Father Vanishes Under Suspicious Circumstances: Where is Benny Battle?

Benny Battle grew up in the small town of Yulee, Florida, just miles from the Georgia border.

Benny was always close to his family and that continued into his adult years.

Benny eventually moved to the west coast of Florida, to a small town known as Old Town, located in Dixie County. Benny would enjoy spending time with his daughter, fishing, and working out.

Benny did run into some trouble with drugs, but as of 2018, seemed to be doing much better.

Benny Battle was last known to be at a home in Old Town, Florida on December 10, 2019. His niece went to the home that evening to see Benny but found a bunch of other people there instead. She said she felt really uncomfortable as they were acting strangely and so she left.

The next day, December 11, 2019, a friend showed up at the home to pick Benny up for his court date for a pending case from the year before, but Benny was not there.

Benny had been working to get this case settled, and was almost there. It simply didn’t make sense that he wouldn’t show up.

In fact, Benny has not been seen or heard from since.

Where is Benny Battle Jr.?

Benny Battle Jr. was born on February 25, 1979, and grew up in the small town of Yulee, Florida. Yulee is a small Florida town near the Georgia border.

Like many people growing up in Yulee, Benny loved the outdoors and fishing. Living near the water made fishing an enjoyable and available hobby for Benny. Benny also enjoyed working out and lifting weights. He was also very close to his family, especially his mother and father.

Even as an adult, he kept in regular contact with both of them, often spending time with his dad just sitting around watching TV and chatting. His mother will tell you he was a ‘momma’s boy’ through and through, a sentiment that everyone who knew him would agree to.

At some point, Benny did have some struggles with drugs. But, he had worked to overcome that. He was doing well at the time he disappeared, or at least that’s what everyone had thought. And his criminal record would reflect that.

In 2018, Benny was living in Old Town, Florida. Old Town is a small town on the west coast of Florida, on the opposite side of the state from his hometown of Yulee.

Benny had a daughter, and after some recent legal troubles due to his drug addiction, by 2018 Benny was able to clean himself up.

THE DISAPPEARANCE.

On Tuesday, December 10, 2019, Benny’s niece earlier came over to visit Benny and some friends at a mutual acquaintance's house. After a while, she left, stating she would be back later.

When she went back to the house that evening, however, Benny wasn’t there. There was a group of people that she saw, and she claimed they had been acting strange, and since she didn’t know them very well- or at all, so she left feeling very unsettled. She didn’t know where Benny was at this point.

The next day, the morning of Wednesday, December 11, 2019, a friend went to that house to pick Benny up for a court hearing. This court date stemmed from a charge back in 2018- he had no additional charges since then, leading many to believe he was doing much better.

Benny had been making great strides to better his life. His daughter, now a teenager, was the main reason why. It was important to Benny to finally finish up this last court process for his prior troubles and finally put it all behind him. This court date was a day Benny had been, in a way, looking forward to.

But this friend showed up, and Benny wasn’t there. That was extremely unusual and unexpected. No one at the house seemed to know where Benny was, and his friend couldn’t reach him either. Benny was anxious to wrap up this court case, and this would likely have been a final hearing. It didn’t make any sense for Benny to miss it.

Throughout the day, friends and family tried to reach Benny, but couldn’t. They were very worried, and part of that worry was concern he had fallen off the wagon somewhere. No one knew what to think.

A week later, on December 19th, Benny missed his regular appointment for his disability, and still, no one had been able to reach him or find him anywhere.

His family knew at this point something was very, very, wrong and called the police to report Benny missing.

THE SEARCH.

Immediately, Benny’s family started searching for him. Actually, they had begun searching for Benny from the first day they couldn’t find him.

Now it was time for the authorities to step in and help.

And this is what loved ones of missing people hope for help from officials, people with resources, and knowledge of how to find people. Things they can do and have access to, that others don’t.

But that doesn’t always happen, especially in the cases of people that have any kind of history.

And in fact, since Benny missed that court date on December 11, he had an active warrant. Law enforcement figured that Benny wasn’t really missing, he was probably on the run from that warrant. Even though that would make sense to an outsider, Benny’s family said the has never done that before, and even if he had, he would never not stay in touch with his mother. His mother knew something was wrong. You can't argue with that mother’s instinct.

The family continued to do their own legwork. Dixie County, Florida is a very small and rural area- an area where a lot of people know each other. And people were talking.

People in the area started to come forward with some information but asked to remain anonymous. They said in the days that followed Benny’s disappearance, they smelled a very foul odor in and around the house. Very bad. The family questioned the young man that had been living there and he said there was some old nacho cheese left out and he attributed the smell to that.

Interestingly, the day after Benny was last seen, this young man is taken to a hospital and put on a three-day hold. I don’t know the specifics of that, but over and over again he claims that if something happened to Benny, he couldn’t have done it as he was at the hospital. So what caused him to go to the hospital? Did something traumatic happen? Or, was he in need of what he hoped would be an alibi?

In the days that followed, a total of seven people would come forward and sign affidavits that they knew ‘that Benny was murdered and who did it’. SEVEN different people.

