The Disappearance of Jared Chavis Part 1

Jared Wayne Chavis went missing January 12, 2018, in Houston, TX. His family fears that something tragic has happened to Jared due to the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. Witnesses report that Jared was in the back seat of a black Ford Fusion when an argument broke out and shots were fired by a young man in the front of the car. Jared's friend was able to run out, but Jared never exited the vehicle, and he has never been seen again. His car was later found unlocked and the seat covers had been removed. His family fears that Jared was killed that day. They continue to search for answers and justice. Jared was an old soul; he was generous, independent, ambitious, and strong-willed. At just 19 years old, he had big plans for establishing a career and a family - and he was headed down that path. Jared has a 9-month-old son, Ameer, who was born after Jared's disappearance, so unfortunately Jared never had a chance to meet his own son and Ameer will grow up without his father in his life. Ameer is a driving force for the family to keep pushing for answers, to keep fighting to find out what happened to Jared.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Jared Chavis, please contact the Houston Police Department at 832-394-1840. Crime Stoppers has a $10,000 reward for information leading to the charging or arrest of an individual or individuals involved in the disappearance of Jared Chavis. Information may be reported by calling 713-222-TIPS (8477), submitted online at www.crime-stoppers.org or through the Crime Stoppers mobile app. All tipsters remain completely anonymous.

Join the Facebook Group “Jared Chavis Veteran Missing from Houston, TX” here: facebook.com/groups/2204516876498469/

Please consider donating to the go fund me for Leon Laureles. You can find it at: gofundme.com/f/leon-laureles-private-detective-and-memorial

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
The Concold podcast may contain violent orgraphic subject matter. Listener discretion is advised
for most of us. When weexperience the loss of a loved one,
it's a finite moment, it's sudden, and it's permanent. We are able
to mourn and grieve. Closure mightnot be possible, and the grief might

(00:25):
last forever, but we are ableto know and to make at least some
sense out of what happened. Wehold memorials and funerals to mark the passing
of our loved one and to remembertheir life. Whatever rituals or traditions we've
been taught is owed to the deceasedout of love and respect or helps us

(00:46):
move forward. But for the familiesand friends of missing persons, there is
no such certainty. In the earlynineteen seventies, doctor Pauline Boss, a
family therapist and professor emeritus at theUniversity of Minnesota, coined a term for
this type of loss. She calledthe loss for family and friends of a

(01:08):
missing person ambiguous loss. The uncertaintyand lack of information or answers as to
what happened to their missing loved oneis incredibly traumatic, and, as doctor
Boss writes, their grief is frozenin place. Closure or any semblance thereof

(01:29):
is not possible. Ambiguous loss maynever be resolved, a perpetual loop of
reliving the same questions without answers,over and over again. Doctor Boss also
speaks of a natural resiliency among somepeople who are able to adapt to the
experience of loss, able to developa tolerance and an ability to live with

(01:53):
the ambiguity and the unanswered questions.Jared Shavis went missing twenty eighteen in Houston,
Texas. The grief that doctor PaulineBoss describes can be seen in his
family, an ambiguous grief frozen inplace while they wait for answers and justice.

(02:15):
And yet there's also a resiliency,a strength of spirit grounded in faith
and love that pushes them forward,not only to move forward with their lives,
but also to continue to do everythingthey possibly can to find answers as
to what happened to Jared. Houston'sWest Timer Road stretches across nearly nineteen miles

(02:40):
of the city from Bagbe Street downtownall the way across to the west side,
specifically Westpark Tollway on the southern edgeof George Bush Park. The road
is sort of impamous in Texas's mostpopulous city. It's so long that it
encompasses many different cultures and class levels. Journalist John Nova Lomax even wrote an

(03:07):
article about West Timer Road for theHouston Press back in two thousand and six.
He said, quote, I've readthat you can see West Timer from
space. I've also read that it'sthe longest commercial thoroughfare in Texas. I've
always thought of it as the soulof the west side of Houston. End

(03:27):
quote. For those reasons, Lomaxgoes on to write, he decided to
walk all nineteen miles of Westheimer.What he discovered from the journey wasn't any
sort of spiritual enlightenment or personal epiphany, but he was able to write a
pretty accurate description of the road morethan any of the city's other thoroughfares,

(03:51):
Lomax wrote, West Timer quote embodiesHouston's cary enamored zoning free ethos, a
near twenty mile phantasmagoria of strip malls, storage facilities, restaurants, big box
retail office parks, apartment complexes,strip clubs, malls, supermarkets, and

