After a soldier mysteriously vanished in Fayetteville, North Carolina, his concerned family drove down from Rochester, New York, to do a search of their own.
“The panic is real,” his mother, Jennifer Seeman, told ABC News. “And it hurts.”
Sgt. Carl Seeman, 25, was reported missing on Sunday night by a fellow soldier, Fayetteville Police spokesman Sgt. Shawn Strepay said.
Seeman’s car was found at a local Wal-Mart that night with his cellphone inside, Strepay said. His wallet and keys were missing, his mother said.
Jennifer Seeman arrived in Fayetteville on Tuesday with her husband, father and brother.
“The panic comes and goes,” she told ABC News today. “I feel like we’re not at panic when someone reaches out to me and says, ‘I might have seen him here.’ But the panic is real. And it hurts.”
She continued, “The only thing that we have are just leads from people who might have seen him. Our leads have turned up nothing. Right now we’re at a dead end and we’re just trying to come up with our next plan. We plan on staying down here as long as we need to until something pops up, until something happens.”
Carl Seeman is the oldest of six and his younger siblings are “definitely having their moments. They’re hanging on to every possible hope that I’m giving them,” Jennifer Seeman said. “They’re waiting for my phone calls just like I’m waiting for a phone call from the detectives.”
Carl Seeman is a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg officials said.
Jennifer Seeman said her oldest child always wanted to be in the Army and enlisted his senior year of high school.
Carl Seeman has served in the Army since 2011 and has been with the 82nd Airborne Division since 2015, Fort Bragg said. He had one combat deployment to Afghanistan in 2012.
Jennifer Seeman is urging people to keep an eye out at bus stations, airports and train stations for her son. She said he is about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds.
Strepay said anyone with information is asked to call Fayetteville / Cumberland County Crimestoppers at 910-483-TIPS.
