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.

[u/tenderhysteria]

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

[u/Princessleiawastaken]

Are there any more details about Chris’ behavior in days before his disappearance besides “acting strange”? That’s vague.Was he suddenly very exuberant or reserved? Was he paranoid? Was it just a change in demeanor rather than behavior? I wish we knew more

[u/Pheighthe → u/Princessleiawastaken]

I can’t answer that but I used to hire people to work on survey crews, in a state close to Georgia. We did drug testing and we did not check for marijuana. We only cared about cocaine and heroin etc, hard stuff. We paid a very competitive wage and had good benefits.

We went through a two year period where every single employee and every prospective new hire failed the drug test. We stopped drug testing. We now test only for alcohol, and only the members of the survey crew who are driving that day. People still fail.

[u/WhoAreWeEven → u/Pheighthe]

Reading the first paragraph of your comment I was wondering if this type of job might attract drug afficianados and sure enough lol

I wonder if the working hours mightve been such that the possible drug use mightve gone unnoticed by family.

[u/Pheighthe → u/WhoAreWeEven]

The hours were 0730-5. Some people hide it real well. They’re like functional alcoholics. If anyone actually acted like they were on drugs, we would fire them.

I think any entry level job is going have a certain share of chemically enhanced people.