For weeks I was riveted by the story of our community coming together to search for Jarod; and then devastated by the conclusion. Here we offer Jarod’s mom a chance to tell the full story of Jarod—his life, his struggles, his family, and even how he blessed their lives. -Ellie White-Stevens, Editor
I still scan the woods searching for Jarod. I can’t walk or drive by wooded areas without looking for him. It’s a habit I can’t break. I know that Jarod is with God now, but I can’t stop. I feel like I’ve always been looking for Jarod.
One night, when Jarod was around 8 years old, I popped into the boys’ bedroom to check on them, only to find Jarod missing. I searched the entire house with no luck. Panicked, I took my search outside to find him sitting up in a tree in our front yard with his blanket and pillow. He said he couldn’t sleep and liked watching the stars. Jarod and I were a lot alike.
After Jarod was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, I was desperately looking for him every day. I was always looking for glimpses of the person he was before his diagnosis. A smile, laughter, a connection.
Jarod always had some sensory issues. But, at around age 10, we noticed a drastic worsening. Jarod began to get extremely irritated with low level noises like chewing and breathing. When at the dinner table, Jarod would have complete meltdowns when he heard others chewing. It was fight or flight. Dinner as a family became impossible. We had absolutely no idea what was wrong with Jarod.
One morning, in 2011, my mom called me from Ohio saying that she thought she knew what Jarod had! She was watching the Regis & Kelly Show that morning. Kelly Ripa described a condition she had called “Misophonia, a neurological disorder that causes people to be extremely sensitive to certain sounds.” She was unable to cope with the sounds her family was making at the dinner table. Her first gut reaction was to yell, and she often had to leave the room.
After getting off the phone with my mom, I immediately told my husband about it. We both started researching Misophonia and read everything we could get our hands on. At the time, Misophonia was not known as a diagnosis, and very few mental health professionals knew anything about it.
We took Jarod to several different psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, an occupational therapist, an audiologist and even a hypnotist. Most had never even heard of Misophonia, and all of our research told us that there was no cure. Jarod lost all faith in mental health professionals and his chances of ever getting better. I need to say here that Jarod did see some phenomenal professionals that did their absolute best to try to help Jarod develop tools and techniques to help him when triggered. The occupational therapist and a beloved therapist will always be special in our hearts.
Sounds that classmates were making in school began to make staying in the classroom a new challenge. The person sitting behind him breathing or somebody tapping their pencil would set off a fight or flight reaction in Jarod. Jarod’s response was always flight. He would escape to the bathroom or to the counselor’s office.
Imagine the sounds that annoy you, like nails down a chalkboard. Now imagine that multiplied by 1,000. That’s what was going on inside Jarod’s head. And no one could help us.
By Jarod’s Junior year in High School, Jarod was no longer able to stay in a classroom setting. I would get phone calls from Jarod hiding out in the bathroom, begging me to come pick him up. Jarod eventually withdrew from high school at the beginning of his senior year. He did work to receive his GED in 2020.
In 2021, Jarod started saying things that didn’t make sense to us or struck us as odd. He was regularly quitting jobs, believing that his coworkers were all after him. Scenarios of coworkers plotting to get him fired kept recurring. He believed he was a “star child” and was originally from another planet. Jarod was waking me up several nights a week to unload these thoughts.
In June of 2021, Jarod eventually begged us to get him help. We were advised to take him to the emergency room. Even though Jarod said he wasn’t suicidal, they issued him a 1013. I secretly thought this was a good sign, because it meant that Jarod would be sent to a mental health hospital to get help.
What I didn’t realize was that we lost all power to decide where Jarod would be sent. Jarod was 20 years old. After 12 hours in the emergency room, Jarod was taken by ambulance to a local behavioral health hospital. I followed behind in my car. Jarod was very afraid and asked me to be with him during his intake. When I arrived, there was no one at the front desk. I waited for what seemed an eternity before someone arrived.
I was told that I wasn’t allowed to join Jarod because he was over 18. I explained that Jarod wanted me to be with him, but they said Jarod didn’t sign the paper giving me permission to receive any information. I knew that Jarod would want me to be involved. It was late, and I already missed Jarod’s intake at this time, so I went home feeling like I abandoned my son.
The next morning, I called the facility. After telling me repeatedly that Jarod didn’t sign the paperwork, they magically found the signed copy in Jarod’s file. Thank God! Without this, I would receive no updates or information about Jarod’s treatment. Jarod was released after 10 days of treatment. He came home in the same state he was in before being hospitalized.
