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() A 31-year-old father of two got on a plane to California from Georgia in July of 2021 and has not been seen by his family since, despite multiple trips to search for him.

Caleb Wells, known to his family and friends as Corey, never missed a birthday call to his family. Not until July 2021, when his mother’s birthday passed without contact.

“He always either makes me a silly video or calls and acts like he’s Ray Charles, or, you know, he never misses a birthday call or stops in,” said Natasha Wells Walker. “My birthday, July 16, when we didn’t get a call, we didn’t get nothing.”

Caleb Wells travels to California

The last time she saw her son was July 2, 2021. Wells left his home state of Georgia the next day and got on a plane to California.

Wells told his daughter Angeleah, now 15, that he was traveling with an acquaintance he knew from high school.

Walker told that Angeleah was wary about the trip.

“She said, ‘Daddy, I’ve got a bad feeling. [He] doesn’t care about you,'” Walker said. “They were each other’s nemesis in football, in school, they would like the same girls.”

She thinks the high school acquaintance told Wells he needed him to help rob someone.

Wells had a criminal history, but Walker said it was mostly related to his addictions. He started off smoking pot but eventually developed an addiction to methamphetamines.

When Wells left for California, he had relapsed.

“The streets just would not leave him alone. That fast money, that quick money, Caleb was even saved and baptized two weeks before he left,” Walker said. “It was like the devil just wouldn’t leave him alone. And he told his daughter, ‘This will be the last one, and we’ll be set.’ Because [his acquaintance] told Corey they could get up to $100,000 apiece.”

Caleb Wells’ travel companion returned alone

Walker said she knows her son made it to California but there has been no contact or activity on his social media since July 5, 2021.

About a week after Wells left for California, Walker ran into the acquaintance at his daughter’s birthday party in Georgia.

“It was like he saw a ghost. I could see his body language was as if, ‘Oh crap, there she is,” she said. “Caleb was supposed to have come back, and our cousin was like, ‘Where’s Corey?’ And he said he didn’t want to come back, and she said, ‘You’re lying.’ He left. Because he knew we knew something was wrong.”

Walker reported Wells missing about a week after that, when she didn’t hear from him on her birthday.

She had 1,500 flyers of Caleb made, but weeks grew into months with no sign of him.

Searching for Caleb Wells

In September of 2021, she decided to head to California herself to search for her son. Walker went to Motel 6 in Rowland Heights, where Wells and the acquaintance stayed while they were there.

“I saw footage that they were there, but without a warrant or legal papers, they wouldn’t let me record or even get the video that they had,” she said.

Walker traveled to California six times over two years looking for Wells with no luck.

In her latest message from the local sheriff, she was notified Wells had been added to the Department of Justice rolls for missing people in California.

Now, she’s clinging to hope and faith that she will someday get her son back home.

“We’ve had birthdays where we’ve released balloons. I put a Christmas tree up at our local park every year since 2021. I had to put it in God’s court because I told God, I did everything that you required me to do as a parent,” Walker said. “Now I have to put this in your court.”

Police have not named the person Wells traveled with as a person of interest or a suspect in the case.  Walker is waiting for answers.