Page 26 - Alfred Wright News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Afraid of? >> no. >> did he have any enemies? >> not that i know of. >> reporter: alfred wright grew up in jasper and played college football. a musical family, his dad is a pastor and middle school gym teacher. his mom raised five children, including the youngest, savion, who tried out for "american idol." ♪ it's been a long, long, long time coming ♪ >> reporter: his family says alfred always seemed happy. >> alfred was a man of great faith. ♪ change gonna come >> he loved his family, very ambitious, very driven, very hard working. his work ethic was phenomenal. fun-loving and brilliant...

Just heard heavy breathing. he was in distress of some sort. he was not responding to anything that i was saying. >> reporter: his parents were still 20 minutes away and lauren was growing frantic, sending text after text. after 5:57, "trying to get to you,." "answer the phone." "please answer." and at 6:16, i said, "please answer," and that was after i had already heard him in distress of some sort. >> reporter: when his parents got to the store, they saw alfred's truck, but no sign of alfred. only the clerk behind the counter. >> i went in, asked her had she saw a clean-cut young black guy i...

>> reporter: so why would he run, especially alone in the texas woods when help was on the way? this part of sabine county is a town where james bird jr. was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death by three white men. people in this area, black and white say that racial tension is always just beneath the surface and things aren't always as they appear. which is why when alfred's watch and items of clothing turned up at a ranch, his family raced to find him. his wife found a piece of blue cloth, the same color of his scrubs. >> it was a perfectly rectangular piece of fabric hanging f...

D deborah, you mentioned drugs were found in his system, what kind of drugs? >> reporter: the coroner found a combination of three different drugs. cocaine, meth, and also amphetamines and concluded that the death was accidental and that it was caused by drug intoxication, anderson. >> in that coroner's report, did it indicate how long the drugs had been in his system? >> reporter: no, it did not. and that's a very big question that the family wants answered. they want to know whether or not those drugs entered alfred wright's system during his disappearance, and that's a big part of the inves...

Perfectly. >> did it look like it was put there or ripped off there? >> it didn't look like it had been ripped off. >> the sheriffs deputies searched the property. the family's lawyer says that dogs lost alfred's scent near a creek. >> if his body was there, it is unimaginable to me that dogs would not have found his body. >> reporter: the sheriff was on scene during the search. >> he showed me that this whole circular piece here had been searched. he also told me that numerous times that if he was in the area that he -- they would find them. >> reporter: the sheriff's daughter and alfred wrig...