HOUSTON — Volunteers with Texas Search and Rescue will assist the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office with a new search for Jason Landry this weekend. The 21-year-old Texas State student from Missouri City vanished last December.
He left San Marcos on his way to his parent's house for Christmas break, but crashed his car near Luling. The badly damaged car was found but Jason wasn't in it.
MORE COVERAGE: Where is Jason Landry?
Investigators tell KHOU 11 they have identified 86 points of interest. Places they plan to send teams out to search, with the goal of bringing Jason back home to Missouri City.
“I have a son who is not much older than Jason and this is an easy case for all of us to identify with because I think all of our families are an accident away from being in a situation like this," said Matt Woodruff, a volunteer with TEXSAR.
The places they'll search Saturday have been identified by artificial intelligence, basically computer mapping programs to show them -- based on thousands of photographs of the area -- where Jason could be.
Originally, the only clues they had were his car with keys and wallet inside, and his clothes and backpack found down the road.
'It's a passion and a calling'
Jason's father, Kent Landry, spoke to KHOU 11 on his drive to Caldwell County to join the searchers.
“It’s just a passion and a calling for them. This is not what pays the bills for them, they all have everyday jobs, and yet here they are taking off another weekend to go and to just search for our son," Landry said. "We just appreciate everybody’s prayers, you know, for our family and for safe travels and for all the searchers to be safe this weekend."
Woodruff and other TEXSAR volunteers aren't ready to give up hope of finding Jason.
“What we want to do is bring closure to that family, if he’s out there, we want to know we’ve done everything possible that we can do to locate him and take him home to his family," said Woodruff.
Investigators have told KHOU 11 they have no evidence of foul play and no evidence that leads them to believe Jason is alive. They’re hoping if they can find him, they can answer the biggest question of what happened.
Jason Landry timeline
In January, KVUE reported that investigators gained access to Jason's phone and computer data. Here is what they discovered.
- Investigators believe he left his San Marcos apartment around 10:55 p.m. on Dec. 13 with intent to travel to the Missouri City, Texas, area, where his parents live.
- At 11:05 p.m., he drives onto Highway 80 and passes under Interstate 35 in San Marcos. He continues south, entering Caldwell County at 11:07 p.m.
- At 11:11 p.m., he was in Martindale, continuing south on Highway 80. He passes over SH 130 at 11:15 p.m.
- At 11:17 p.m., he was in Fentress, entering Prarie Lea at 11:19 p.m., then the Stairtown area at 11:21 p.m.
- At 11:24 p.m., he entered Luling, still on Highway 180. As he goes through the intersection with Hackberry Street where Highway 80 becomes Austin Street, he quits using the Waze mapping application and beings using Snapchat on his phone. He then continues on Austin Street to the intersection with US 183 (Magnolia Avenue).
- It's believed he continued straight through this intersection, but his digital footprint stops here. Investigators think he continued on East Austin and onto Sprice Street, which turns into Salt Flat Road. His vehicle was found here on the 2300 block around 12:31 a.m.
A $10,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to Jason Landry.