This is the fourth episode in our latest season featuring missing persons, unsolved homicides, and unresolved deaths across the United States, and the first in a two-part series.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are solely the interviewee zone.

All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

This series discusses crime scenes, violence, and homicide.

Listener discretion is advised.

This is the fall line.

Phoenix City, Alabama, borders the state line, separated from Columbus, Georgia by the Chattahoochee River,

extreme east and extreme west, respectively. The two cities are connected by commerce and by culture

and by residents, who travel back and forth to form a single metropolitan area.

Columbus is a lot bigger than Phoenix City.

The Alabama town is home to a little less than 40,000,

and Columbus proper population sits at around 200,000.

The lower cost of living can make Phoenix City appealing to families

who still want to enjoy the amenities of Columbus.

A few miles drive over the Dillingham Street Bridge or the 13th Street Bridge isn't a big deal for a commuter used to Georgia Highway traffic.

And that's what 32-year-old Eric Nellums did every day, when he headed out from his Phoenix City home to his job at Kodak, over in Columbus.

He'd bought the home in the Carpenter's Way subdivision for his family, his wife, his stepchildren,

and for his older son who visited from Kentucky, and he liked being close to his family in Georgia.

It was just a few minutes to Columbus to see his mother and his other relatives,

and then just an hour and a half to Atlanta, where his sister Kathy and her children lived.

Eric had a routine.

He woke up early for work each day and drove the few miles in his prize Dodge Ram truck, which was fitted with specialty wheels.

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