What happened to Houston man remains mystery 8 years later
BASTROP, Texas - Eight years have passed since 26-year-old Johnathan Lee Hamilton disappeared. He was last seen in Bastrop. Some of his remains were found four years ago, but it's still a mystery where the rest of his remains are and what happened to him.
May 2015 was the last time Angela Hamilton saw her son Johnathan.
"This is the rest of my days. Every day I wake up. Some days it's okay. Some days it's like pouring salt on an open wound. That wound is still as fresh today," she said, speaking to FOX 7 from Houston.
She says around the time her son disappeared, he was struggling with bipolar disorder and diabetes. She thinks he was contacted by a relative, and they took off, but she's not sure for what. She says there was nothing unusual until he didn't come home, and she reported him missing.
Two days later, she got a call from Bastrop law enforcement saying her son was there. She and her family immediately drove up and saw his car but didn't see him.
Bastrop County Sheriff Maurice Cook said previously that Johnathan was interviewed by Bastrop police and found to be of sound mind.
"The police said that my son was fine when they encountered him. People who are fine...they don't end up being found in pieces in a river years later," Angela said.
She says her son may have gone to someone's property but the stories she's been told don't match up.
He didn't have his medication and was never heard from again.
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For the following years, she searched for her son, calling and looking in every place she could think of.
"I asked people, 'have you seen my son?' I did all kinds of stuff I probably shouldn't have done trying to find my son," she said.
In 2019, Johnathan's jawbone was found on a sandbar on the Colorado River.
"When I first saw it, I thought this could be a missing persons case or something or might give someone some closure or help a crime scene or something like that, so yeah I definitely called it in," Remington Werner, who found the jawbone, said in 2019.
To this day, it's not clear where the rest of his remains are.
Bastrop County says they did an extensive search but nothing else ever came up.
"People say, 'oh, you got an answer, your boy's dead.' Really? We will never have closure if they pick up the person that harmed or killed Jonathan tomorrow. It's not going to take away any of our pain or loss or grief," Angela said.
At this point, the cause of death still hasn't been determined.
"I believe my son was murdered," Angela said. "Why did somebody kill my baby? Why are they free? Why has nobody done anything? Do they think I'm just going to disappear and just shut up?"
The Bastrop County Sheriff says it's still an open investigation, and they're working with Bastrop police should any other leads come in.
He says they do continually check in with cold cases, but at this point, there are no new developments.
However, Angela thinks they're not doing enough. "Do your job," she said.
She misses everything about her son, even the simple things.
"Every day that I wake up, I automatically know my child is gone. Gone, he's dead. He's never coming back. I'll never hear another giggle. I'll never see another smirk. I will never hear a smart, witty comment," she said.