(04:13):
the occasional church end quote. Healso specifically noted that During the walk,
he passed six CVS drug stores.One of those was the location where Jared
Shavis was last seen alive on Januarytwelfth, twenty eighteen. Jared Wayne Chavis

(04:57):
was nineteen years old when he wentmissing. He'd been living in Houston for
a couple months with a cousin.After leaving the Air Force, Jared was
looking for a fresh start, andHouston offered much more opportunity than his hometown
of Franklin, Louisiana. He founda job installing satellite dishes and began taking

(05:19):
information technologies college courses online. Everythingseemed fine from the outside looking in.
It was a Friday night when Jaredvanished, and like every other day.
He spoke to his mother, Angelaon the phone at this time, around
nine pm on January twelfth, twentyeighteen. Angela said nothing was out of

(05:44):
the ordinary when they spoke. Itseemed like a typical Friday night for the
nineteen year old. He told hismother he was going out with some friends
that night, friends who he knewfrom back home in Louisiana. Angela knew
them too. They hung up andboth went about their lives The following evening.

(06:06):
In Franklin, Louisiana, Saturday,January thirteenth, twenty eighteen. Jared's
mother and father became worried after hefailed to answer her calls earlier in the
day. Something that was incredibly unusual. Angela became overwhelmed by the feeling that

(06:26):
something was terribly wrong, a mother'sintuition, and she was right back in
twenty nineteen, Gone Cold spoke withJared's father, Willie about that night.
After being unable to get a holdof Jared. Willie said they began phoning
the friends who they knew he waswith the night before. One friend told

(06:48):
the mother they couldn't find Jared.When she told Willie, he called the
friend back, He asked, whatdo you mean, you can't find Jared.
This friend told Willie that he,Jared, and two other guys were
going to a party when a fightbetween them broke out. Gunshots were fired,

(07:10):
the friend went on and everyone scattered, taking off running in all directions.
After that, he said, Jaredwas nowhere to be found. They
had left Jared's car in the parkinglot of a CVS drug store. The
friend told Willie where they'd met twoyoung men to go to the party together.

(07:31):
Willie asked if anyone had called thepolice, and the friends said they
did not because they thought Jared wouldcome back for his car. When he
hung up, Willie called a relativeof his that lived in Houston and asked
him to go and look for Jared'scar, a white late model Chevy Malibu.
Willie and Angela continually called Jared's phone, but it had been turned off.

(07:59):
Relatives finally located Jared's car, butnot in the drug store parking lot.
Rather, the vehicle was found inan isolated spot in the parking garage
at the Piney Point Apartments several blocksaway. The complex was gated. Jared's
car was unlocked, seemingly cleaned,and the seat covers had been removed.

(08:24):
Willie sped to Houston to look forJared himself. He spoke to his son
through the press, telling him thatif he'd been involved in something he shouldn't
have been. If he'd done somethingwrong, to turn himself in. Reports
had quickly surfaced that the Houston policehad discovered Jared's vehicle was suspected of being

(08:46):
involved in a robbery. Jared,some news outlets reported, might be a
suspect in that robbery, though themedia did a terrible job of reporting the
facts and evidence that suggested it washighly unlikely Jared Shavis would have committed such
a crime. It was not forhis father's lack of trying. For one,

(09:09):
Willie pointed out, Jared didn't knowHouston well enough to stay hidden there
for long. But what really castdoubt on the nineteen year old being involved
in a robbery was his character,which will fully delve into shortly, along
with other known details of the crimethat took place. Although his family maintained

(09:31):
at least some hope that Jared mightbe alive, Initially, every indication pointed
to homicide, especially if the friend'saccount of what happened bore even the slightest
ring of truth. But the storyJared's friend told of that night changed.
In another rendition, Jared and thefriend met some other young men at the

(09:54):
CVS parking lot. They got intothe back seat of a black Ford Fusion,
after which a verbal disagreement occurred.The friends said, gunshots were fired
by one of the men in thefront of the car. This took place,
the witness said, around ten fortypm. Jared's friend was able to

(10:16):
run out of the car, butJared never exited the vehicle and he has
never been seen again. In thefirst story he told, apparently getting into
this black Ford fusion was completely leftout, calling into question the validity and
truth of both versions. After theHouston Police became involved, they asked the

(10:43):
public for assistance in finding a manthat went by the name Bolt Suave,
the driver. Police said of theblack Ford fusion, what happened after Jared
Shavis last spoke with his mom thatFriday night is not clear at all really,
But when reddits, subreddits, andother online message boards began lighting up

