(NewsNation) — After an Arkansas man disappeared, an eerie message turned out to be an unrelated prank, and for years, his family has searched for answers.

Jamie Valdez’s family describes him as a lovable, amazing man.

“That’s really what Jamie was, a big old teddy bear with lots of hugs,” said his sister Shawn Claiborne.

Jamie Valdez left home and never returned

Valdez left home in Booneville, Arkansas, on June 9, 2021. He and his new wife, Anna, had argued about her picking up an extra shift at work on a day they were supposed to spend together.

The couple had been married for about a month when Claiborne got a Facebook message asking if she had seen or talked to her brother.

“She said he had taken $600 from her mother and threw some clothes in the car and had said he was going to Ozar, which was where his daughter lived at the time,” she said.

Claiborne said she’d heard from a woman who saw Valdez in Ozark and who had invited him to dinner with her husband.

“The lady he had dinner with said that Jamie had said he was going back to Booneville. I was never told that he made it back to the house,” Claiborne said.

Jamie Valdez’s vehicle appeared to offer clues

Valdez’s 2010 blue Chevy Equinox was found at a bluff hole in Sugar Grove, about 10 to 15 minutes from Booneville.

Booneville Chief of Police Benjamin Villareal said the back seats of the car were down, like someone had been lying in the vehicle.

“The next odd thing was in the motor engine compartment,” Villareal said. “Someone had dismantled the computer system and unhooked the battery in the engine area.”

The condition of the vehicle was also strange.

“The seat was torn; there was a strange message on the outside that said ‘He is near. Help me,'” Claiborne said.

An eerie message was a dead end

Police sprang into action after seeing the eerie message in the back window. But it turns out the message was a prank.

“During our investigation, we found that some kids had gone swimming at that bluff hole and had written that message,” Villareal said.

The group of young people came forward and told the police department they were responsible for the message and had no idea the car belonged to a missing person.

Searching for Jamie Valdez

Police searched for Valdez, using dogs to try to locate him and dragging areas of water, but found nothing significant.

“They didn’t find his wallet, they didn’t find his phone, they didn’t find his keys,” Claiborne said.

There have been many theories about what may have happened to Valdez.

“There are some other theories out there, that he was shot and put in a well or shot and thrown off a cliff,” Claiborne said.

She fears that Valdez met with foul play. She says she won’t have peace until she finds an answer.

“I can’t let go of this,” Claiborne said. “My brother’s life did mean something, and whoever did it needs to pay.”