Sunday, the search continued for missing 33-year-old Texas Tech student Jeffrey Hargrove, over a week after he was last seen.
Hargrove’s family flew in from Florida to help in the search– putting their lives and jobs on hold– as have some of his friends from around the country. After a week of non-stop searching, his family is still asking anyone in the community with answers about his disappearance to come forward.
Sunday Hargrove’s family searched on the Texas Tech campus, in hopes that he might return to a familiar place if he became lost or disoriented.
“Somewhere, somebody must have heard something, it’s hard to imagine he would have just disappeared from the middle of town and then nothing,” said John Barrs , Jeffrey’s stepdad.
Hargrove returned to Texas Tech this fall to finish his last semester of his undergraduate Business degree. He had attended the Texas Tech v. University of Texas football game on November 5 and planned to stay for the night at the Overton Hotel near the stadium. His mom spoke with him that evening after he’d checked into the hotel, at that time he said he planned to go out to grab dinner. That was the last communication Hargrove had with any of his family members, and after the hours of silence, they began to grow worried.
They explained that Hargrove’s cell phone, wallet, and room key were left in his hotel room, but he had vanished. Lubbock Police declared Hargrove to be an endangered missing person last week. LPD is actively investigating his disappearance. On Sunday, LPD had no updated information to release about Hargrove’s case.
Hargrove’s family has launched search efforts of their own, combing through the Texas Tech campus and the areas around the Overton to search for any clues. They’ve printed out flyers with Hargrove’s photo and information on them, they’ve also received some help from community members and a volunteer search team riding on horseback.
“We’re hoping to get EquiSearch involved, they’re just waiting for the Lubbock Police Department to invite them in, we’re hoping that will kick off pretty quick. We’re searching neighborhoods, fields, streams, ravines,” Barrs said.
Hargrove’s family has run through many possibilities of what could have happened to Hargrove, but they’re not sure at this point which is the most plausible. Not knowing where he is and what he’s going through is taking a toll on them.
“Then at night I wonder –it gets cold here at night– he doesn’t have a jacket or anything. It’s really devastating for all of us,” said Hargrove’s mother Diane Barrs said of the entire ordeal. She has wondered whether he could have traveled with someone to another town by now.
“So wherever you are, just come back home, if someone has seen you somewhere, if you’re out walking, maybe to the next town, or if someone picked you up, gave you a ride out of town somehow, give us a call, let us know you’re safe and that’s all we ask,” she said.
Hargrove’s family explained that he only needs to complete a few more weeks of class to graduate, and that faculty at Texas Tech told them their son was earning an A in his final class. Hargrove’s mother doesn’t believe that he would travel somewhere without his wallet and phone, and risk compromising the degree he’d been working for.
Diane Barrs explained that Hargrove loved attending Texas Tech football games, and that he would wear Red Raider gear with pride, sending photos to his family back in Florida. She hopes the public keeps an eye out in some of the places he would frequent.
“He would go to Whataburger, and he would go to Rudy’s he was on his way to Nick’s [Sports Bar] supposedly after the game–that was the last we heard from him– he would go to Jimmy Johns,” she said.
“It is a nightmare,” Ms. Barrs continued. “When I sleep and when I go to get up, I think was that a dream or a nightmare? And you think, no, that’s really happening. We just keep looking and hoping, we’re staying strong, and we just want everyone to look at his flyers and see if they see him somewhere.”
His family plans to continue searching, in hopes that their efforts will help someone else come forward with information that will lead them to Hargrove.
“We just hope that if anyone sees or hears anything that they’ll please call, because we’d rather have a lead that might not be 100 percent than not have anything at all,” John Barrs said.
If you know anything about Jeffrey or his whereabouts, you can call Lubbock Police Crime Line anonymously at (806)741-1000. If you want to help in the search effort, Hargrove’s family welcomes any assistance. Send them a message on their Facebook page.