Cumberland Co. deputies relaunch efforts in search for man missing 21 years

Earlier this week, WRAL reported the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office had issued a new search warrant, relaunching an effort to find clues to a homicide case more than two decades after a man disappeared in Hope Mills.

Although the search was triggered by new 'actionable information' in the case, three days of searching got the community and the family no closer to closure.

Officials got a tip Jacobs' body might be buried in a lot off Jackson Street in Hope Mills – but nothing was found. The sheriff's office conducted an extensive search, utilizing the power of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to image areas underground.

"Unfortunately, the search did not locate Kent Jacobs, but we discovered endless support from the community," the sheriff's office said. "The search for Kent Jacobs continues. Kent Jacobs has not been forgotten."

Jackie Jacobs, Kent Jacobs' sister, flew in from Seattle after learning about the new search for her brother who has been missing since 2002. She's very familiar with the house that once stood at 5437 Jackson Street.

"I think that the information that law enforcement received gave them, obviously, enough reason to want to come out here and do the amount of work that they did," she said.

The disappearance of Kent Jacobs has long been a mystery in Hope Mills. He vanished within 2 miles of his mother's home, in 2002. More than 10 years later, he was finally legally declared dead.

"Kent was the oldest of five children, the love of our lives," Jackie Jacobs said. "He was born with special needs, a very special human being."

The family believes robbery may have been a motivator.

"It is known to the public that Kent did have some money on him at the time, and we don't know if that is part of the reason that he disappeared or potentially related, but could be," Jackie Jacobs said.

This isn't the first or the last time investigators will search for Jacobs. During a previous extensive search, investigators got a tip he was buried inside a refrigerator. The last search involving the case was in June 2010, in which NC State University archeologists assisted.

Jackie Jacobs and her mother won't give up in finding out what happened to her brother.

A lot has changed in the area since Jacobs disappeared in 2002 – and now there are new people in the area hearing about the case for the very first time.

"Now that people are probably familiar with this case – if you hear anything or you know anything, no matter how small, please contact the Sheriff's Department because it could be the piece of information that brings him home next time," Jackie Jacobs said.

Who was Kent Jacobs and how did he disappear?

Jacobs was 42 years old when he disappeared from a neighborhood about two miles from his mother's home. About five months after his disappearance, deputies declared the case a homicide investigation, but it took 10 years before Jacobs was declared dead in 2012 by a Cumberland County judge.

Family members said Jacobs had the mental capacity of a child. His disappearance goes down as the oldest unsolved missing persons case in Cumberland County.