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What happened to Jason Landry? Former FBI agent offers alternate theory as Texas attorney general agrees to reopen case

TEXAS – An army of people have covered more than 50 square miles on the ground hundreds more have been covered in the air, and a pond has been drained, but still no sign of missing Texas State University student Jason Landry.

Landry disappeared while on his way back to Missouri City during a break on Dec. 13, 2020.

His car, a Nissan Altima, was found wrecked, locked, and abandoned in the middle of the night on a desolate road near Luling, with no sign of him.

“There is no evidence of a crime,” Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office Captain Jeff Ferry said during a recent interview with KPRC 2 Investigates.

It’s because of that that the sheriff’s office does not plan to process the other DNA evidence obtained from Landry’s car.

Ferry believes that Landry, under the influence, took a wrong turn, crashed the car, exited, stripped off his clothes, and wandered off in the near-freezing temperature, died, and was devoured by wild hogs.

“I don’t think the hogs are what killed him, but hogs are opportunistic. If a hog encounters a meal, especially in December, I don’t think he’s going to pass that up,” said Ferry.

“Maybe it just makes you feel better to blame it all on Jason,” said Jason’s father, Pastor Kent Landry, in a recent interview.

RELATED: 🔒Insiders: Father of Jason Landry shares new details about his son’s disappearance

Kent is not alone in his belief that the case has been “under-investigated.”

A former FBI agent based in San Antonio by the name of Abel Peña, who founded Project Absentis, also believes the same thing.

Peña and his team of private investigators are working on the Landry case Pro-Bono.

“If you go down that road in believing that nothing happened to Jason Landry, then you’re not going down that road of talking to people,” Peña said.

Peña has forwarded a list of 10 people to the Caldwell County District Attorney. These are people he believes may have knowledge or provide clues into what happened to Jason.

Ferry maintains there is strong evidence that Landry did not stop his car in Caldwell County until the car crashed. That evidence is the basis on his theory that since Jason did not stop, he did not come into contact with anyone who could have killed him.

Peña, who does not have the same level of access to evidence as Ferry in the case, disputes the contention that it is impossible that Landry came into contact with anyone, and it may have happened at the Luling intersection, where he failed to turn right to proceed to I-10.

Landry had traveled the route correctly twice before.

“We strongly believe that something happened at that intersection that caused him to go down that road that night, or perhaps, he was not driving that car that night and someone else may have been driving that car,” Peña said.

Peña’s theories about what happened, which he admits are not concrete, may soon get a second look.

The Texas Attorney General’s Cold Case Unit has agreed to take another look at Landry’s disappearance.


About the Authors
Joel Eisenbaum headshot

Emmy-Winning Storyteller & Investigator

Debbie Strauss headshot

Award-winning broadcast journalist covering local, regional, national and international stories. Recognized in the industry for subject matter expertise including: Legal/Court Research, the Space Industry, Education, Environmental Issues, Underserved Populations and Data Visualization.

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