No one has seen the Atlanta man since 2009, when he drove off to Harrolton to settle his parents' inheritance.

Brian Wehrle's car was found abandoned in Chattanooga three months after he disappeared in September 2009. The license plate had been replaced with a stolen one.

CARROLLTON, Ga.

It had been almost 14 years since anyone had heard from or seen Brian Wehrle. The 39-year-old man traveled from his home on Morningside Drive in Atlanta in late September 2009 to attend a probate court hearing. He was the executor of his parents' will and had to sign some documents. At this time, the city of Atlanta and surrounding areas were facing record and catastrophic flooding.

Veerle's niece, Amanda Rickles, said she remembers him telling her it took him forever to get to Carrollton. On Sept. 23, 2009, Rickles says Veerle called her while he was mowing his parents' lawn on Crescent Drive in Carrollton. "He was just relaxing, going to Taco Bell," Rickles said. "He also talked about his commute and how annoying it was because it took him four hours to make the 45-minute drive."

Rickles said he told her he was going to find a map to determine the best way around all the flooding. She said he also wasn't looking forward to the long drive home after his probate court hearing the next morning. Carrollton police said they were able to track down his last stops and the people he talked to on the night of Sept. 23, 2009. "We know that the last people to see him alive, as far as we know, are his sister Anita and her husband Spencer. He went to their house that evening," explained Sgt. Meredith Browning of the Carrollton Police Department. "Based on his cell phone records. We believe the last person he spoke to on the phone was a friend of his. And certainly we have spoken to him," she said. "But his friend doesn't live here, didn't see him in person that night. And his partner, Jeff, I believe spoke to him briefly that night as well."

Rickles said her uncle also tried to call her that same night, but she missed the call. "He called and left me a message and when I called him, he didn't answer," she said. The only possible comment about Wehrle after he left his sister's house that night was from a neighbor in the nighttime hours. "Neighbors near my grandparents' house where he was staying saw a light in the garage at 2 a.m.," Rickles explained. "They assumed it was him." "We can't confirm it was Brian," said Sgt. Browning. "If it was Brian, that was the last place we found, if it wasn't, it was obviously a suspect or a person we'd like to talk to."

The next day, Veerle failed to show up for a hearing in probate court. Rickles said her aunt called her asking if she had heard from her uncle, and the family soon realized that Veerle was missing. They found his cell phone, medication and all of his belongings at his parents' house. Veerle has a pacemaker. The only thing that seemed to be missing was Veerle and his blue 1992 Buick LeSabre four-door. It was three months later, in December, Carrollton police received a call from Chattanooga police in Tennessee.

"The officers saw a car parked at the curb on the side of the road and went to check it out because it matched the description of the car involved in the robbery," explained Sgt. Browning. "When they checked the license plate of the vehicle, they determined that the license plate did not belong to the vehicle. The license plate was stolen from another home in Chattanooga. When they checked the VIN of the vehicle, they realized it was associated with Brian Wehrle as a missing person."

Sgt.

Rickles said that while the breakthrough in the investigation offered hope for a short time, it again proved to be a dead end. She said the news hit her hard, as well as Werle's partner, Jeff, who had been by his side for 12 years before his disappearance. "It was heartbreaking to experience his pain and then to see the person he loved for over a decade just disappear and have no answers," Rickles said.

Sgt. Browning said Jeff was in regular contact with them. Unfortunately, he passed away. Rickles said she knows angrily that he will never get answers about what happened to the love of his life. As for her ongoing fight to find out what happened to her uncle, she said she's not going to stop. "There's somebody out there who did this, was involved or somebody knows and we need answers," she explained.

Sgt. Browning said they are being assisted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, they even brought in search dogs to help with the investigation. These specialized service dogs are trained to locate possible human remains. In 2015, Carrollton police asked Trace Sargent to bring her specially trained dogs to Verl's parents' land where he was before he disappeared. "She had three dogs and we took her to this house and behind it was the boathouse," explained Sgt. Browning. "It's in a small area that looks like a town. All three dogs were signaling at the same spot behind the house. So we went inside the boathouse. They were all signaling inside the boathouse. To make a long story short, we got a search warrant. We dug up that floor and found nothing."

Although nothing was found, Sgt. Browning said the fact that the dogs were reacting to the odor was interesting. She admits it was disappointing and she wished the case had been handled a little differently by the original investigator. She said they are just waiting for the right information to finally solve this case. Rickles hopes to find more evidence by launching a billboard advertising campaign between Carrollton and Chattanooga. She has started an online fundraiser to raise money to buy billboards to help publicize her uncle's case. As for potential suspects, Carrollton police are not ruling out the possibility that what happened to Wehrle could have been done by someone very close to him. Rickles said she, too, has come to that conclusion, given that there were no signs of a struggle at her grandparents' home at the time her uncle disappeared. People with information about Wehrle's disappearance are asked to call Carrollton police at (770) 834-4451. Verle's case was recently featured on a crime podcast, which has helped revitalize interest in the case. Check out the full story on Brian Werle and his mysterious disappearance below.