(11:07):
with baseless theories, what happened tothe nineteen year old Air Force veteran became
further shrouded in mystery. This episodeof Gone Cold is brought to you by

(11:31):
Better Help. Years ago, whiledealing with a detrimental and debilitating loss,
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(11:54):
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(12:41):
today to get ten percent off yourfirst month. That's Better Help HLP dot
com Slash Gone Cold. With missingpersons cases, there's always some level of
hope that the individual is still outthere, and to be fair, they
usually are and they're usually found quick. But for Jared's family, they absolutely

(13:07):
know that if he were still alive, he would have found a way back
to them. They were close.Jared's family was everything to him, and
he had a new addition to thefamily to look forward to. The nineteen
year old has a boy named Amir. Amir was born after Jared went missing

(13:28):
and turned five years old. Thisyear. In twenty twenty three, Jared
wasn't there for his son's birth andhas never held his child. It's been
speculated online that Jared couldn't handle allthat was going on in his life and
ran away to avoid facing the responsibilitiesof being a new father again. His

(13:52):
family is certain that that is nottrue, and that there is no way
Jared would ever abandon a mere Thereis no indication that this could be the
case anyway, only amateur sleuthing basedupon no facts whatsoever. Because of Jared's
character and what they know about whattook place the night he went missing,

(14:13):
his family can't help but think thatJared was murdered that day back in January
of twenty eighteen. But how andwhy are seemingly impossible questions to answer at
this point unless someone comes forward orperhaps comes clean. Proof that Jared Wayne

(14:33):
Chavis didn't simply up and disappear onhis own anyway can be found by looking
no further than the young man's life. A few years ago, Gone Cold
spoke with his cousin Latronica at lengthfor earlier episodes we produced about Jared.
We fear and feel strongly that somethingtragic has happened to him, Latronica told

(14:58):
us sometimes we use past tense whenwe're talking about him, not because we've
given up searching, but because weknow the type of person he was.
Foul play Jared's family unanimously believes isinvolved in his disappearance. Speaking to Latronica

(15:18):
about what type of person Jared wasgives you the sense that he would never
be involved in any sort of robberybeyond he himself being the victim. While
will explore the robbery theory further comingup, almost all the evidence negating the
possibility that Jared was involved in acriminal act can also be applied as evidence

(15:41):
against any theory suggesting he took offto avoid the responsibility of his forthcoming family.
By all accounts, he was caring, generous, ambitious, athletic,
independent, and strong willed. Hehad been plans for the future that presented

(16:02):
themselves in high school, where Jaredwas a football player and honor roll student.
He wanted a career and his ownfamily, something he was well on
the way to creating, and somethinghe often conveyed through posts he'd make on
his social media accounts. Jared hadambitions, and he always set out to

(16:23):
achieve his goals without letting anything standin his way. We come from a
very small town of about nine thousandpeople, Latronica told us. Everybody sort
of knows everyone, But there werepeople in this town who knew Jared and
who he had close relationships with thatI didn't know. That's the type of

(16:45):
person he was. Latronica described Jaredas personable, outgoing, hard working,
and as an old soul able toconnect, able to connect with people across
different age groups, sometimes folks threeand four times his age. He was
the favorite student of teachers from kindergartenup. Latronica said, people just loved

(17:11):
him. He made himself visible.When her parents came to visit Latronica and
Abu Dhabi, Jared called her momvia video chat about seventeen years old.
At this point, Jared had paintedthe outside of her house. It was
the type of person he was,Latronica told us. He was the nephew,

(17:33):
she said, who would go tohis aunt's mow the lawn and even
paint the house. He always madehimself of service to others. Jared grew
up in Franklin, a small cityin South Louisiana. He excelled in school
academics and athletics, and when hegraduated high school, he decided to join

(17:56):
the Air Force, but he soonrealized it wasn't the right fit for him.
For her, Latronica explained to us, college was the way out of
small town life, but for Jared, it was the military. Unfortunately,
he hadn't really thought it through.Jared was strong minded and strong willed,

(18:19):
someone who likes to be in controlof his own situations and surroundings. It
was most likely the rigidity and strictrule following of the Air Force, Latronica
said that turned him off of itso quickly. Being told when to wake
up, when to move, tomake your bed, and how where and

(18:41):
when to do everything else was somethingthat was not going to work in any
long term way for Jared, Soafter only about ten months of service,
he got an honorable discharge. Detailsof how are not known to us.
Jared was a good kid, hisfather Willie told this podcast, just trying

