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Robert McLaughlin always carried his recordings wherever he went. So when they were discovered abandoned in his room and he missed a show, his mother sensed something was amiss.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Robert McLaughlin was a man with a dream.
He could weave verses and beats into stories about his life, but now that story has become a mystery.
“You can’t convince me that he simply walked away from what his life was centered around,” stated his mother, Angela Brantley. “His dream and aim was to be involved in the music industry.”
Brantley recalls that Robert was at her house that morning watching the Jaguars vs. Ravens game as they played in London. Everything seemed normal, and after the game, he mentioned he was heading out to play basketball with some friends and then left.
The next day, he was supposed to take his car to the mechanic to get the tires changed, but didn’t show up.
“When he didn’t show up, that’s when they called me that he didn’t show up for the appointment,” Brantley said.
She called his work, and he wasn’t there either, so her concern grew. She called his roommate, who said Robert was not in the apartment, but she found something concerning.
“His cellphone was left behind. His roommate said he always takes a bookbag with his rapping music with him and those items were left behind,” said Detective Lashante Whitaker with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Missing Persons Unit.
Det. Whitaker is now the lead on the case and has been working closely with retired detective Tonya Porter, who was first assigned the case in 2017.
“Even his friends I interviewed said he didn’t have any beef with anyone,” Porter said.
Porter says there were no signs of struggle in the apartment and they searched the area on the Northside.
“We had the air unit fly over the creek which was behind the apartments where he lived,” Porter said.
Angela Brantley says neighbors at the complex told her that Robert was last seen talking with two men and a woman in a black Charger before driving out to a corner store.
“They came to me telling me a black Charger car and then at the store talking about the pick up truck,” Brantley said.
But detectives said that information and description has never been relayed to them from those neighbors at the apartments.
Leads dried up and the case has been at a standstill. Brantley said she has no idea if her son is dead or alive, but she hopes he is still out there.
She says Robert suffered a brain injury in 2014 after being hit by a truck and though he had been deemed mentally competent after the crash, she wonders if he may have had another accident somehow and he doesn’t know who he is.
The one thing she is certain of is that he would not have given up his music.
“He would not have walked away with all he had going on with as far as the performances around town,” Brantley said.
Investigators say as we approach eight years, any new information could help move this case forward.
“I truly believe somebody knows something, they just didn’t come forward,” Porter said.
If you know anything about the disappearance of Robert McLaughlin, please contact the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 904-630-0500 or CrimeStoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS(8477).