A doctor at this facility diagnosed Jarod with Schizophrenia. This diagnosis hit us like a sucker punch in pitch darkness. Jarod’s symptoms were extremely scary and heartbreaking. We felt completely alone and didn’t know of anyone else in Peachtree City with this diagnosis. Jarod was released two weeks later, completely traumatized , still in psychosis, unmedicated and in the same condition he was in when he entered the hospital.
In July of 2021 Jarod’s symptoms came to a head again. Jarod was delusional. His thoughts were filled with conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati, constant pacing, and believing that we, his parents, were aliens. We were desperate for help and took him to a hospital in Atlanta that had a reputable mental health wing. After hours, we were sent home because Jarod did not meet their criteria for being admitted.
Jarod’s symptoms would come and go. In 2022 his symptoms seemingly went away for a while on their own, and Jarod was able to attend Georgia Military College for Spring Semester. He got a job serving at a Milledgeville restaurant. Gradually, Jarod stopped going to class, psychosis returned, and Jarod came back home.
In September of 2022, Jarod started having delusions that Rob & I weren’t his actual parents. He believed we were aliens that were planning on eating him. He would run into our bedroom begging us in tears to tell him what we did with his real parents and to please bring them back. He was terrified and wasn’t sleeping. He would barricade his bedroom door and set the alarm on his phone to go off every 5 minutes so he wouldn’t fall asleep.
There was nothing we could do to comfort him. I know it’s difficult to imagine. It was incredibly scary and heartbreaking. One night, Jarod again begged us for help. He agreed to an inpatient program at Peachtree Behavioral Health in Fayetteville. From the very beginning, this facility was exceptional with communication, showing compassion and a sincere interest in helping Jarod. Jarod stayed there for 2 months. Unfortunately, during this time, Jarod developed Anasognosia.
Rob and I learned this term while reading the book, I’m Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help! by Xavier Amador. This book was a gamechanger for us and helped us understand Jarod and learn how to communicate with him. Anasognosia is a symptom of Schizophrenia experienced by more than half of those diagnosed. It means they have absolutely no awareness of their illness, usually refusing any type of treatment or medication. There is absolutely no way to reason with someone with anasognosia.
Amador illustrates it well in his book. It’s as if you come home to your spouse that you’ve been married to and have 20 years of memories with. You are greeted at the door by your spouse and the police. Your spouse says he/she doesn’t know or recognize you at all, and that you’ve been showing up at the house insisting that you live there. You are escorted away by the police. You would think that your spouse and the police were the crazy ones.
Jarod didn’t believe he had schizophrenia or any problem at all and refused any help or medication. We were the crazy ones. Jarod was 21 and couldn’t be forced to stay at this facility. I picked him up for a doctor’s appointment, and he refused to go back.
Again, Jarod’s symptoms began to wane, but we knew from experience they could come back at any moment.
In May of 2024, Jarod picked Rob up from the airport. I was in Ohio helping my parents, as my mom is going through chemo treatments. Rob called me to tell me he noticed that Jarod seemed off again. He was conversing with people who didn’t exist, with voices in his head. He seemed disoriented and confused, laughing inappropriately. He insisted there was someone snoring under his bed at night, keeping him from getting any sleep. He started sleeping in his car every night. I came home immediately.
On May 23, I had to call 9-1-1. Jarod was constantly talking to voices. Sometimes laughing with them like he was hanging out with his buddies. Other times he would be arguing with them in a rage. When the officers arrived, Jarod was able to hide all signs of psychosis, so they were unwilling to 1013 him. Ten seconds after they left, he was in full blown psychosis again, arguing with the voices in his head
They suggested that we call Georgia Crisis Response Services. They came that same night. Jarod refused to speak to them at all, insisting that there was nothing wrong with him. We even showed them video proof of Jarod’s behavior, but this wasn’t enough. We were doing everything we were told and couldn’t get him any help.
We were advised to go to Probate Court and have an Order to Apprehend issued. Because Jarod was over 18, we were also advised to get Guardianship over Jarod, so that doctors would share medical and mental health updates with us. None of these procedures are quick or easy. As soon as you think you’re done, there’s another hoop to jump through. So, when you are in a crisis situation and need immediate help, the process can become more than frustrating.
When the officers arrived, Jarod was in the shower. The Sheriff’s Department officers who arrived were extremely compassionate and tried their best to not make this any more traumatic for Jarod than it had to be. When Jarod finished his shower and walked out of the bathroom, he was met by the officers. Jarod was shaking and asking what was going on. He thought he was being arrested and asked what he did wrong. We all kept trying to reassure him over and over again that he did nothing wrong, and he was not in any trouble, that we were just trying to get him some help.
