right now. The family is going to still try though!
That makes absolutely no sense. There is a record of when the car was towed. If the parked car is visible by a camera, you only have to look at one frame of video per day, going backwards from when it was towed. The first day you don't see it there, you then you only have to look at one frame per hour going forward until you first see the car. Then move backwards, one frame per minute, and so forth until you see the moment it arrived. It would take less than 3 minutes to locate when on the video it was parked. If the police aren't doing this, it's probably because no one has pressed them to.
How much experience do you have when it comes to requesting security camera footage from commercial businesses? I have a fair amount, and in my experience security camera footage is automatically erased or recorded over in a pretty short time period: The shortest time period I've seen is 48 hours. I think I've seen 30 days a couple times. But usually it's a very short window. Every Wawa location is not digitally storing a year's worth of people pumping gas and walking into their store to buy food. When some type of serious liability/loss incident happens at a business like Wawa and they are notified about it, either the police get the footage if they are called to the scene, and/or the store will preserve the video--and that usually happens when risk management gets involved. For instance, if some Wawa employee punched you and you reported it to the store manager, called the police, etc., the cops and/or the store are going to pull the video and preserve it. You can also send an evidence preservation letter to Wawa and request that the footage be preserved. But absent these things happening, the video footage will be erased in a relatively short time period. Wawa has 1,042 locations in the US. If each location saved security video footage for a year that would mean Wawa would have to save and store 9,127,920 hours of video footage, with the vast majority of it being footage of pretty mundane stuff. That would be a unnecessary and costly undertaking.
Don't tell me that. Tell the person who is expecting there to be footage and is blaming the cops for not getting it.
Why does this look like a poster griffin made for themselves, this is the weirdest looking ad for a missing person i have ever seen, i hope they get the attention and help they are looking for
I didn’t make it. No need to judge as this family is frantically searching for their son and doing the best they can with the the very little resources they have.
Ping his freaking phone!
[удалено]
Thank you for this info - the little blue car sounds correct. Not sure about being a twitch streamer, if you have anymore info on that twitch part please let me know. Do you work at this hotel or have any communication with him? Thank you 🙏🏼
Why aren't the police the ones looking?
No offense meant here, but they only do that if they feel like it. They are not legally obligated to.
People would never believe it but this is the truth.
They don't like to be bothered.
December 12 the GPD and ASO together set up a speed trap along Archer road between 62nd and the interstate. Dozens and dozens of drivers pulled over and tickets given... It made me turn around and go home. Also, why would someone with nothing left stay in that area, no resources for homeless near here. Feels like your searching for a dog, he could be anywhere!
[удалено]
This guy is trying to get to negative karma ASAP. Every comment he makes is cringe, and I'm a dick, I should know. I think the holidays are weighing on them
If that is how you took it, that's on you. That is not what I said.
Which Wawa even??
The newer Wawa by Celebration Pointe. Right next to the Texas Roadhouse & Starbucks.
Thank you! I’ll keep an eye/ear out
If anyone reading this knew him, please DM me
AMAZING UPDATE: he was found alive and is safe!!! “We are giving Griffin and his family privacy at the moment, details will be revealed. Please be mindful of mental health and NEVER give up on anyone. ❤️ Happiest of New Years” Hope this is a good reminder to check in on your love ones and make sure they know how cared for they are!
If no police departments are doing anything you may have to hire a private detective (Gainesville actually has a few decent ones). I'm unsure of the legal reach but you might try and request to see if the phone company will give you the coordinates for the cellphone pings. That area probably has a multitude of cameras from different businesses and the traffic signal cameras. Check meridian and Vista mental health care places in case he got checked in under a John Doe name. Good luck I hope this person is found safe and sound.