GA GA - Christopher Thompkins, 20, Harris County, 25 Jan 2002

I recently found out about this case. His co-worker turned away for a brief moment and when he looked back, Chris was gone. They found some of his belongings but Chris was never seen again. I'm not sure if investigators are leaning towards foul play but the circumstances are strange.

NamUs

GBI Case File

Charley Project



Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
• Missing Since: January 25, 2002 from Harris County, Georgia
• Classification: Endangered Missing
• Date Of Birth: December 28, 1981
• Age: 20 years old
• Height and Weight: 5'7 - 5'9, 124 - 130 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics: African-American male. Black hair, brown eyes. Thompkins's hair was braided at the time of his January 2002 disappearance. He has a light complexion. He may have a mustache, beard or a goatee. Thompkins has a tattoo on his right arm of an ice cream cone with his nickname, Chris, written in vertial letters inside the design. The ice cream part of the tattoo is the head of a joker wearing a hat.
• Clothing/Jewelry Description: A black shirt, a blue and gray plaid jacket with a gray hood, navy blue Dickies work pants, tan Fubu work boots, a black skullcap, and a black watch.

Details of Disappearance
Thompkins was working in a wooded area near County Line Road off of Warm Springs Road in Harris County, Georgia on January 25, 2002. He was accompanied by three co-workers, all of whom worked approximately 50 feet from one another. He was last seen at 1:30 p.m. One of the other employees looked away from Thompkins for a moment; by the time he glanced in that direction again, Thompkins had disappeared. He has never been heard from again.

Volunteers searched the area shortly after Thompkins's disappearance. One of his boots was located, as was a piece of blue fiber on a nearby barbed wire fence. Twelve cents was discovered near Thompkins's tools. Tompkins's other boot was found elsewhere in July, five months after his disappearance. There was no other evidence indicating his whereabouts. His case remains unsolved.

Thompkins resided in Ellerslie, Georgia in early 2002.

Mother of long-missing son seeks closure - January 2008

“Christopher left home about 8:10 a.m. He parked his car at work and drove to the job site with the surveyor he worked for. (At the time I was also employed by the surveyor's family as their baby-sitter.) He worked that morning with three other employees in a lightly wooded area off County Line Road. All the workers were about 50 feet from each other, walking in the same direction. Sometime after lunch, around 1 p.m. the surveyor phoned his wife to inform her that Christopher was missing. One of Christopher's co-workers stated that ‘Chris was walking in the same direction as the others when he looked away and then looked back, Christ was gone.’ I was not informed of his disappearance until 4:15 p.m.”

“What we found was puzzling and did not make sense in light of what Christopher's co-workers told authorities,” the mother said. “We found one of his boots, his work tools, a blue fiber from his pants and 12 cents on the ground near the items. the statements by his employer and co-workers indicated that they believed Christopher just walked off the job site without telling anyone. His other boot was found several months later, miles from the original boot, on some property off I-85. It was found by the owner of the property.”

McKenzie does not believe Christopher would simply walk away from a job site in January wearing one or no boots.

His employer said in the days preceding his disappearance, Christopher had been “acting strangely,” but gave no specifics, McKenzie said.

“Chris lived with me and I saw him every day. There was neither strange behavior on his part nor any distress,” she said.

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Very, very strange. Sounds like his mother suspects foul play on the part of the co-workers.

I'm assuming the area where the second boot was found was searched thoroughly.... To rule out his body being dumped there.

No evidence of foul play was ever found by local police or the Georgia Bureau of Investigation....

Thompkins was not known to have any physical or mental health problems that would have contributed to his disappearance.