We had zero say in where Jarod would be sent, and because we didn’t quite have Guardianship yet, no one would tell us. Thank goodness I found out on my own the mental health facility to which Jarod was being transported. While in this facility, Rob and I acquired Guardianship over Jarod. He was sent home 10 days later again in the same state he was in before.
This is a never-ending horrible cycle that many people with schizophrenia continually follow. Because they refuse medical treatment, their loved ones are forced to apply for an Order to Apprehend. They are then apprehended and taken to a crisis behavioral health facility. They are only allowed to stay at these facilities for a maximum of 5 days. They are then sent home at this time in the same state as the OTA date. You are left feeling incredibly guilty and hopeless, and wondering why you subjected your loved one through all this trauma, only to receive no real help. There shouldn’t be a time restraint put on these hospital stays. You wouldn’t send a cardiac patient home in 5 days if they weren’t out of danger. People with schizophrenia need intensive therapy and time for medication to work before being released.
On Tuesday, August 6, 2024 Jarod’s symptoms escalated. Rob was out of town for work. It’s a horrible place to be, when the best thing you can do for your child is to have them apprehended, handcuffed and taken to a mental health facility. With no other options and in desperation, I went to probate court to start the Order to Apprehend process again. I needed 2 other witnesses to Jarod’s behavior, and without a blink, more than enough neighbors showed up to help. After I arrived home, Jarod was on the front porch having an intense conversation with his voices.
The voices were always telling him that he was worthless and never accomplished anything. Nothing we said to counteract the voices helped. He would often be sent into a rage trying himself to prove to the voices that their words were lies. Often this would happen for hours in the front yard. Not even once did Jarod show this rage towards us or anyone else, only to the voices. Jarod had “proof” scattered all over his bed…journals filled with all the lyrics he wrote, his lifeguard tank top & whistles, handwritten lists of every song, story, sitcom idea, screenplay idea, etc. that he wrote. This was the evidence he would use to try to convince the voices in his head that he wasn’t a loser.
The sheriff’s department called to let me know they wouldn’t be able to come until the next day. Desperate and knowing that this couldn’t wait until the next day, I made the decision to call 9-1-1. I explained that there is an Order to Apprehend on Jarod, but that the sheriff’s department wouldn’t be able to come until the next day. PTC Police dispatcher said she would send someone out to our house right away.
Jarod was terrified to go back to a mental health hospital, so when the officers arrived, Jarod ran out of the house barefoot. The officers’ hands were tied because Jarod didn’t break any laws. I didn’t know that only the County Sheriff’s department could apprehend Jarod. I assumed that because there was an OTA on Jarod, that any officer could do it. I had no idea where Jarod was and scared out of my mind of what could happen to him.
A friend of mine jumped in my golf cart and went searching for him. We went to a place in the woods that Jarod went to when he needed some peace and could talk to the voices all he wanted without anyone knowing. He wasn’t there. I felt an urgent need to post something on Facebook to alert our community to be on the lookout for Jarod. I was afraid that putting Jarod’s mental health information on social media might hurt him in some way. I also knew I needed to be prepared for all kinds of judgement.
I took a deep breath and sent the post onto both my personal page and a Peachtree City page. The response was huge and immediate. Peachtree City residents responded with only positive comments. My post was shared over 5,000 times. I could barely keep up with the messages I was receiving about sightings, contact names and information about tracking dogs and drones, and thousands of prayers.
The next day my husband Rob came back from a business trip and joined the search effort being joined by our son Noah. They responded to a possible sighting on the north end of Peachtree City. Now nearly two days of Jarod being gone in the hot August heat in the swamp and woods with no food or water, panic was beginning to mount.
Thursday night there was a sighting just over the Fayette-Coweta county line on Stallings Road. Jarod approached a house and encountered a resident. Jarod asked if he could fill a water bottle from their hose. The resident felt something was off and called the Sheriff. Before deputies could get there, Jarod ran. He was spotted by another neighbor heading back towards Peachtree City. The Peachtree City police set up lookouts. Rob and a close friend joined the lookout. Conventional wisdom had Jarod using utility right of ways to travel. From the Stallings Road sighting location, Jarod headed towards the Senoia subdivision called Heritage. Three law enforcement agencies swarmed the subdivision along with Rob. As a matter of happen stance Rob spotted Jarod cross right in front of his truck. It was getting close to sundown. Jarod disappeared into a heavily wooded area. Police searched the woods without success.
