BUFORD, Ga. – The search continues for a 25-year-old Buford man one week after his disappearance.
Kelly Nash was last seen at his Buford home in the early morning hours of Monday, Jan. 5. His girlfriend said she woke up at about 4:00 a.m. and he was coughing and sneezing, and he said that he wasn't feeling well. When she woke up again at about 7:30, Nash was gone.
Nash's family and police have been trying to come up with a solid timeline of what he was doing – and who he was seeing – just before he vanished.
Nash appeared on surveillance video at a Citgo station at Buford Dam Road and Little Mill Road, around the corner from his house, at about 9:00 p.m. the night before his disappearance.
"He got out of the car and walked into the gas station," said Beverly Nash, Kelly's mother, as she showed the video to 11Alive News.
In the footage, Nash was wearing his pajamas under his jacket. He was on the phone with his live-in girlfriend, making sure that he picked up everything they needed.
"There's Kelly coming into the store," he walks around for several minutes picking up items from the shelves, pays for them, "and there's Kelly coming back out of the gas station and getting back into his car."
And that's it -- the last known images of Kelly Nash.
He made it home uneventfully. But by 7:30 the next morning, Nash was gone. He left without his wallet, money, credit cards, ID, phone, keys and pickup truck. He was possibly still in his pajamas.
Family and friends have hired a private investigator who reportedly told a local newspaper on Monday, January 12, that Nash may have been seen the day before he disappeared in a rough part of Buford talking with some bad people.
The private eye later denied he said that. According to Nash's family, Gwinnett County Police told them there is no evidence that Nash was associating with anyone "bad."
"This is the problem, we can't find anything bad that Kelly was associated with," said Alan Nash, Kelly's father, "while we've tried.... You're trying to find a starting point. Is there something that he was doing that none of his family members would know? This was not a young man tied up in some dark-world situation."
Kelly Nash has been working at his father's construction business. He's a full time college student about to earn his accounting degree. He's spent what free time he had with his girlfriend, Jessica.
The convenience store video at about 4:30 the morning that Kelly disappeared does show a grainy, dark image outside, of someone passing by, but no one can tell who it is.
"It's basically impossible to know if that was Kelly," Alan Nash said. "If someone knows that that was them, in that video, I would love for them to come forward so we could, at least, strike that off saying, no, that wasn't him."
Kelly Nash owned a gun at one point -- a Glock 9mm. No one has been able to find it, but no one is sure if he even still owned it.
On Tuesday, volunteers will be going through the community passing out new flyers with a new, anonymous tip line that people can call with any information they may have.
"We feel like he's okay. And we're just looking for that one, small break, to help us find him, and give us something credible to work with," Nash said.
Alan Nash says the anonymous tip line's number is: 404-433-6323. You can also email tips to kellynashmissing@gmail.com.
The Gwinnett County Police Department's phone number is: 770-513-5300.
Family and friends are offering a $10,000 reward.
The searchers' command center is at 4460 Commerce Drive, Buford.
