Ash Kelley

That's how they planned to approach the case, but before the day was over, that plan changed dramatically.

After Mark's friends filed the report with the South Padre police, they returned to the hotel and they called Mark's parents, obviously, to let them know that he was missing.

The call no parent wants to get.

And the call, like, it's got to be so stressful to send your kids on spring break.

And also, here's the other thing.

These aren't kids.

He's a 21-year-old, so they didn't have a lot of say in if you went or if you didn't.

It's their kid.

And it's like...

You sit there and you're like, it won't happen to my kid.

Right.

And then when the worst happens, I don't even know how you wrap your brain around it.

It must just not feel like real life.

No, because you're like, no, this is literally the worst case scenario.

How is it actually happening?

Right.

So they had heard the news reports of people going missing along the Mexican border as it was all happening.

And they immediately worried that something bad had happened to their son once they realized he was one of those missing people.

So rather than wait to hear from the police, Jim called his brother Ken, who was a U.S.

customs agent, which was a great contact to him.