Later that night, Rob and a friend returned to the family residence. On his way home the friend passed Jarod on his golf cart ride home and called dad. My husband and I got into our golf cart and headed towards the location. Upon approaching Jarod, the illuminated speakers of our golf cart alerted Jarod. He tried to run past us. My husband leaped out the still moving cart trying to tackle Jarod. Jarod brushed off the tackle and sprinted into the woods. The decision was made to let Jarod rest after the amount of ground he covered and the pitch-black darkness. We were afraid that in the high heat Jarod was dehydrated, hungry and exhausted.
The next day we, along with several of our closest friends, formed a search party. This was a hot humid Friday morning. Fear was mounting with thoughts of malnourishment and dehydration. The search began where Jarod was last seen the night before. The area was swampy below the Morallion Hills subdivision. This is the area where Line Creek flows. The search party of ten split into two groups and began searching on both sides of the creek, with additional friends and family in golf carts topside by Moba Soccer fields. My husband was the southernmost person and spotted Jarod. Via a text in combination with a location app, I was able to direct the police to Rob’s location. My husband tried to maintain a visual and the police responded. A visual was lost while the police were patrolling the adjacent neighborhoods.
My husband, our other son Noah, and a friend picked up Jarod’s bare-footed tracks and tracked Jarod south towards Publix shopping plaza. The terrain was slow moving with searchers going thigh deep into the mud. Shortly after getting to Publix a report came in with a spotting of Jarod crossing Rt. 74 near the Waffle House. The area was searched and the search was called off for the night.
We woke Saturday to a post of Jarod being spotted on a trail camera on a hunting property off Stallings Road. The landowners, police and family searched the heavily wooded area all day. No sign of Jarod. Upon re-grouping at the family home in the afternoon, we received a message on Facebook from a resident saying that she and a couple others were going to form a command post at Meade Field.
We did not organize this but felt compelled to show up and see what was being done and how we could plug into the effort. We arrived to find Angela Miller setting up a tent with Liz Chilvers and Andrew Denton. These people we never met were taking the lead in organizing and taking the search to the next level. My husband and I were exhausted, and desperate.
Through Facebook notifications the residents of Peachtree City and Coweta County started showing up. Search groups were assigned sectors to go search. If on foot, groups were instructed to be in pairs so if a drone picked up a heat signature of two people, they would know it wasn’t Jarod. My husband and I were assigned group number one. We went with neighbor friends back to the location of the trail cam sighting. About an hour and half we got a call saying the Peachtree City police wanted to talk to us.
Upon our return to Meade field, we were completely overwhelmed by what we saw. There were twenty plus police cars from four agencies. The line in front of the volunteer tent was thirty deep waiting to get a search assignment. There were coolers of drinks and a local Chick-fil-a sent sandwiches for all the volunteers. My husband and I sat on the tailgate of our truck embracing and crying. Help has come in the most magical way being led by people we didn’t know.
As we were meeting with Lt. Chris Hyatt of the Peachtree City police department, a Jarod sighting came across the radio. He was sighted near the wastewater facility next to Falcon Field. Police in cars and ATVs raced over to set up a perimeter. Coweta deputies were covering the west hunting grounds across Line Creek. A helicopter with infrared was in the air and blood hounds on the way.
We were asked to go home and collect articles with Jarod’s scent. We met the blood hound teams from Newnan and the Fayette County Sherrif’s department over by the airport and gave them the scented articles. The blood hounds led officers on a several hour search. The hot August evening and foliage prevented the infrared helicopter from spotting Jarod, and it left. The blood hounds would take turns running the scent. They could not find him.
This went on from 9:30 to after midnight. My husband and I went back to Meade field. Around 1:30AM there was a spotting back in Heritage subdivision. Police went and scoured through the sub-division and eventually called off the search at 3:30 AM Sunday. Somehow without rest, nourishment or shoes, Jarod was able to elude a helicopter, 5 drones, two blood hounds, a SWAT team and countless police officers.
Around 11 AM on Sunday Jarod emerged near the Mcintosh lake docks asking a lady and her husband for water. The husband called the police and this time they set up a perimeter and apprehended Jarod near a construction site by the Planterra golf course. My husband happened to be close by and met Jarod being loaded into an ambulance where he was taken for treatment under the close watch of the Peachtree City police. After five long days of running in the swamps and woods, Jarod was taken to a Fayetteville Hospital, where he was treated for severe dehydration, malnourishment and a laceration on the bottom of his foot. I couldn’t wait to see my boy! His entire body was covered with scratches and bug bites. He could barely put any weight on his sore feet. It’s hard to believe how fast he was running through the woods on those feet. I kissed the top of his head and told him over and over again how much I loved him, and how happy I was to have him found safe.
