Christopher “Cole” Thomas was 22 years old when he vanished into the early morning darkness near downtown Benson, North Carolina, on November 25, 2016, and he has not been seen since. The Florida native had stopped his car near the intersection of East Morgan Street and North Elm Street around 3 a.m. that day, and according to his traveling companions, he abruptly ran off after pulling over. Nearly ten years later, his family is still searching for his body, and the case remains an open homicide investigation in the eyes of North Carolina authorities.
Thomas had only recently moved from Florida to Pine Island, Minnesota, in October 2016 to take an electrical apprenticeship, working at a commercial solar farm, according to CBS 17. He had graduated at the top of his class and, per The Charley Project, had been an honor student at Suwannee High School in Live Oak before studying sports medicine at the University of Florida. Just weeks after starting his new job, he agreed to ride along on a roughly 1,100-mile road trip to North Carolina with two coworkers, Jeremy Brian Carpenter and Julian Valles Jr., who asked Thomas to drive because neither of them had a valid driver's license, the station reports.
A Detour to Mount Olive Before Benson
Before the group ever reached Benson, investigative reports from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation indicate Thomas spent several hours in the Mount Olive area of neighboring Wayne County, where authorities allege a drug transaction took place. Court records cited by the station state that Jeremy and Julian had told others they were driving to North Carolina to buy methamphetamine, and that the pair later threw the drugs out of the car window after the deal was done. Investigators are considering the possibility that Thomas's disappearance was a drug deal gone wrong.
By the time the car reached downtown Benson, Thomas had stopped the vehicle, and his coworkers reported him missing that same night. But their account of what happened changed over the course of the investigation, according to the report, raising questions that have never been fully resolved. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Benson Police Department at 919-894-2091.
Indictments, Then a Reversal
In July 2017, a grand jury indicted four men on felony charges of concealment of a death: coworkers Carpenter and Valles, along with two Wayne County residents, Anthony Ridell James Jr. and Rudolfo DeLeon Jr. Three of the four also faced felony obstruction of justice charges, according to JoCo Report. In January 2018, Johnston County Superior Court Judge Tom Lock reduced bail bonds for three of the defendants from as high as $750,000 down to between $30,000 and $50,000, noting they had already served nearly as much jail time as they would face if convicted of the felony concealment charge, as reported by the Associated Press.
Then, in September 2019, Johnston County District Attorney Susan Doyle dismissed all pending charges against all four suspects. Doyle explained that dropping the current charges was necessary to avoid compromising any future homicide prosecution, a legal strategy tied to North Carolina's double jeopardy protections. Under North Carolina General Statute § 14-401.22, failing to notify law enforcement of a death or secretly disposing of a body is generally a Class I felony, but that charge escalates to a Class D felony if someone conceals a death knowing it was not the result of natural causes.
Searches Turn Up Nothing, Reward Remains
Multi-agency search efforts by the Benson Police Department and the NCSBI have combed swamplands and wooded areas across Johnston and Wayne counties, including Mingo Swamp, but have failed to turn up any human remains or personal belongings tied to Thomas. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation continues to offer a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for Thomas's disappearance.
After the charges were dropped in 2019, Thomas's father, Chris Thomas, said the family would keep conducting independent searches and working with community advocates to find his son, according to the Thomasville Times-Enterprise. Nearly ten years after Thomas vanished near Benson, that search continues, with four men once indicted in the case now facing no charges at all, and the true circumstances of his disappearance still unresolved.
