James Ryan Taylor can talk about anything.
“If he wanted to talk about rocks, he could talk about rocks,” his mother, Laura Taylor, said. “If he wanted to talk about the news, he could talk about the news.”
On July 14, her loving, outgoing son — the “clown” of the Taylor family, as his niece Karli Taylor affectionately described him — came back to their house on Plymouth Road in Columbus to shower and eat a big supper. Ryan, 39, was joking around, as usual, before heading out for the night.
“Go on, get out of here, boy,” Laura told her son lovingly. “You be careful. You be safe.”
“‘I’ll see you later, Mama,” Ryan replied.
But she hasn’t seen her son since. Ryan has been missing for more than a month, last seen at the Plaza Motel on The Island that evening. A phone call between 2 and 4 a.m. the following morning with his older brother Kevin was Ryan’s last communication before he disappeared, and the conversation was normal, Laura said.
She said she has no idea where Ryan is or what happened to him. Her “good-hearted” son loves his family, Karli said, and checked in with his ailing father, Mike, via text or in person every day before he went missing.
“This is just out of character completely for him not to let anyone know where he is or what’s going on,” Laura said.
Columbus Police Chief Fred Shelton said there are no updates on the case and that Taylor’s silver 2011 Ford Fiesta, license plate LTE 7723, hasn’t been found yet. Anyone with information on Taylor’s whereabouts can contact CPD at 662-244-3500 or Golden Triangle Crime Stoppers at 800-530-7151.
Laura said CPD and Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office are doing their best to locate Ryan and urged anyone with tips to contact the departments rather than her family, which has happened on occasion.
“They are diligently looking at each lead and trying to find him,” Laura said.
She said that not having heard from her son at all in six weeks has been heartbreaking and frustrating for the Taylor family.
“I just believe if it was possible that he would have gotten in touch with us,” she said.
That’s especially true given who Ryan is — someone never afraid to speak his mind.
“He’d tell you what he thought about a situation,” Laura said. “He didn’t beat around the bush about anything. He was just up front with you about anything.”
Karli, who saw her uncle at least three times a week before moving from Columbus to Hattiesburg in 2017, said she had good memories of riding four-wheelers together and hanging around the lake behind the Taylor house when she was young.
Ryan often spends time at the lake to fish; he just likes being outside, Laura said, whether it’s fishing, talking, grilling food or just sitting around. A Columbus High School graduate, he was laid off by United Furniture Industries of Amory this spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic, after which he spent even more time outdoors.
Karli said she remembers her uncle’s goofy personality shining through often. Once, during her visit to Columbus in 2018, Ryan put on an odd outfit just to go to the store: plaid pajamas, shorts and a short-sleeve shirt worn over a long-sleeve shirt — just for fun.
“He looked funny,” she said.
She made another trip to Columbus the weekend before Ryan went missing, as the family spent time together at the house and ate a big dinner prepared by Laura. Everything seemed normal.
Karli echoed her grandmother’s sentiment: Ryan going missing without a word was not at all like him, and she wants to see him back soon.
“I hope he pulls up any day,” Karli said.
Mike, who has been dealing with health problems for years, offered a message for the son who always checked in on him.
“Ryan, come home,” he said in a text message. “There is nothing so bad that we can’t get through it. Just call your mama or me, and we can help. We all love you and miss you.”
Laura has held out hope through six weeks without Ryan and says that will never change — she believes she will see her son again.
“Every morning, I think, ‘Well, maybe today’s the day he’ll call, or I’ll find out where he is,'” she said. “But I’m always hopeful. I’ll never lose hope, and I’ll always have faith that God’s going to do the right thing: He’s going to bring him home.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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