Thomas Joseph Nigro, 31, known as TJ, vanished after being seen on January 5, 2018, in the Columbus, Georgia, area. A woman who picked him up as a hitchhiker says he planned to meet a friend and go camping; she dropped him at a rural intersection at Bevis and GBI Roads in Franklin, Heard County, near the West Point Wildlife Management Area. He reportedly had camping gear, including a heavy-duty black bag with a green sleeping bag attached.

Despite being a former Army Ranger with wilderness training, Nigro had service-related injuries — a traumatic brain injury and back problems — that reportedly limited his mobility. Conflicting details have complicated the case: many essential personal items were left behind at his Columbus home, including his wallet, car keys, passport, and a cell phone, while the woman who picked him up said he had a phone with him. He is described as about 5 feet 6 inches, 160 to 180 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes and distinctive tattoos, including a U.S. Army Ranger emblem on his right shoulder and a colored Valkyrie figure from chest to back on his left shoulder.

Searches of the nearly 9,000-acre West Point Wildlife Management Area turned up nothing publicly reported, and the case remains unsolved. Did anyone in the Franklin or Columbus area see Thomas or his camping gear around January 5, 2018?