ANNISTON, Ala. (WIAT) — Family members are searching for a man who went missing after boarding a bus bound for Anniston in April.
Jerry Freeman, a 60-year-old man with special needs, got on a Greyhound Bus from Austin, TX headed to Anniston on April 20. Family members say the bus skipped the Anniston destination and didn’t stop again until the bus reached Georgia.
Anniston City Councilor Ben Little addressed the media Thursday morning with hopes of spreading the word about the search for Freeman.
Sgt. Kyle Price with the Anniston Police Department tells us they reached out to the Villa Rica Police Department in Georgia after family members informed them about Perry’s missed stop on April 20.
Villa Rica officers were able to get in contact with Freeman while he was still on the Greyhound bus headed to Georgia. They provided him with information on how to return to Anniston.
Family members say Freeman got off the bus when he arrived in Georgia and no one has had contact with him since April 21. Police officers in Tennessee, however, told the family that they saw him walking along Interstate 75 of May 3rd, but had to let him continue on.
Family members believe that he walked from Atlanta to Tennessee.
“He’s a fighter,” said David Freeman, brother to Jerry.
David explains that Jerry ran off 14 years ago after their mother died.
“He always lived with mother and when she passed, it tore him up. And he left, and left us all.”
For 14 years, David and the rest of the family had no idea where Jerry was. But then, thanks to the internet, they found him in Austin, Texas. For a time, he had been in the woods.
“He was so happy to hear from us, he really was,” said Ann McGuire, sister to Jerry. “And he said ‘I’m going to come [and] see y’all.'”
That’s why Jerry was on his way up to Anniston — the whole family was coming together to lay their brother, Early, to rest. It would have been their first time together in that 14-year span.”
“And then, of course, all of this happened,” said David Freeman.
Now, the whole family is holding onto hope.
“We just want him home,” said David. “We’ll get him, I have a feeling.”
Our attempts to reach Greyhound representatives have been unsuccessful.
If you have any information about Jerry Freeman’s whereabouts, call Sgt. Mitchell with the Atlanta Police Department at 404-354-7532 or the Knoxville Sheriff’s Office at 865-215-2243.
