His phone was found before he was. That’s one of the few firm details in the case of Phoenix Phillips, a 24-year-old father from Perryville, Maryland, who disappeared in downtown Cleveland after a Steelers-Browns game and was found in the Cuyahoga River five days later.
Phoenix drove the whole trip around one thing: football. He came to Cleveland with a friend for the game on Thursday night, October 1. He has a 2-year-old son at home, and his mother says he’s a business owner who never missed a chance to talk Steelers.
At some point that night, the friends split up. Amanda Phillips, his mother, says the friend went back to the hotel while Phoenix stayed out with other men they had met during the evening. Police say he was last seen around 6 a.m. on Friday, October 2, near West Superior Avenue and Robert Lockwood Jr. Drive.
About an hour and a half later, Amanda texted him. Six minutes after that, a man called her and said he had found Phoenix’s phone because her son had dropped it. Police later said the phone was turned over to authorities.
Someone reported Phoenix missing to Cleveland police that same day. Police called the situation concerning. Sgt. Freddy Diaz said Phoenix was visiting from out of state and got separated from the person he came with, and that officers were still trying to work out what happened. Detectives searched the area where he was last seen and looked for surveillance video.
His family didn’t wait around. Amanda and her sister drove to Cleveland on Saturday and handed out flyers. The group Cleveland Missing helped them, along with police. Amanda also talked to her son’s friend, and she says he is devastated.
On Tuesday, October 6, a call came in around 1 p.m. about a body in the river near Jacobs Pavilion. Crews from the Coast Guard, Cleveland police and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources recovered it. The next day, the medical examiner’s office confirmed it was Phoenix.
The cause of his death is still undetermined. Police have not said how he got into the water. What the family has right now is a short list of facts, a mother who talked to her son every day, and a toddler who will grow up without his dad.




