KEYSTONE HEIGHTS, Fla. — Just hours before he disappeared on May 3 of 2021, Eric Paul Akridge, who went by "Paul," left a foreboding message on his sister's voicemail.
Akridge had been worried someone was after him.
"If you are ever wanted by a million people, you want to know what it's about," he said in the voicemail.
Three days before he went missing, Celena Julius says she spoke with her brother on the phone.
"So, he said, 'They are trying to get me and when they do, you will not have me.' He said, 'They will probably kill me and I don't want you to live out the rest of your life not knowing what happened to me,'" Julius said.
She asked him who was after him.
"He referred to a group of people, he didn't give any names," Julius said." He was trying to figure that out himself."
She knows he spent the morning of May 3, 2021, working on his car in the Country Living neighborhood in Melrose. He then went to his parent's home to borrow their car and drove to Palatka for car parts. Then at 3:09 p.m., he left the first voicemail.
Six minutes later, Akridge left another voicemail, telling his oldest sister he was coming to her house.
"The problem with your neighborhood is getting in and out of there. I can make it somewhere down the road from there probably, eventually, and I will call you," Akridge said.
The last image of Paul was captured by a surveillance video at 5:10 p.m. at his sister's Keystone Heights home. He had a hat on and his face was covered as he was dropping off his parents' car.
From there, he vanished.
"For days, we drove the roads looking for him, looking in dumpsters, looking in woods, looking in lakes, looking in ponds," Julius said. "We really hunted, for miles and miles and miles."
His family reported him as missing to the Clay County Sheriff's Office. The case is now in the hands of Detective Daniel Cassani who says he believes after Paul left his sister's home, he was met with foul play.
"We believe somebody picked him up and took him somewhere where something possibly happened to him," said Cassani.
Cassani says Paul was a man who loved his family, but he struggled with addiction to narcotics. Paul's mother, Denise Akridge, says growing up he was a happy, competitive young man who played college baseball and was closely bonded to his family, but addiction got a hold of him.
"He got off on the wrong road, but he spent many years on the right road and he made many, many friends," tells Denise Akridge.
At the time of his disappearance, Paul did have active warrants for the sale of narcotics, as Cassani says early on he felt something was wrong.
"There were way too many stories of something happening to Paul and somebody doing something to Paul. Also, the fact that he was very close with his family, he would speak to them even if he was using drugs," Cassani said. "It was weird for him to go that long with no contact with family."
Cassani told First Coast News he believes Paul was murdered in a robbery gone wrong and even after three years, he still considers the case an active investigation.
"We do have a certain group of people that we are looking into that kept company with Paul, that were heavily involved with Paul's narcotic use and distribution and we are still actively looking into those people," Cassani said.
The detective says there is still a $17,000 reward for information leading to the location of Paul and he wants to hear from those in the community who have first-hand knowledge of what happened.
It's something Paul's family prays for everyday.
"If we could just end it and find him, if they would just let us not wake up every day with this aching heart looking for him, we could put it behind us and move forward," Julius said. "The pain will always be there, but it is so hard."
Then, Paul's mother could finally lay her son to rest.
"I am at the end of my days and I would like to know what happened to my son," she said. " It is cruel, not to let me know."
But for now, the search continues.
"We still have a missing person, we still have a person missing from his family," Cassani said. "Doesn't matter what he was involved in, we want to make sure we can bring him home and after that, bring justice for Paul."
If you know anything about the disappearance of Paul Akridge, contact Det. Cassani at the Clay County Sheriff's Office at 904-264-6512.