It was also stated that his body was wrapped in plastic under the house for two weeks before being moved. However, the police still refused to investigate this as a possible homicide or even look into a crime scene- never even going out to see if that was any credence to that story.

In fact, if that’s not bad enough, those seven informants asked for their identities to be kept confidential. Shortly after that, the police were seen out and about, drinking coffee and mingling with townspeople telling them the story of Benny and giving up the names of those witnesses.

It’s no wonder that people might be scared to talk.

Since the police won’t check out the home, the family decides to see if they can. A family friend reaches out to the owner of the home and learns they are out of state, but they rent the house to their son, and they grant Benny’s family permission to search the home.

In February of 2020, two months after Benny was last seen, the family went to the property and brought search and cadaver dogs. No police are present, because they don’t believe there is anything to search for. They are still holding on to the theory that Benny ran off because of his pending court situation.

And sure enough, two different dogs hit on the same sport underneath the home. The family calls the police out to investigate, and they do come out, but very unprepared.

They don’t believe the cadaver dog hit was credible.

They also check the inside of the home and find a carpet with several bloodstains. The police officer- still refusing to call in a CSI team- cuts some sections of the carpet with a pocket knife, and doesn’t clean the knife during this process and in between cuts. When a private investigator, who is working with the family, puts on sterile gloves to assist the officer with the evidence collection- he basically rolled his eyes at her. He had no evidence kit, nothing of any kind to indicate they were taking this seriously. The private investigator took some photos- but the police took none.

The family later also recovered some bones on the property and turned them over to the police. The police finally said they would send the bones off to the crime lab, along with the carpet remnants, but to date, when the family calls the state lab to check, the lab states they still have not received any evidence to test.

DIXIE COUNTY, FLORIDA.

Benny was living in Old Town, Florida, a small town in Dixie County.

Dixie County is located on the Gulf of Mexico, the west coast of Florida, and about an hour west of Gainesville.

Dixie County is famous for the natural beauty of the Suwannee River and the ample fishing in the area.

There are a lot of rural areas of Dixie County, and Old Town in particular is just one small town within those areas. Old Town sits right on the Suwannee River.

This was likely a great place for Benny, as Old Town and the County are known for their fishing.

Of course, this also means there are ample water sources in the area, which always concerns me in missing person cases.

There are also several nearby wildlife preserves and state parks.

On the coast, you will find Horsehoe Beach. Horseshoe Beach is known as Florida’s ‘Last Frontier’ because it is simply an isolated fishing village. It’s small- with less than 200 permanent residents.

Main Street runs right along the water, where you will find mostly boat ramps, boat slips, and houses on stilts bordering right on the water.

The area does bring in some tourism, but mostly for fishing.

Most people who are in that area, or from there, will talk about the crime and drugs that are known to be happening there. Perhaps law enforcement is just overwhelmed and overworked.

So let’s recap what we know.

On December 11, 2019, a friend of Benny’s showed up at a house where Benny was staying in Old Town, Florida, to take him to court as they planned. Benny wasn’t there, which was quite unusual.

When he missed his disability appointment on December 19, 2019 his family knew something was wrong and he was reported missing.

Law enforcement’s work on this case is questionable. I’d like to be able to defend them a little more, but they have said nothing publicly about Benny’s case and what they are doing to solve it, and it seems there have been many missteps along the way. They never searched the property where Benny was at last, they didn’t take in evidence and they never sent in items that family recovered to the lab (that we know of as of yet).

If they are doing some work behind the scenes, hopefully, we see the results of that work soon.

Since Benny vanished, many locals have come forward to Benny’s family and told them a story about a murder that took place, and that Benny’s body was hidden for a couple of weeks and then moved.

Is that a true story? We really don’t know. I’d like to say that people wouldn’t lie about that, but I’ve seen it happen before in cases.

We have just surpassed the three-year mark of Benny’s disappearance and his family still has NO answers. His daughter, his mother and his father, and so many others are left questioning everything.

They do believe he was likely murdered, but they need answers. And we, as the general public, need justice. How safe are we if murderers are left to roam the streets and live among us?

Benny Battle Jr. was last seen at a house in Old Town, Florida. He is described as a caucasian male, 5’10 inches tall and weighing around 165 pounds when he was last seen in December of 2019. He was 40 years old, and would today be 43 years old.

Benny has black hair, brown eyes, and facial hair- a beard and a mustache. Benny has a tattoo on the side of his neck, a tattoo on his upper back, and a tattoo running down his upper arm.

Benny’s case needs more attention, and his family and friends need answers.

His family has a Facebook page set up for him, ‘Help find Benny Battle’. Please go follow their page, like it, and show your support.

There are some new law enforcement officials in place now, so there is hope that answers are forthcoming very soon.

What do you think happened here in the case of Benny Battle? Do you think he might be on the run? Or, is it more likely something happened to him at the house in Old Town, Florida?

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Benny Battle Jr., please contact the Dixie County Sheriff's Department at 352–498–1231, or Crime Stoppers anonymous tip-line at 1-800-873-TIPS (8477).

You can also send an email to [email protected] and we will forward it to the appropriate investigator. You can remain anonymous.