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https://web.archive.org/web/2012081...s/weird/176170-unsolved-strange-disappearance

I am glad this case is posted on here already because if not I was going to post about it. His disappearance is either a weird disappearance, or just a straight up murder case, meaning his coworkers had something to do with him dying and then lied about it. But if he did just walk away one day and has never been found dead or alive, that makes it a strange disappearance. If his coworkers were telling the truth then we could speculate that he had a mental issue that caused him to walk/run away from his work site, or he was on drugs that caused him to abruptly leave his work site, or he planned to do what he did and either went away to kill himself or he left and is roaming around as a homeless person/drifter, or living somewhere as another person. But, unfortunately, I think his coworkers know what happened to him. I have read theories that maybe he was ate whole by a gator in an instant, or taken away by a big predatory bird, or carried off by a bear. Those may sound like bizarre theories but so is the theory that police seemed to believe which is that he just walked away by choice and left his boots behind and somehow some change and fibers got left behind too. I hope the police investigated his coworkers thoroughly, but I have read that they didn't interrogate them but just interviewed them like witnesses. I hope he can be found soon. It is possible that maybe a bone is out there somewhere in the woods and DNA could prove it is him. If his coworkers murdered him they hid his body pretty darn well. Maybe he was thrown in an old well hole or in a creek and was weighted down.
I wish his coworkers were telling the truth and he just walked away willingly. The other scenarios are horrific.

Yes , very weird case. I’ve read skeletal remains found through out the years in the same rough area has he vanished from , has not proven to be his.

Case info on GBI depicts last seen at both 12.00 and 1.30 pm? They told the family as their final analysis that “these things happen”

is it known for how long he had been working as a surveyor and for that company? I feel some investigative reporting could shed much more light on this case.

Right now it’s this freak mystery portal case, which gives it some traction out there at least but the real events are probably much more down to earth.

I just moved to Ellerslie and live very close to where he disappeared. I have several old sheds on my property that I will be going through soon and just wanted to post here because I’ve been having some really strange feelings every time I am in my backyard. I would be super interested in knowing whereabouts on warm springs he lived/exact location he went missing? I’m also part of a forensic anthropology team that goes out in the area simply to look for disturbed/disrupted or suspicious areas where the tree/grass growth is visibly different. Maybe I could help, maybe not. But if anyone is still on here and willing to give me more details and specifics, I would be all for it.

I also want to suggest reaching out to podcasts. Morbid, casefile, crime junkie, etc. there’s so many these days and especially for those that are unsolved. There’s no way he just vanished!

considering the atmosphere in Harris county, I deeply suspect foul play. Racism runs very deep here and it’s the “good ol boys” system of integrity.

However, I really think there’s been progress these past few years and with the amount of media outlets at our fingertips… there’s no reason not to utilize them. I happened to just stumble upon this case and would love to be able to do some digging in literally my own backyard if need be. If the family sees this, maybe stating that I’ve got a masters degree (project management so it doesn’t really matter) and a bachelors in criminology. I’ve got reliable and strong resources and contacts that I know would be glad to help too. Let’s see if we can find answers!

Sad case. I feel for his family.

I'd be interested to know why the discovery of his 2nd boot was called in to police. Was it because the property owner happened to know about the case, including description of the missing boot? That's what it sounds like, but it just stands out because normally someone wouldn't give it much thought and would just discard a boot found on their property.

There is another case here on WS where the MP's shoes were found quite a distance apart. Also a missing young man and unsolved. (Can anyone remember which case?)

ChatteringBirds said:

There is another case here on WS where the MP's shoes were found quite a distance apart. Also a missing young man and unsolved. (Can anyone remember which case?)

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Benjamin... cannot remember his last name right now...from Iowa?

Definitely a creepy case. If the co-workers were guilty, I don't think they would've reported his disappeared as quickly as they did. They could've pretended that he disappeared after they finished work. Would they really want to leave behind clues if they wanted people to think he took off?

That said, I don't see signs of foul play. And if he had been attacked by a wild animal, I find it hard to believe someone wouldn't have heard anything, or there were no signs of blood. I think he might have suffered a psychotic or drug-induced break and fled into the woods. The shoe and fabric are from trying to climb the barbwire. After that, he most likely died of exposure.

mookie.pete88 said:

I also want to suggest reaching out to podcasts. Morbid, casefile, crime junkie, etc. there’s so many these days and especially for those that are unsolved. There’s no way he just vanished!

considering the atmosphere in Harris county, I deeply suspect foul play. Racism runs very deep here and it’s the “good ol boys” system of integrity.

