Search for young father from Maryland who disappeared in Ohio after watching Steelers game
A young father from Maryland has vanished after traveling to Ohio to watch a Pittsburgh Steelers game.
Phoenix Phillips, 24, was last seen at around 6 a.m. on Friday, October 2 in downtown Cleveland. The Cleveland Division of Police described the circumstances surrounding his disappearance as “concerning” in a missing poster shared to Facebook.
A body was pulled from the water near Jacobs Pavilion in downtown Cleveland at around 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, but officials have not yet said if the discovery is related to the missing man’s case.
BreeJanee Alford, a social worker with Cleveland Missing, told WEWS that she has met with Phillips’ worried family.
“They’re telling me that he’s a loving dad and he also loves the Steelers,” she said. “That’s why he came for the Browns game. The family is devastated.”
Police described Phillips as 6’1” and weighing around 170 lbs. He was last wearing a gray hoodie and beige pants, along with white tennis shoes, a second missing poster released by authorities states. The force reiterated that Phoenix is not from Cleveland and noted that he could be “traveling on foot.”
Speaking to WEWS, Sergeant Freddy Diaz said authorities are still trying to piece together the circumstances of his disappearance.
“He’s from out of state, so he was in town visiting and at some point kind of got separated from the person he was with, and after that, you know, we’re still trying to determine what actually happened,” Diaz said.
The missing man’s mother, Amanda Phillips, told the outlet she texted her son after the game on Thursday, and again at 7.30 a.m. the following morning. The phone rang minutes later.
“And one of the guys that he had met up with throughout the night, he had found his phone. He dropped it,” she revealed. On Facebook, she said the device has been handed over to the police.
The concerned mom also shed some light on the circumstances leading up to her son’s disappearance having spoken to a friend he had traveled with.
“His friend went back to the hotel, and Phoenix stayed out with these other guys that they had met up with throughout the night,” she said.
Sylvia Colon, the founder of Cleveland Missing, told Fox News Digital that Phillips had traveled to the city from the Baltimore area.
The U.S. Coast Guard received the reports of a man’s body being found in the water near Jacobs Pavilion Tuesday, the agency told Cleveland.com.
