NEED TO KNOW
- Jason Landry, a 21-year-old Texas State University student, has not been seen since he disappeared while heading home for winter break in December 2020
- His car was later found crashed and abandoned with his keys still in the ignition, though Landry was gone — and still remains missing five years later
- “Whether somebody did something, whether somebody chased him, whether he got lost track of the directions that he was going — we don’t know,” said Cyndi Lay, a family advocate and search team leader with the search team
It’s been over five years since 21-year-old Texas State University student Jason Landry drove home for winter break and then vanished, leaving behind a crashed Nissan Altima, several articles of clothing and other personal items.
Landry, who has been missing since Dec. 13, 2020, is believed to have left his San Marcos apartment at 10:55 p.m. local time, the Caldway County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on social media in 2021. Based on his digital footprint, officials said he was headed to his parents’ home in Missouri City, but never arrived.
Just after 12:30 a.m. the next day, the college student’s Nissan was found by a volunteer firefighter in the 2300 block of Salt Flat Road in Luling on a barren gravel roadway.
The lights were on, the keys were in the ignition and the front passenger side door was locked.
At the time, the sheriff’s office said the single vehicle crash most likely was the result of an over correction on the gravel road, which sent the car “spinning off the roadway.”
“The rear driver’s side corner made initial contact with a tree on the east side of the roadway, propelling the front driver’s side into another tree and barbed wire fence,” the department added.
Investigators said no one went inside the car until it was towed to an impound yard. Then Landry’s father “entered the vehicle through the unlocked driver’s side door, and discovered Jason’s cell phone between the driver’s seat and the center console.”
After finding the phone, Landry’s father, Kent, went to the scene of the crash — and about 900 feet away, he found his son’s shirt, shorts, socks, underwear, shoes and a watch in the roadway.
Investigators said they found a “single blood smear” on the clothing, which they determined “was not indicative of serious bodily injury,” suggesting that perhaps the minor injury was caused as he exited the vehicle and “came into contact with the barbed wire fence or foliage.”
Additionally, there was no evidence of blood inside his car.
As for the clothing left behind, officials said they believed Landry had been wearing them prior to the collision — and that there was “no indication” he removed them under duress or threat. They went on to note that Dec. 13 was a cold night, with a recorded low of 36 degrees Fahrenheit.
Just north of where his clothing was found, several more items were found, including Jason’s backpack, a bag of toiletries and a tumbler containing a dead beta fish.
Inside the backpack, authorities found his wallet, a laptop, some gaming equipment and a “small amount” of marijuana.
Although officials initially raised the possibility that the marijuana had been laced with a hallucinogenic substance, months later, Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Jeff Ferry told NBC affiliate KXAN that testing didn’t detect any other substances.
Adding to the mystery, authorities said that at one point in his drive, Landry opened up Snapchat — and that a short time after his “digital footprint essentially stops,” which left just over an hour before his crashed car was found.
In the years since, investigators have continued to look for the college student — and the case into his disappearance remains active and ongoing.
On the third anniversary of Landry’s disappearance, the Texas Attorney General’s office noted that since receiving a request for investigative assistance in February 2022, the Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit has “dedicated hundreds of hours of investigative resources to the case.”
When contacted by PEOPLE for additional comment, neither the Caldway County Sheriff’s Office nor the Texas Attorney General’s Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit immediately responded.
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Meanwhile, the Jason Landry Search Team — an all-volunteer effort — has organized dozens of searches over the years, CBS affiliate KENS reported.
Cyndi Lay, a family advocate and search team leader with the search team, told the outlet that the volunteers feel “called to try to help” find Landry.
While investigators have said that what happened to Landry was an “isolated incident” and that there was “no evidence that an unknown person of interest is involved,” the fact remains that many questions remain unanswered.
“Whether somebody did something, whether somebody chased him, whether he got lost track of the directions that he was going — we don’t know,” Lay told KENS.
Back in 2021, Kent, Landry’s father, told KXAN that “on some level” he hoped his son “passed away peacefully that night, went to sleep with hypothermia and woke up in heaven.”
Ahead of the five-year anniversary of the incident, Landry’s father, a former prosecutor who has since become a pastor, told NBC affiliate WOAI that he believes someone out there might know the truth based on what he has heard from community members.
“Locals feel like someone knows something,” Kent said. “It makes me wonder if someone actually does and just hasn’t come forward.”
But the family, who has reportedly offered a $20,000 reward for any information leading to finding Landry, understands that a happy reunion likely isn’t in the cards.
“We feel Jason’s in heaven, and I’ll see him again when I get there,” Kent said.
Anyone with credible information about Landry’s disappearance is asked to contact the Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit.
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