Photo: abc13.com
Just bananas.
By Rebecca Jane Stokes — Written on Jul 04, 2019
When a loved one goes missing the powers that be say that the first 24 hours of the investigation are critical. After this window of time has passed, there's still hope that the mystery will be solved, but the odds of being reconnected with that loved one still alive go down dramatically. This is exactly the position Jose Velazquez's family found themselves in when the man mysteriously vanished last Tuesday night. They got the authorities involved as quickly as they could, but when those first critical hours came and went without any leads, they feared the worst. But the story was more complicated than that...What happened to Jose Velazquez?
1. Missing
It was a typical Wednesday for the family of Houston man Jose Velazquez, 32. None of them expected that by the time the sun had set, their entire world would be turned upside down. You see, the day was only just beginning when the family received a strange phone call. On the other end of the line was none other than Jose's boss, and what he had to say definitely was worrisome.
You see, Jose hadn't shown up for work that day. His family called his phone and got no response. At first they thought maybe he was too ill to answer the phone, but eventually they got worried and checked out his house. There was no sign of Velazquez inside, nor was their any evidence that he left on a last minute trip. They had no other choice: they had to report him as missing.
2. Last Seen
According to Chanel Nelson, Jose's fiance, she is the last person who saw Jose before he mysteriously vanished. The way that Chanel tells it, the loved-up duo had an average night out. Tuesday being their "date night", they went for dinner and then drinks. At the end of the evening, both Chanel and Jose returned to their respective houses in their own cars. Chanel kissed Jose goodbye in front of the bar which was located on Main Street in a central part of the downtown area. Chanel assumed that everything was totally fine, in fact, she didn't even know Jose was missing until his family called her the following morning.
3. The Search
Once Jose was officially missing in the eyes of the law, the search was on to find the missing man before it was too late. Security cameras in the area where he and Chanel parted ways didn't turn up any promising results, and no one reported seeing a car like his on the road. That's when they decided they needed to ping his cellphone and see where it was last located.
The police were able to quickly identify the general region where they last believed Jose had used his phone. The thickly wooded area would be difficult terrain for them to search, so they called in the Texas EquuSearch team, who uses horses to help them access areas that are difficult to reach, and they began their search in that region right away.
The team worked diligently to locate the missing man, but it didn't look good. As the days began to pass it was starting to seem less and less likely that when they located the man that he would even be alive. It was on the 5th day when they decided it might be time to stop the search. In fact, they were 10 minutes from doing just that when somone located a white bumper in the woods: it belonged to Jose's car!
4. Finding Jose
Eventually, authorities were able to determine what happened to Jose. His car went off the highway for reasons no one knows and in the process, he was hurled from the driver's seat and when the EquuSearch team located him, he was trapped in the backseat of his car, a white Honda. Jose was very dehydrated and had a collapsed lung, but other than that, he was fine. "I don't know how he (survived) the initial wreck, let alone as bad as he was injured five days later...to still be alive...that's why we do what we do. We believe in miracles and here was one today," said Tim Miller of EquuSearch. It was the best possible outcome, and frankly, it was also as close to a miracle as these come!
5. Recovery
As of today, Jose is doing much better! It would be hard to be doing worse than he was for five days laying in the woods with no immediate medical attention or available drinking water, medicine, or food. He is currently being treated at Memorial Hermann Hospital, and in spite of his injuries his mood seems to be doing nothing but going up, up, up! According to the people who found him, Jose was able to speak when they finally got to his side, but he was so weak that he couldn't move on his own power. As soon as people asked him what he wanted to eat and drink he was able to request juice boxes and food from his local Sonic. If he wanted Sonic but didn't want a cherry limeade then this man is truly a mystery.
Rebecca Jane Stokes is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York with her cats, Batman and Margot. She's an experienced generalist with a passion for lifestyle, geek news, pop culture, and true crime.