Amanda Phillips sent her son a text at about 7:30 on the morning of Friday, October 2. Six minutes later, her phone rang. It wasn’t Phoenix. It was one of the men he had met in Cleveland, and he told her he’d found her son’s phone after Phoenix dropped it.
Phoenix Phillips was 24 and lived in Perryville, Maryland. He had come to Ohio with a friend to see the Steelers play the Browns on Thursday night, October 1. Amanda says he even messaged her from the airport before they headed to the game.
She and her son talked every day. Usually more than once. She says she always knew where he was, so a silent phone didn’t sit right with her from the start.
According to Amanda, the two friends got separated during the night. The friend went back to the hotel. Phoenix stayed out with some other guys they had met along the way. Police say he was last seen around 6 a.m. near West Superior Avenue and Robert Lockwood Jr. Drive.
Amanda describes her son as a loving dad and a successful business owner. His little boy is 2. Phoenix loved sports, and he really loved the Steelers.
She and her sister drove to Cleveland that Saturday and started handing out flyers. Phoenix’s uncle, Tom Porter, said the family was living through a nightmare and just wanted answers. Cleveland police called the disappearance concerning and asked the public for help.
On Tuesday, October 6, around 1 p.m., someone reported a body in the Cuyahoga River near Jacobs Pavilion. The Coast Guard, Cleveland police and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources went to the scene and pulled the body from the water.
The next day, Wednesday, October 7, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office identified him as Phoenix Phillips. The office has not determined his cause of death. Police have not said how he ended up in the river.
A mother who heard from her son all day, every day, is now waiting on a medical examiner. A 2-year-old boy lost his dad. And investigators are still working to piece together what happened after 6 a.m. on that Friday morning.
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