For reasons still unknown, Lawrence Neal Jr. left his mother’s Southeast D.C. home sometime on May 23.
He hasn’t been seen since, and District police and Neal’s family are struggling to figure out why the 39-year-old father of four went missing.
“I haven’t the slightest idea what happened,” said Ivy Jeter, Neal’s mother.
Jeter said Tuesday that she last saw her son at about 3 p.m. that day, before she went to work.
No one heard from him during the following days, which they thought was unusual.
“He’s very family-oriented,” Jeter said. “He doesn’t go two to three days without contacting family.”
Relatives were growing more concerned, but held out hope he had gone with friends for a last-minute Memorial Day weekend trip. But the long weekend passed with no word from Neal, and the family reported him missing May 31.
Officer Hugh Carew, a District police spokesman, said Neal’s disappearance is still under investigation and police don’t believe foul play was involved. He said he had no other information on the case.
Neal’s family has been working to get the word out about his disappearance. They’ve worked with LostNMissing, an organization that helps families of missing people, to create flyers about Neal that have been distributed online and around Jeter’s neighborhood. A Facebook page has been set up about the case.
“It’s going on four months now,” Jeter said. “I’m running out of ideas.”
Police described Neal as black with a medium complexion, about 6 feet tall, 195 to 200 pounds, short black hair, brown eyes and a beard. He was last seen wearing a white shirt and black pants.
He has several tattoos: a bitten bone on the left side of his stomach, the word “Bones” on his right arm, a tombstone on his back and the words “R.I.P. BiG Lawrence, see you when I get there” on his right shoulder, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
He was last seen on the 2800 block of Buena Vista Terrace SE. Jeter said her son often spends time with friends in Fairfax County.
Anyone with information can call police at 202-727-9099 or 202-698-1310.