(19:03):
to explore life. While he wasstill in the Air Force, Jared met
and began dating a fellow cadet.When he disappeared, she was still serving
and pregnant with Amir, Jared's child. She and Jared were still dating,
and he often posted on social mediaabout settling down, finding a good career,

(19:26):
and starting a family with his girlfriend. It was, without a doubt
the path he was on. Jaredwas looking forward to being a dad,
but he never got to hold hisbaby boy. Being born after his father
disappeared perhaps sent Amir down a veryspecific path of his own. Described as

(19:51):
an independent child, Amir was moreinterested in exploring and learning than being held
and doated on as a baby,characteristics that could be considered genetically handed down
by the father he's never known,or a result of that absence itself.
Either way, the characteristics and thefact that he looks just like as daddy

(20:15):
helped Jared's mother and father cope withthe uncertain loss of their son. Amir
is a driving force for the familyto keep pushing for answers, to keep
fighting to find out what really happenedto Jared. Some have speculated that Jared
simply got caught up in a situationhe could not get out of, suggesting

(20:38):
that his possible role in a crimejust kind of happened a perfect storm of
timing and bad company, but hisfriends and family couldn't be clearer Jared Chavis
was no follower. He would nothave sold out his principles over a little
peer pressure or even if he wasthreatened. This particular personality trait, however,

(21:03):
admirable and honorable, only further ledhis family to believe early on that
something terrible had happened to him.Still, because of a specific crime occurring
not far from the CBS drug storewhere Jared was supposedly last seen, and
the fact that the Houston Police werereporting his car was involved in a robbery,

(21:27):
his family had no choice but toentertain the possibility he'd done something out
of character. It was not onlya scenario that confused them by taking everything
they knew about Jared and twisting,turning and stretching that into something they didn't
even recognize, but also a scenarioWillie Angela and the rest of Jared's family

(21:52):
simply did not believe, and forgood reason. When searching for news articles
about Jared Chavis's case on Google,in the earliest reports after he went missing,

(22:15):
you'll find a lot of talk aboutthe possibility he was involved in an
attempted robbery on the night of hisdisappearance. This is something that it seems
was very seriously considered by the HoustonPolice Department, and it's not for nothing.
Just down West Timer Road from theCBS drug store parking lot where according

(22:38):
to the friend of Jared Chavis,gunfire erupted in a black Ford fusion after
a disagreement, an attempted robbery occurred. According to the Houston Police website,
on Friday January twelfth, twenty eighteen, at around eleven o five pm,
two men jumped twenty two year oldman named William and held him at gunpoint

(23:03):
in a shopping center parking lot.The man demanded William's wallet after assaulting him.
One of the men then shot Williamin the arm and then both fled
the scene. The victim went intoa check Casher store at eighty nine hundred
Westheimer Road and called police, whoresponded to the scene in minutes. The

(23:26):
suspects in this shooting slash attempted robberywere both black males, and each wore
a hoodie, one black and onered. Both were approximately five feet eleven
inches tall. Within days of thisincident occurring and upon considering, Jared went

(23:47):
missing. The same night, theHouston Police Department told the Chavis family that
Jared may have been involved in thatattempted robbery. It's unclear exactly why or
how stly the cops believed the twocases were linked, but news outlets spared
no effort in their attempts to suggesta connection. That much is certain.

(24:11):
However, no detail has been providedby police or media that suggests an even
tenuous reason to believe there is one. It's a stretch that Jared Chavis was
involved in the attempted robbery slash shooting, but the fact that he was thought
to have been wearing a red hoodiethe last time he was seen, and

(24:32):
that at five feet nine inches Jared'smost reported height at the time to the
suspects are perhaps factors, but thoseseem to be the only similarities, and
one may not even be true.Judging by official missing persons data released by
police and others, Jared Chavis islisted at five feet seven inches tall.

(24:56):
That's considerably shorter than the feet eleveninches of the attempted robbers. Even ignoring
the evidence that suggests Jared's personality wouldnot have allowed him to take part in
such a crime, doubt can befound, and virtually every other aspect for
one. Jared's family told us thathe had plenty of money in his bank

(25:19):
account. He was not under anypressure or any desperate need to rob a
guy who probably didn't have much.Though the close proximity of the crime and
Jared's disappearance might be a coincidence hardto ignore in a place like Mineral Wells,
Texas, meaning a small, relativelylow crime city, it is far

(25:44):
from unheard of in the behemoth cityof Houston, the city that is most
often at the top of the state'sviolent crime rate, by leaps and bounds.
If the shooting at or near theCBS parking lot took place at thirty
nine pm, the time the HoustonPolice are reporting that the gunshots went off

