Jason Landry: College student vanished on way home for Christmas

(NewsNation) — New dashcam footage shows video of the scene where college student Jason Landry’s car was found, with many of his belongings found nearby. But his family is still searching for answers as to what happened to Landry?

Jason Landry disappears

Jason Landry was 21 years old in 2020 when he packed his car and left his college apartment at Texas State University, heading home for Christmas. But somewhere between leaving school and arriving at his family’s home just outside of Houston, things took a wrong turn.

Jason’s car was found on a long gravel road in Luling, Texas, wrecked with the keys still in the ignition and the headlights on. But there was no sign of Jason.

The Landry family found no clues as to what happened to Jason, only that he was missing and that they believe he is possibly dead. But with so little evidence, there are many questions about what happened on Salt Flat Road and how a college student could just vanish.

The phone woke Kent Landry up at 2 a.m. on Dec. 14, 2020, with the news every parent dreads. Highway Patrol had found his son’s car wrecked along a gravel road in central Texas but Jason wasn’t inside.

A former defense attorney turned pastor, Kent was stunned by what he found when he drove to the crash site.

“I’ve been to plenty of crime scenes and I was expecting police and searchers, and there was no one,” Kent told NewsNation.

Kent made a startling discovery, finding his son’s flip-flops and a pile of clothes, some of them bloody, strewn across the road.

“I could tell they were Jason’s clothes, because Jason wears crazy socks, bright yellow Spongebob, and I knew those socks and I recognized his clothes,” Kent said.

Temperatures were near freezing the night Jason disappeared and the clothes could have been lifesaving in the cold. Seeing them left behind made Kent wonder what his son was doing so far off the highway and why was nobody looking for him.

“It’s frustrating because we don’t have hard answers,” Kent said.

Law enforcement missteps

Caldwell County Captain Jeff Ferry admitted things weren’t done perfectly in the investigation.

“There was no inventory conducted, I don’t know why, that’s a highway patrol question,” he said. “The trooper does not go into the vehicle, I don’t know why, that’s a highway patrol question. The trooper does not place a hold on the vehicle, I don’t know why, that’s a highway patrol question.”

It’s those first hours and the action taken — or not taken — that haunt Kent.

“You visualize your child walking down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, not knowing anyone, looking for help,” he said. “That’s the part that hurts.”

Eventually, searchers did come, blanketing the nearby woods and farmland, checking abandoned homes and outbuildings for miles. There were seven large-scale search parties in the months after Jason disappeared, involving hundreds of people, canine units, horses and drones.

Still, searchers turned up nothing, not a single confirmed sign of Jason.

People trained with Texas search and rescue used artificial intelligence and nearly a year’s worth of drone images to check six points of interest at six places where computers thought Jason might be.

Searchers did find bones but none of them were human. That leaves no definitive information proving one thing or disproving another.

Landry family still wants answers

While cell phone data did track some of Jason’s movements, Ferry said his department has no evidence a crime occurred and no evidence that anyone else was involved, or that Jason was harmed or kidnapped.

“We’ve heard drug cartel theories, we’ve heard alien, there’s just nothing that takes us in a direction outside of here,” Ferry said.

The Landry family isn’t sold.

“We just don’t have enough to know,” Kent said. “I don’t like to think there was a criminal, but then I don’t like to think he was just wandering off and something happened either.”

Jason’s mother, Lisa Landry, doesn’t talk publicly about the case very often but she said she often imagines her son walking through the door or calling her with answers.

“I guess I don’t expect a phone call from him,” Lisa said. “But sometimes I do imagine him coming home.”

A mother’s intuition tells Lisa that one day, she’ll have the answers she needs for peace. But until then, Kent and Lisa are relying on each other and their faith to guide them through the search for their son, now missing for more than three years.

There is a $20,000 reward for information in the case. If you have any information that can help solve the mystery of Jason’s disappearance, you can contact the Texas Attorney General’s Office at 512-936-0742 or leave an anonymous tip at 726-777-1359.