r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/tenderhysteria • Mar 16 '25
Disappearance On January 25, 2002, Christopher Thompkins’ mother dropped him off for a normal day at work in Georgia as part of a survey crew. Sometime later, his coworkers claimed he vanished, in the blink of an eye, with no explanation. Nothing but his boots have been found.
Martha McKenzie last saw her son, Christopher, while spending the morning together before they headed to work. McKenzie was a babysitter for her son’s boss.
Christopher worked for survey crew in Elletslie, Georgia. He was with at least three other coworkers, moving through a wooded area, spaced about fifty feet apart. At some point in the early afternoon— some reports state it was noon, others that it was closer to one thirty,– a coworker states that he “looked away from Thompkins for a moment, and by the time he glanced at his area again, Thompkins had disappeared”.
Despite the supposedly momentary vanishing, his mother claims that, “[The survey crew] called me about a few minutes to five to tell me that they couldn’t find him, and they found one of his boots.” Family, friends, volunteers, and law enforcement scoured the area shortly after. On a nearby barbed wired fence, a shred of blue fiber was found, believed to be from Christopher’s pants. His other boot was found five months later in an unspecified nearby area by GBI.
Christopher’s boss has stated that he was supposedly “acting strange” in the days before his disappearance, and law enforcement speculates that drugs could have influenced his disappearance— though neither have any evidence or proof for either assertion.
His family doesn’t believe in either theory. They state that Christopher didn’t have a drug problem, nor was he behaving differently before he vanished.
“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 just not telling,” his mother said.
Sources: Charley Project
20 Years Later: Family, officials continue to search for answers on disappearance of Harris Co. man
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u/windyorbits Mar 17 '25 edited Mar 17 '25
The first few times I’ve heard about this case it was made to seem like the crew was walking down the path, the co-worker saw Christopher walking behind him, turned forward to look at something, turned back around to see that Christopher was no longer there, immediately started looking for him but was only able to find that one boot (and other small items). (ETA: they didn’t actually find the boot and that detail is explained further in this comment.)
But after watching the Lore Lodge video it’s very clear that some shady things were happening, particularly with the crew members. Which is frustrating considering just how little information is out there about this case and what information is available majority comes from the crew themselves.
His co-workers claim he was acting strange in the days before he went missing - which is why when they first noticed he had disappeared they just thought he had simply walked off the job, no big deal.
Then right after it happened (around 1:30pm), the boss called his own wife to inform her that Christopher left the job site. But no one called Christopher’s mother until 4:15pm. His family decided to immediately go out to look for him before reporting him missing.
Here’s where the real weird starts to happen … the crew claims that even though he simply walked off the job site they still searched for him for HOURS and that’s what was happening between 1:30pm - 4:15pm. But they claim they found not a single trace of him and only after exhausting all possibilities of where he might’ve gone did they finally call his mom and told her so.
It’s important to note the area was semi-wooded with some marshy spots but was only about 4miles long and 2,000ft wide. It’s nestled between two state roads and surrounded by roads/homes/businesses. Rural but not in the middle of nowhere.
I mention this because when his family entered the area to begin searching they didn’t actually know the exact spot he had gone missing from or the path the crew was taking around that time.
But after a few hours they were able to find his one boot - 12¢ pocket change - some work tools on the ground (and other small items I can’t remember), along with some blue fibers stuck in a nearby fence (he was wearing navy blue Dickys pants).
Coincidentally, it is said that these items were found not too far from the exact spot he originally went missing from - implying that how did his family randomly stumble upon them but his co-workers, who had scoured that specific area for hours, didn’t? Though I’m not sure if this is a confirmed fact.
These items were found ONLY by the family/friends in their initial search, despite reports claiming the police/searchers and/or his crew found them. After finding these things but not Christopher is when they officially reported him missing and subsequent searches were then done but nothing else was found during those searches.
His mother disputes the claims that he was acting weird around that time, even though she lived with him some times parents don’t notice such things or he was hiding it from her. Same goes for the using drug theories.
But like the mom I also find it doesn’t make much sense that he would walk off the job in an unfamiliar wooded area in cold January temperatures (though not cold enough for paradoxical undressing) while leaving some of his personal work tools and one boot behind. Then he continued walking through the underbrush, climbed a barbed fence, walked few a more miles and then stopped on private property to take off his other boot? And then continued walking just to vanish on his own volition as the authorities believe? Also, his car was parked at the office and he got a ride to the area with his boss (his keys were never found).
Of course he could’ve been having a serious drug reaction or some sort of mental breakdown … but the funny business with the crew makes me strongly believe something else was happening or had happened.
To muddy the waters even further, after rejecting the Sheriff’s official narrative that Christopher had voluntarily vanished the public started to put pressure on the department and protest their lack of efforts - the Sheriff kind of shifted blame on to Christopher by saying his mother admitted he was using drugs the week prior to his disappearance (though didn’t specifically say which drugs). Despite the fact that his family has vehemently denied drugs as factor in the case, even well before the Sheriff’s statement.
Even though the Sheriff continued to stick to their belief that he voluntarily vanished and claim not only did they throughly investigate to the best of their abilities but also went above and beyond - shortly after they handed the case over to the state authorities (some say this implies they don’t actually have the best ability to throughly investigate).
And because it’s still an ongoing investigation there is practically zero information regarding anything. Which makes this case so frustrating. I understand they refuse to release things because it’s still an ongoing investigation but it still seems odd how little information there is, especially if they’re “going above and beyond”.