The family of a man last seen before he drove through devastating Georgia flooding in 2009 raised money to plaster his face on billboards to “keep his face out there” 14 years after his disappearance so “he won’t be forgotten.”
Amanda Rickles, missing Brian Wehrle’s niece, told FOX 5 Atlanta she hopes the billboards along northbound Interstate 75 will “keep people talking about his story. … Maybe details will come up.”
Wehrle, 39, never showed up for a probate court hearing in Carrollton, Georgia, to sign paperwork as the executor of his parents’ estate Sept. 27, 2009.
Three months later, his abandoned 1993 Buick LeSabre was recovered in Chattanooga with the key still in the ignition, according to an FBI press release.
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The agency said foul play is suspected. Rickles told FOX 5 Atlanta her uncle had no ties to the city of Chattanooga and, to her knowledge, no business there.
“Just seems like he disappeared into thin air,” Rickles said. “In the 14 years since he’s been missing, there’s been no hits on his social, no sightings, just absolutely nothing. His medications were left at the house, his bags, absolutely everything of his.”
Wehrle’s wallet was never found, she said.
Carrollton Police Department Sgt. Meredith Browning told 11Alive some partial fingerprints were found in the vehicle, “but they are not AFIS (automated fingerprint identification system) quality to be put into the database for fingerprints.”
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“We actually rechecked that recently but still had no luck,” she said.
Before his disappearance, Wehrle had been at his parents’ Carrollton home, about 50 miles west of Atlanta, for several days. When he last spoke to Rickles Sept. 23 after mowing his parents’ lawn, he complained of the recent flooding conditions that had slowed his trip there from Atlanta.
On his way back home, he remarked, he…
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