Judson Lee Fielding, 40, a former Marine, disappeared after visiting his four children in Delta Manor, Augusta, Georgia. He had left his mother’s house that cold afternoon and arrived at his children’s home, but was not seen or heard from after leaving; his family noted he left without his jacket. At the time he was trying to rebuild his life after a two-year prison sentence on a drug-related charge and was pursuing a commercial truck driver’s license.

Fielding and another man, Charles Joseph Winfield, had been arrested with Willie Carl Hankerson Jr. when PCP was found in their vehicle. Both cooperated with law enforcement, testified against Hankerson before a grand jury, and were due to testify at his trial. In the period before his disappearance Fielding told family he feared someone was after him. Their vanishings forced the dismissal of Hankerson’s indictment.

In December 2005 Leo Lamont Utley was charged with the murders of Fielding and Winfield; authorities alleged Hankerson paid Utley to prevent their testimony. Utley died by suicide in jail soon after his arrest. Hankerson later pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and was sentenced; Fielding’s body has never been recovered.

Did anyone in Augusta at the time remember seeing Fielding on that day or know of his movements after he left his children’s home?