Before the officer in charge of Jarod uncuffed him from his bed and left, he warned the charge nurse that Jarod was a flight risk. He was fast and WILL RUN. I stressed that Jarod needed to be supervised.
Once Jarod was assigned a room, I spoke to every nurse, his case manager, doctor and psychologist stressing the importance of Jarod being guarded while being transported to the mental health hospital. I asked what the plan was? Will he be guarded? Will he be restrained? I never got a clear response. I was just told that they would take care of it. I received reassurance from several people who were police officers and nurses that it was standard procedure with 1013s and Order to Apprehends to be guarded.
On Wednesday night I was told that he was going to be transported to Piedmont Mental Health facility in Snellville late that night. My husband and I prayed that the transport would go smoothly, and Jarod would be safe and get the treatment he deserved.
At 1:00 in the morning we had received the nightmare of a phone call from one of the nurses at the Snellville facility. She told me that Jarod jumped out of the van and ran away. Still photos from video footage given to us by the Snellville Police showed the transport crew turning their backs on Jarod, with a second photo showing Jarod eyeing the woods. He took the opportunity given and jumped down and ran into the woods. He was definitely not being guarded. How could this have happened?! This time Jarod was missing in an unknown city, again barefoot and, this time, shirtless.
My husband and I drove the long hour to Snellville to meet with the police. The relief we finally felt after Jarod was finally found, was now replaced with the overwhelming nightmare of Jarod missing in an unfamiliar area. We hit an emotional bottom at this point.
Camera footage provided to us by the Snellville police showed Jarod escaped over a fence and was on the loose. For another five days the search for Jarod went on in Snellville. Family and friends from Peachtree City, new volunteers from Snellville, and the Snellville police all were working tirelessly to find Jarod. Facebook again was used to get the word out. There were several false sightings each time triggering swift response only to come up empty. This time instead of intense heat, there was rain and two nights of thunderstorms.
We grew more worried not knowing where he was. Did he have shelter? Did he find clothing? It turns out he didn’t look for shelter and was exposed to the elements, holding up in a wooded area on the eastern side of Scenic Highway never leaving Snellville. He emerged out of the woods and a resident saw him and knew from Facebook that this was Jarod. The Snellville police deployed officers and a drone. They spotted Jarod and he was apprehended for the second time by police in two weeks’ time.
Jarod was taken to an area hospital for one night and then transported to a mental health facility, fully guarded. While at the mental health facility, Jarod agreed to take an antipsychotic shot. This shot would last for approximately one month. Unfortunately, Jarod did not like the way the medicine made him feel.
Although he still didn’t believe there was anything wrong with him, he agreed to take the next shot the following month. On the day Jarod was scheduled to take his next shot, he ended his life.
Our hearts and lives will never be the same. I miss my son so much and think of him all the time. I miss his smile, his sense of humor, his laugh, and him wanting to share all his new songs with me. My only solace is knowing that he is finally no longer suffering, and his mind is at peace.
When I found Jarod, many Peachtree City officers arrived on the scene. I recognized most of them from the search. Many were trying to console me with tears in their own eyes. Jarod made an impact on our community. Out of this horrible tragedy came some blessings. I am now connected with many other families in my area dealing with schizophrenia. Many people now feel more comfortable sharing their struggles with mental illness. None of us are alone.
Rob and I want to take this opportunity to thank every person involved in both searches for Jarod. We will never forget the huge way that Peachtree City residents came together to help us. We will never forget all the people that helped in the Snellville search. People who didn’t even know us but felt compassion and the need to help.
Thank you for searching. Thank you for praying. Thank you for posting and handing out flyers. Thank you for making us dinners. Thank you for sharing our posts! I later heard stories of people searching every day on their golf carts. Some Senoia residents began leaving food and water out for Jarod. This idea caught on. I was leaving a note and food out for my son each night. So many people touched our hearts so deeply that I know none of this was in vain. Thank you to every one of you!
I want to help make sure this never happens to another family. I would like to see Jarod’s Law passed, ensuring that all 1013’s and Order to Apprehends are guarded during the full transport process. Many changes need to be made, and I will try my best to help make them happen. I will forever be searching for Jarod.