(26:06):
that might have killed Jared, hecould not have taken part in the attempt
at robbery and shooting of William,which occurred at eleven o five pm,
according to the Houston Police. Further, considering that Jared's disappearance was assigned to
a homicide detective relatively quickly, andthat they continually maintain the ten thirty nine

(26:29):
pm timeline, it appears they havereason to believe he was the victim of
foul play. Their lack of mentioningthe attempted robbery in later reports, suggests
that perhaps police no longer theorize aconnection. At the time of this recording
in September of twenty twenty three,five years have passed since Jared Chavis went

(26:53):
missing. One of the organizations that'sbeen the most active in helping Jared's family
get the word out about his disappearanceis Crime Stoppers of Houston. They printed
up and passed out flyers and heldmultiple media events. In twenty nineteen,
Gone Cold spoke with Andy Kahan,the director of Victim Services and victim Advocacy

(27:19):
for Crime Stoppers of Houston, whowas working directly with the Chavis family by
accompanying them to media interviews and passingout flyers around where Jared was last seen.
A little over a year before wespoke, Andy told us crime Stoppers
of Houston implemented a new program tospotlight missing persons cases and offer rewards for

(27:42):
any information leading to the arrest ofthe suspect or suspects involved in a case
assuming that a criminal act took place. Using Jared Chavis's case as a prime
example, he explained detectives working thecase would get permission to issue a reward
flyer. Crime Stoppers of Houston willthen crank out a rewards flyer asking for

(28:07):
information and offering a reward, sometimesupwards of five thousand dollars for any information
that would lead to an arrest inthe case. Whenever they enhance the reward.
Whenever there's additional reward money that's comingin, say from a private business
or family member, it gives crimeStoppers the opportunity to get the case back

(28:30):
out in front of the public,which happened in Jared's case at that time.
Andy continued, Jared's family had kickedin an additional amount, what they
call a supplemental reward, which boostedthe reward in this case to ten thousand
dollars. With crime Stopper's newly implementedprogram, a press release is issued and

(28:53):
the case goes out over the socialmedia accounts of Crime Stoppers of Houston and
relevant law enforcement agencies. The casealso hits all local media, and he
said, and the word gets outfast. On the one year anniversary of
his disappearance, Jared's family, alongwith Andy Kahan, held a vigil and

(29:17):
memorial ceremony, which he said gavethem another proverbial bite of the Apple.
Andy's job, he told Gone Cold, is to make sure Crime Stoppers of
Houston is doing everything they possibly canto make sure not just the city of
Houston, not just the state ofTexas, but the entire nation is aware

(29:38):
of Jared's case. All it takes, after all, is one person out
there to come forward with good informationthe public, and he is fond of
saying are the best eyes and earsbecause they're the ones who actually know what
happened. The idea is to putit out there at the right moment in

(29:59):
time when you'll catch the right person'sattention and hopefully strike a chord of conscience
where they'll do the right thing andcome forward. And he said with Jared's
case, he went on, thereare tons of questions and few answers.
It frustrates authorities and his torture forfamily as someone who has worked with the

(30:22):
families of murder victims for over twentyfive years, and he said in a
homicide, grief is intensified when justiceis lacking. Four years after Andy Kahan
of Crime Stoppers of Houston spoke thosewords to us, Jared Chavis and his
family have not seen justice. Onthe next episode of Gone Cold. We'll

(30:47):
talk more about the circumstances of Jared'sdisappearance and learn more about what his family
and others are doing to find outthe truth of what really happened. If
you have any information about the disappearanceof Jared Wayne Chavis, please contact the
Houston Police Department's Missing Persons Unit atseven one three seven three one five two

(31:12):
two three. You can also giveinformation while remaining anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers
of Houston at seven one three twoto two eight four seven seven. You
may be eligible for a ten thousanddollars reward by providing information leading to the
arrest or indictment of an individual orindividuals involved in Jared's disappearance. We'd like

(31:40):
to thank Willie, Latronica and Andyfor their contributions to this episode. This
episode was co written by Christina norIf you have not already, look for
Gone Cold on Instagram, Facebook,and Twitter by searching Gone Cold and looking
for the Texas logo. If you'dlike to support the show and get the

(32:02):
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(32:23):
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with information about a case here's theshow and comes forward with what they know.
Every little bit helps, and weappreciate y'all support immensely, however you

(32:45):
choose to give it. Sources forthis episode can be found in the episode's
show notes. Thanks for listening,y'all.