‘Mystery’ surrounds missing man

Though separated from his girlfriend, Michael George kept in close contact with their two preschool children, Mallory and Michael Jr.

He had a car he loved – a 1994 Nissan Sentra.

And he called his best friend or his mother once a day.

But George, of West Columbia, hasn’t been seen since Christmas Eve.

His abandoned car was found Christmas Day on a deserted stretch of a two-lane road south of Columbia Metropolitan Airport.

“It certainly is a mystery,” said Lexington County sheriff’s spokesman Maj. John Allard.

Foul play may be involved, Allard said. The department officially deems George’s vanishing “suspicious.”

George’s best friend, Johnny Wannamaker, has known him since eighth grade.

Never before has George been out of touch like this, Wannamaker said.

“He always calls me or his mom once a day,” Wannamaker said. George lived some of the time with Wannamaker on Edmund Highway, S.C. 302, in West Columbia not far from the airport and some of the time with his mother, Helen George, Wannamaker said.

So far, Lexington County deputies have interviewed some 30 people.

Deputies have conducted two helicopter aerial searches in that rural undeveloped area where George’s Nissan was found on Beckman Road, about two miles from Wannamaker’s house. Deputies also have combed that area – part of which is woods and part of which is undergrowth – twice on foot. They did another search with all-terrain vehicles.

Nothing.

“It’s hard to know what to think,” Wannamaker said. He has been interviewed at length by Lexington County detectives. “They aren’t saying very much.”

According to a redacted sheriff’s department investigative report, Wannamaker was one of the last people to see George.

On Dec. 23, at Wannamaker’s house, George asked him to go to the bar Shooters in West Columbia. Wannamaker declined the invitation.

According to the report, a person – whose name was deleted from the report – told detectives that George was at Shooters and was “heavily intoxicated” that night. George left Shooter’s around 2:30 a.m. Dec. 24. The unnamed person drove George back to a “residence,” the report said.

Detectives deleted identifying information about that residence.

Detectives processed George’s Nissan for evidence. Allard declined to say what, if anything, detectives found. The car was found by a relative of George’s who was looking for him on Christmas Day.

The last time Michael’s father, Gary George, talked to Michael was on Dec. 22, on the telephone.

“He wanted $10 for gas so he could go to work and get his paycheck on Friday. His asking didn’t bother me – that’s what kids do,” said Gary George, who is separated from Michael’s mother.

Michael never dropped by, Gary George said.

Gary George, 53, doesn’t have much income. He was injured in a forklift accident several years ago and his major source of income is his monthly disability check from Social Security.

What little extra money he has has gone into searching for Michael. He estimates he has spent $500 on gas driving Lexington County roads and making inquiries. He has printed up 1,500 “prayer cards” with a description of George. He and friends and family have put up flyers.

Michael worked for a Lowe’s subcontractor installing carpets, his father said.

Gary George said his son has never been in serious trouble with the law, and he didn’t hang around with questionable characters.

Asked what he thinks might have happened to Michael, Gary George said he tries not to think about the bad things that might have happened to his son. “Every time I go to thinking about it, I have to go back and put my mind on looking for him.”

He said, ”I have no doubt we are going to find him. Somebody will talk sooner or later, because somebody knows something.”

Area where George's car was found abandoned

View Beckman Road, Lexington in a larger map