Published: March 01, 2008 06:49 pm      

Family turns to homeless for help in search for missing Jeffersonville Marine

The mother and father of missing ex-Marine Eric Hall are now reaching out to the homeless community for help in locating their son, who disappeared in Florida about a month ago.

Hall, a 24-year-old native of Clark County and Iraq war veteran, was said to be experiencing hallucinations and war flashbacks when he fled a family member’s home in Charlotte County, Fla.

Searchers, including the ex-Marine’s mother, are now looking to Charlotte County’s homeless population for answers, suspecting Eric Hall might have fallen in with other veterans living on the streets, said Kevin Hall, Eric Hall’s father.

The challenge for the Halls is gaining the homeless’ trust.

“It’s a very close-knit community and they’re leery of people they don’t know,” Kevin Hall said, explaining the family is working with churches and civic groups in their outreach.

There’s also worry that if Eric Hall is living amongst the homeless population, some could be keeping him hidden out of fear that he’d be institutionalized once discovered, Kevin Hall said.

Part of the outreach effort is to convince the homeless that wouldn’t be the case if they came forward to help, he said.

“We just want to know he’s alive.”

Eric Hall joined the Marine Corp after graduating from Jeffersonville High School in 2002. He was injured in June 2005 when a bomb exploded while he was on patrol in Fallujah, Iraq. A fellow Marine was killed in the blast.

He spent 13 weeks in the hospital immediately following the bombing, receiving treatment for damage to his right arm, left leg and hip and the left side of his abdomen.

His father told The Evening News and The Tribune in a recent interview Eric Hall had experienced war flashbacks prior to moving to Florida earlier this year. He was also on pain medication prescribed after his injury.

He relocated to Deep Creek, Fla. to stay with relatives about two weeks before his disappearance. He was last seen when he left the relative’s home on his motorcycle, which was later found along a nearby roadside, still running.

He’s believed to be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

Earlier this month, a female friend of the family received two phone calls, initially thought to be from Eric Hall. Hopes were dashed when one of the calls was traced back to Louisville and found to be a hoax — perpetuated by someone with whom the family friend used to be involved, said Kevin Hall.

Authorities have yet to confirm whether the other phone call was real or not.

“After the phone calls - we’re back to square one,” he said. “It totally tore our hearts out, really.”

Right now, Kevin Hall said, there appears to be no way of punishing the hoax caller. “If I had the opportunity I’d do everything in my power to prosecute this man.”

The search effort has been handled from a law enforcement standpoint by the Charlotte County Sheriff’s office in Florida. However, many retired military personnel and missing persons experts have joined as volunteers.

Kevin Hall said before the Louisville phone call — originally believed to be from his son — was determined to be a hoax, the Florida search lost some of its momentum because volunteers believed Hall had left the area.

Anyone with information locally can contact Kevin Hall via cell phone at (502) 644-3186.