The work vehicle of a missing Columbus man has been found abandoned off a highway near Waynesboro.
Antiquon Harris, 35, who works as a delivery driver for Corporate Dining Concepts in Columbus, disappeared on Monday while on a route to Northport and Cottondale, Alabama.
On Wednesday, troopers with the Mississippi Highway Patrol found the vehicle he’d been driving on the side of the road, Capt. Brent Swan with the Columbus Police Department told The Dispatch.
Police are now investigating the incident as a missing persons case.
Swan said there is no way of knowing right now whether Harris is a victim or a suspect in the case.
“We have absolutely no reason to believe one way or the other whether he took the van intentionally,” Swan said.
Harris has worked as a driver for the cafe management company’s local office on Tuscaloosa Road since Jan. 3, according to company regional vending manager John Ball. Corporate Dining Concepts provides vending, catering, food facility design and other food-related services for businesses in multiple states.
Company President Robert Shelby told The Dispatch other employees described Harris as “a good guy” and a hard worker. For him to disappear is “totally out of character,” he said.
Harris typically drove the route about four times per week, Shelby added, but he never made it to either Northport or Cottondale after leaving Monday morning.
A supervisor went looking for Harris on his route on Tuesday and called his phone, which kept going to voicemail, Shelby said. Eventually Ball talked to family members before filing a missing persons report with CPD.
“Of course we’re concerned, and we’re just hoping this is something that’s not serious,” Shelby said.
Carol Harris, Antiquon’s mother, said she last saw her son sometime between 6 and 7 p.m. Sunday. He doesn’t have a history of running off, she insisted.
“We’re concerned and we’re looking for him, and we don’t know where he (is),” Carol Harris said. “We really would like to find him.
“He’s a loving person, and we just want him to come home. That’s all,” she later added. “…It’s been three days and he’s still missing.”
CPD officers arrested Harris in June 2016 for burglary of a dwelling, domestic violence-aggravated assault and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon — all of which are felonies. A grand jury has not yet indicted Harris on those charges, court records indicate.
Harris was convicted in Lowndes County Circuit Court in 2004 for conspiracy to distribute marijuana, and he was sentenced to 10 years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He was not incarcerated for the entire length of the sentence, according to a Lowndes County Adult Detention Center official.
Swan acknowledged the 2016 charges but said it was too early to tell if they were related to Harris’ disappearance.
“We are being objective in this investigation until we talk to Mr. Harris,” he said. “We don’t want to assume anything.”
Ball said Corporate Dining Concepts hired Harris on the referral of WIN Job Center. He said he thought the center had conducted background checks and drug tests for applicants, but he told The Dispatch he has since learned that wasn’t the case.
Therefore, the company did not know about Harris’ criminal history, Ball added.
“We had no idea,” he said. “… We typically wouldn’t hire felons to do this kind of work.”
Carol Harris described her son as 6-foot-2 and about 150 pounds with dark hair. She added that his family — including a 15-year-old son — all miss him and want him home.
“We want him to know we love him,” she said.
Anyone with information is asked to call CPD at 662-244-3500 or Golden Triangle Crime Stoppers at 800-530-7151.
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