DOUGHERTY COUNTY, Ga. — Trees crashed down and debris flew through windows - the chaotic twister forced families to hunker down for safety.
It's been two years since the EF-3 tornado raged through Dougherty County in south Georgia.
Detrez Green's family said they heard the storm raging and saw their two children playing in their home. The next thing they knew, trees were crashing down and their youngest son, just 2 years old, was gone.
"We could never have anybody say the exact last time that the child was actually seen," said Capt. Tom Jackson of Doughtery County Police.
Around 3 p.m. Jan. 22, 2017, the tornado hit Piney Woods Trailer Park where the Detrez's family lived.
Around 6 p.m., police got a call about the damage at the trailer park.
"We had a lot of chaos with it," Jackson said. "You couldn't get to where people were at."
Around 9 p.m., police got their first official missing persons report about the 2-year-old and started searching.
"We're fumbling around in debris out here with flashlights in the rain and such, looking. And we're not even getting a good, great location," Jackson recalled. "All we were told was generally where we're at right now, where there was a double wide mobile home, is where the child had been."
Crews searched extensively for the next three days. They even drained a pond to see if he was there.
"It was over a week before we left out here and decided there was no trace of him at this general location," Jackson said.
To make the case harder, the Greens didn't have a picture of Detrez, except for one when he was an infant.
"We were able to determine the child was born, given a birth certificate. Legalized documentation. But from that point on its very sketchy about the child himself," Jackson said.
"That's always gonna raise speculation to us," he added.
11Alive reached out to the child's family Tuesday but did not hear back.
