After a crash and a freezing weekend search, a Middleburg family is questioning police actions prior to the discovery of Austin Fuller’s body.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The family of a Middleburg man found dead near Cecil airport said missed opportunities have cost them the chance to find him alive.
Austin Fuller, 30, was found dead in an embankment near Normandy Boulevard and Cecil Airport days after his family said he disappeared following a crash on Saturday. His parents said they searched for him in freezing temperatures while repeatedly asking the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for help.
“He was such a good person,” said his mother, Tammy Miller. “He didn’t deserve to die like this.”
Miller said Fuller lived at home with his parents and left Saturday afternoon, Jan. 31, to attend a Jacksonville Icemen hockey game. Before he left, she warned him about the unusually cold temperatures expected that night.
“Be careful. It’s freezing out tonight. I love you,” Miller said. “He said, ‘I love you too, mom.’ That was the last time I ever talked to him.”
Around 10 p.m., the family says they received a phone call informing them Fuller had been involved in a crash near Normandy Boulevard. Miller says Fuller called her husband shortly afterward, sounding disoriented and panicked.
“He kept telling us, ‘Get to me. Don’t hang up,’” Miller said. “He didn’t even know where he was.”
When the family arrived at the crash scene, they said Fuller was gone. His vehicle remained, as did his jacket, despite temperatures dropping near freezing.
The family said Fuller appeared to have hit his head on the windshield, and Miller, who works in the medical field, said she immediately worried he could be suffering from a concussion.
“My baby was out there running around somewhere with a head injury,” she said.
The family also said a friend later told them Fuller had made a troubling statement in a phone call after the crash, suggesting he wanted to harm himself. Miller said they shared that information with officers at the scene.
Miller said officers told them Fuller would not be considered a missing person because he left the scene of the crash.
Despite the response, the family said they continued searching through the night. Fuller never came home.
By Sunday, Miller said more than 30 friends and relatives organized a search effort. They said they repeatedly called JSO asking for assistance, citing the cold temperatures and Fuller’s distressed state.
On Monday, searchers found footprints near the POW-MIA Memorial Parkway. Using horses, ATVs, and a privately hired drone, the group expanded the search.
That’s when Fuller’s body was found in an embankment.
“It was Austin laying there,” Miller said. “He froze to death.”
JSO confirmed to First Coast News that a warrant was issued for Fuller for leaving the scene of the crash before his body was discovered.
In a statement, JSO said:
“A suspect having an active arrest warrant and actively avoiding contact with police would not be listed as a subject of a missing persons report. Mr. Fuller was being sought by police for criminal violations following the hit-and-run crash he was involved in.”
Miller disputes the idea that her son was “actively avoiding” police and said the family was prepared to bring him in.
“I shouldn’t be burying my son over a misdemeanor,” she said. “Nobody was hurt in that crash.”
JSO has not yet responded to follow-up questions about whether officers conducted any active search efforts before Fuller was found.