NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Two days ago, Finneytown High School graduate Marcus Forte turned 22. But the grim odds are that he probably was not alive to celebrate.
Mr. Forte, who recently enrolled at American Baptist College in Nashville as a junior, has been missing since Jan. 22. Nashville police say they suspect foul play, though they'll say little else.
If that's true, it will be the second tragedy for Finneytown's class of 1993.
In 1994, Mr. Forte's Finneytown classmate and acquaintance, Stephanie Hummer, was abducted and murdered near the Ohio State University campus, where she was a freshman. That case remains unsolved.
''The thing that's totally unbelievable is that it's two classmates from the Finneytown class of '93,'' said Dan Hummer, Stephanie's father. ''Both went away to college, living the American dream, so to speak.''
Now, Mr. Forte's mother, Gloria Forte-Butler, and her family are living a nightmare similar to the Hummers'.
Mrs. Forte-Butler, who is divorced from Marcus' father, has spent three weeks worrying about whether she will ever see her son again.
All the more disturbing for Mrs. Forte-Butler is that a man police were questioning in her son's case, James Garvin Jr., shot and killed himself while detectives waited for him to put on his shoes.
Nashville police won't say why they were questioning Mr. Garvin. Court records reveal only that Mr. Garvin had a previous run-in with police for allegedly trying to smuggle marijuana to an inmate in the county jail.
Mr. Forte, though, had never been in any trouble, his mother said. ''I doubt he ever even got a parking ticket,'' she said.
Here is what little is known about the case:
On the evening of Jan. 21, Mr. Forte and some friends gathered to play cards. Mr. Forte left with a group to get something to eat.
Then came a call from Mr. Forte some time after midnight to his roommate, Jerry Robinson. Mr. Forte said he'd been robbed. A number flashed on the Caller ID screen, but when Mr. Robinson tried to call the number, it ''blanked out,'' he told Mrs. Forte-Butler. Mr. Robinson can't remember the number, she said.
Mr. Robinson called police early Jan. 22 to report Mr. Forte as missing. He called Mrs. Forte-Butler a couple of days later, thinking police had notified her. But they hadn't.
Mrs. Forte-Butler drove to Nashville right away. She knows only that police have been searching Mill Creek, which winds through Nashville. They've searched more than 20 miles of the creek, much of it by foot, but they won't say what drew them there.
Police seem to suspect the worst - they never distributed fliers with Mr. Forte's picture and didn't ask for help from the morning newspaper in Nashville, which they often do in such cases.
Mr. Forte's family, meanwhile, grows more worried, frustrated and puzzled.
Mr. Forte, after all, had a black belt in karate, said his cousin, Terrence Forte of Kennedy Heights. ''He could take care of himself,'' he said.
Mrs. Forte-Butler says she just keeps asking the question she can't put out of her mind: ''Where is my son?''
''I pray to God he can put in someone's heart to come forth,'' she said. ''Just let us know. Surely somebody knows something.''
Injuries interrupt school
Mr. Forte was voted ''most athletic'' in his senior class. But just as important, Finneytown High Principal Joe Speaks said, Mr. Forte was liked and admired by everyone at the school.
His talents took him in many different directions since high school.
Georgetown College in Georgetown, Ky., gave him a football scholarship. He went there for a year and then broke his leg during the off-season.
Mr. Forte sat out a semester and went back to Georgetown for two semesters. Then he broke his arm playing football and decided to concentrate on basketball instead, Terrence Forte said.
He came back home and took classes at the University of Cincinnati, his mother said.
In August, he and Mr. Robinson moved to Nashville, where they ended up enrolling at American Baptist College.
They joined the school's basketball team and started classes Jan. 9. Although Mr. Forte wasn't at the school long before he disappeared, he made a big impression, said the Rev. Norman Robinson, the college's director of student activities and basketball coach.
Not only did Mr. Forte average more than 25 points in each of the three games in which he played point guard the Rev. Mr. Robinson said, he also made friends easily with his outgoing style.
Suicide troubling
When Mrs. Forte-Butler drove to Nashville the weekend after her son disappeared, she hoped to find out more and make sure police were doing all they could to find him.
She spoke with police and a local reporter, trying to get information and spur interest in her son's case.
Once she was back home, she learned from news reports that Mr. Garvin had killed himself.
To hear that a young man had killed himself and that it was somehow connected with her son's case, ''that was very devastating, too,'' she said.
According to a Nashville police report, homicide detectives were questioning Mr. Garvin, 20, on Feb. 1 at his home in Antioch near Nashville. Mr. Garvin was cooperating, said Don Aaron, the police spokesman.
But while the detectives waited for Mr. Garvin to go downstairs and put on his shoes, he got a gun and locked his bedroom door. His dad went downstairs to try to open the door and kicked it in just in time to see his son put a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun in his mouth and shoot, according to the police report.
Mr. Garvin's father, James Garvin Sr., told a Nashville reporter he had never heard his son mention Mr. Forte and didn't know what he could have told police. Mrs. Forte-Butler said she'd never heard her son speak of Mr. Garvin, either.
Police won't say what led them to Mr. Garvin. They won't even say whether he was a suspect in Mr. Forte's disappearance. There was no warrant for Mr. Garvin's arrest.
In Mr. Garvin was charged with trying to smuggle drugs to an inmate in the county jail. A bag containing 7.1 grams of marijuana and another substance was found hidden in the sole of Mr. Garvin's shoe, according to court records. Mr. Garvin told authorities he knew there was tobacco in the bag but didn't know about the marijuana.
Mr. Forte was never involved with drugs, said Cary Daniel, a friend of Mr. Forte's from junior high school.
''I know Marcus well, and he's never been into anything like that,'' said Mr. Daniel, a senior at the University of Cincinnati studying criminal justice.
Cousins Terrence Forte and Kathy Forte of Walnut Hills slip into the past tense accidentally when talking about Mr. Forte. They, and the rest of Mr. Forte's family and friends, hope desperately to see Mr. Forte again, alive. Mr. Forte's two younger brothers look up to him, the cousins said.
Mr. Forte talked about so many plans, they said. Starting an
afterschool program for latch-key kids. Opening up a dance club.
The big goal, though, was sports medicine, Mrs. Forte-Butler said.
''It's just hard,'' said Kathy Forte. ''You just see this stuff all the time. You think it's never going to happen to you or your family. It's hard not to know.''
Mrs. Forte-Butler drove to Nashville again a few days ago. She wanted to talk to police, she said. She wanted to hear, in person, what police are doing to find her son.
The trip reassured her that police are doing all they can, she said. Now Marcus Forte's family can only pray that's enough.