However, I really think there’s been progress these past few years and with the amount of media outlets at our fingertips… there’s no reason not to utilize them. I happened to just stumble upon this case and would love to be able to do some digging in literally my own backyard if need be. If the family sees this, maybe stating that I’ve got a masters degree (project management so it doesn’t really matter) and a bachelors in criminology. I’ve got reliable and strong resources and contacts that I know would be glad to help too. Let’s see if we can find answers!

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I also live in Ellerslie and am very familiar with the area Christopher went missing. I have been interested in this case for a long time and have been wanting to go look around the site he went missing. My current theory is his coworkers are responsible. I am not sure on motive but it could be Chris found out something about them since at least two of his coworkers had criminal records or Chris could have been their bosses favorite since his mother was also his bosses babysitter and his coworkers resented him for it. They were all land surveyors so this knowledge could’ve helped them dispose of Chris’s body if foul play was involved. @mookie.pete88 If you want to team up and try to go search the site where Chris went missing or do some investigating shoot me an email at matthewgriffincap@gmail.com[/QUOTE]

Bump

Matt Griffin said:

I also live in Ellerslie and am very familiar with the area Christopher went missing. I have been interested in this case for a long time and have been wanting to go look around the site he went missing. My current theory is his coworkers are responsible. I am not sure on motive but it could be Chris found out something about them since at least two of his coworkers had criminal records or Chris could have been their bosses favorite since his mother was also his bosses babysitter and his coworkers resented him for it. They were all land surveyors so this knowledge could’ve helped them dispose of Chris’s body if foul play was involved. @mookie.pete88 If you want to team up and try to go search the site where Chris went missing or do some investigating shoot me an email at matthewgriffincap@gmail.com

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[/QUOTE]
You may be right that the co-workers have acted violently out of envy or something but would they be so foolish as to leave the evidence right there? boots clothes etc? But really, if they didn't do anything to their partner Christopher, then what happened? being in an open part with a small forest without such wild animals that it would be impossible not to know what really happened... it is in these cases that I believe that there is a kind of portal to another dimension... I know that many will call me crazy or That he doesn't talk nonsense but what other explanation? always thinking that the companions did not act violently...
whatever and wherever you are rest in peace christopher

ekardh said:

Definitely a creepy case. If the co-workers were guilty, I don't think they would've reported his disappeared as quickly as they did. They could've pretended that he disappeared after they finished work. Would they really want to leave behind clues if they wanted people to think he took off?

That said, I don't see signs of foul play. And if he had been attacked by a wild animal, I find it hard to believe someone wouldn't have heard anything, or there were no signs of blood. I think he might have suffered a psychotic or drug-induced break and fled into the woods. The shoe and fabric are from trying to climb the barbwire. After that, he most likely died of exposure.

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This case really left me very intrigued. No one can disappear so out of nowhere there was no shooting and I always believed that the co-workers acted well, warning them as soon as they found out that he had disappeared.

For every possible theory, there seems to be evidence/facts that disprove the theory. It's absolutely bizarre how neither explanation makes sense.

July 19, 2023







Distinguishing Marks/Features: Black hair worn in braids; may have a moustache, beard, or a goatee; tattoo on his right arm of an ice cream cone with his nickname, Chris, written in vertical letters inside the design. The ice cream part of the tattoo is the head of a joker wearing a hat.

Identifiers​

Dentals: Not Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Not Available

Clothing & Personal Items​

Clothing: Black shirt, blue and gray plaid jacket with gray hood, navy "Dickies" work pants, tan "FUBU" work boots, black skull cap
Jewelry: Black watch
Additional Personal Items: Unknown