He Left For A Routine Walk In 2002 But Missed Curfew, Never Made It Home, And Has Remained Missing Ever Since
Hope Mills, North Carolina, was a quintessential small American town. It also happened to be where Kent Jacobs grew up.
“Children could ride bicycles, and you didn’t ever expect them not to come home. It was a very, very special community,” detailed Kent’s sister, Jackie Jacobs.
But, in addition to being the eldest of his five siblings, Kent also had special needs.
As a child, Jackie recalled how she didn’t notice him being very different from the rest of the Jacobs family. However, as he got older, Kent’s mind remained the same.
“He had the intellectual capacity of a child. That would vacillate sometimes from a 6-year-old to a 9-year-old,” Jackie explained.
Still, Kent was never excluded or treated differently by his family members. He loved to play with his siblings, enjoyed going to rock concerts, and especially adored Harley Davidson bikes – attending a bike show in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with his youngest brother, Kelvin Jacobs.
Although Kent’s favorite day of the year was always his birthday, according to his brother. That’s why, when his forty-second birthday began inching closer in 2002, his family planned an action-packed day.
“He wanted to have a pig pickin’ and have all, you know, his friends and family over,” Jackie remembered.
Tragically, though, Kent vanished shortly before his birthday, never getting to celebrate with his loved ones.
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At the time, Kent was living in a group home for people with special needs from Monday through Friday. Prior to entering the home, his father passed away in 1982 – leaving his mother to raise five children and take care of the Jacobs family’s upholstery business by herself.
Kent’s mom ultimately sold the business and began working as a waitress in a diner downtown in order to make ends meet. Kelvin claimed that she did “a phenomenal job” balancing the responsibilities of parenthood alone.
After Kent was placed in the group house, his mother would pick him up every Friday to bring him home for the weekend. Additionally, during special periods such as holidays or Kent’s birthday, he would stay at home for longer amounts of time.
So, on Friday, March 8, 2002, Kent’s mom picked him up as usual, and he enjoyed a typical weekend at home. Then, on Sunday, March 10, everything changed.
Kent reportedly had a habit of going out on walks by himself, but he had a curfew and always returned on time. Jackie said that this was simply “part of his routine,” which he really valued and never disrupted.
Yet, after Kent left home for a walk that Sunday in the Colonial Heights area of Hope Mills and missed his curfew, he never returned.
He was last seen at 5:00 p.m. that evening, wearing blue jeans, a Harley Davidson sweatshirt, and Reebok sneakers. Kent reportedly went to visit a childhood neighborhood that was two miles away.
As soon as Jackie, who was living in Seattle at the time, heard that her brother had not made it home, she immediately knew something was wrong. She told her mother to contact the police before informing her other siblings about Kent’s disappearance and hopping on a red-eye flight to North Carolina.
On what should have been Kent’s forty-second birthday celebration about one week later, his loved ones spent the entire day looking for him.
“Instead of his birthday, we assembled at the local fire department with local law enforcement, community members, and family. People in kayaks, people on four-wheelers, people walking, people on bicycles,” she said.
Unfortunately, no evidence was ever found – not even a shoelace or a hair fiber.
Rumors have speculated that Kent may have gotten into a car with a stranger, but Jackie is adamant that Kent never would have. Apparently, he wouldn’t even get into her car unless he heard her voice and definitely knew it was her.
On the other hand, Kent’s brother, Kelvin, suspects that he might have been robbed, as he was carrying $200 on him at the time he left for his walk.
Even so, no theories have been confirmed, and the exact circumstances surrounding his disappearance remain unclear over 22 years later.
The Jacobs family received a lot of support from community members in the wake of Kent going missing. In fact, more searches were conducted for him than any other missing person in the history of the county.
Sadly, his case continues to go unsolved, but his loved ones have not given up hope.
“We just know that this case needs a new set of eyes. It needs to be energized with new attention,” Jackie stated.
“No family should go at night – go to sleep at night, especially a mother – not knowing where their child is.”
Kent’s mother, Martha, is now in her eighties, and Detective Patrice Bogertey with the Cumberland County Police Department expressed wanting to provide Martha with closure.
“She’s a very nice lady, and she really deserves some answers,” Det. Bogertey said.
Kent’s case is still an open investigation, and his loved ones have since created a nonprofit organization called The Kent Jacobs Foundation to assist other families in similar circumstances.
“There are so many other families that needed help and didn’t know what direction to take. I felt like there needed to be a voice not only for Kent but for other families with loved ones with diminished mental capacity. Their voices deserve to be heard,” Jackie noted.
When he vanished, Kent was five foot six and had dark curly hair. He also had vision problems and would be 64 years old today.
If you have any information regarding his case, you are urged to contact the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office at (910) 323-1500.
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