Four years ago, Mark Anthony Waller left a party in Ellabell.

He never made it home.

A cousin who attended the party with him returned, but Waller never did, said his mother, Marilyn Cooler, during a press conference Tuesday at the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office.

Wiping tears, she begged for closure, saying, “Somebody knows something.”

But people at the party May 7, 2015, don’t seem to know what happened.

“We have heard several stories,” Cooler said, including one report that Waller had been shot, and another account that he had been beaten and stuffed into a 55-gallon barrel. However, none of the several leads panned out, said Bulloch County sheriff’s Investigator John Quattlebaum, who is conducting what is now a cold case investigation.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Quattlebaum said it is undetermined whether foul play is suspected.

However, in a similar conference in 2017, sheriff’s officials said foul play was suspected, according to an article published then in the Statesboro Herald.

Tuesday, Cooler was accompanied by her cousin Tammy Waller and Mark Waller’s 17-year-old daughter, Amber Waller.

Quattlebaum said the missing man walked away from the party, and witnesses there said he was going home. His cousin, who lived in a car at Cooler’s home (also Waller’s home), according to reports, returned home but claimed he did not know where Waller went. He did not have a cellphone, according to Quattlebaum.

But Cooler said her son would not have walked. He suffered from cerebral palsy, seizures and bipolar disorder “and would have called Mama to come pick him up,” she said.

Waller was very close to his mother and always called her and his three children to let them know where he would be and that he was OK, she said.

“I know he is not alive. Somebody knows something. All we want is closure, to know where my son’s body is,” she said. “Please come forward and tell us something. Tell us the truth.”

Tips can be made anonymously, she said. 

“Every day goes by and we keep praying.”

Tammy Waller said family and friends searched “the woods, under houses and trailers, everywhere” for over two weeks, looking for her cousin.

The not knowing is extremely hard on the family, she said.

“You lay there and ponder over every story you heard,” she said. “She (Cooler) calls me all the time, crying, and it doesn’t feel good. We know people know (what happened) and they don’t have a conscience.”

The family members even dream about the mysterious disappearance of Mark Anthony Waller, who was 46 when he went missing, she said.

Cooler said her other son died last year “not knowing what happened to his brother.”

The lack of closure is painful, she said, adding that every year on Waller’s birthday, his children release balloons with messages of love on them, in memory of their father.

“I won’t stop (trying to find answers) until I die,” Cooler said. “I will always wonder. If somebody tells us what happened, it will be hard, but we need closure.”

Waller was last seen wearing black Southpole jeans, a dark blue and white striped polo-style shirt and black and yellow Nike shoes. He stood 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed around 135 pounds and had a "low buzz cut" with greying brown hair, blue eyes and was clean-shaven, sheriff’s reports said.

Waller had several tattoos on his arms, a bulldog tattoo on his shoulder and he also may have had a clown tattoo on his right leg.

Anyone with any information on what happened to Waller is asked to contact Quattlebaum at (912) 764-8888 or send messages via the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.

Herald reporter Holli Deal Saxon may be reached at (912) 489-9414.