Texas Eqqusearch crews entered their fifth day of searching Friday for missing Texas State University student Jason Landry.

The 21-year-old was headed home to Missouri City near Houston in the early hours on Monday (Dec. 14) when he crashed his Nissan Altima on Salt Flat Road in a rural area about 10 minutes from downtown Luling - which is about 30 minutes outside of San Marcos.

Texas DPS officials say they believe Jason was able to get out of his vehicle after the wreck, but it is unclear where he went after that. His wallet, phone, and keys were found inside his wrecked car.

The Landry's church, Southminster Presbyterian Church where Jason's father Kent is a senior pastor, has been active on Facebook and said that search crews have drained a pond not far from where Jason's car was found.

As of 3:00 p.m. Friday, Kent said that the pond was drained and that "from the best they can tell, Jason is not in there. They are bringing teams to thoroughly examine it, and are trying to figure out why the [search] dogs all led to the pond."

The search is planned to continue going into the weekend before Christmas. According to the SPC, there will be 10 K-9 units, a plane, 40 people searching, and the teams on horses will continue. DNA samples will also be taken from Jason's car.

Kent says that as long as there is breath in his lungs and air in his son's lungs, then there is still hope.

“And if it’s bad news I thought I’d be there before him, but if he’s there to greet me at the pearly gates I’m OK with that," Kent told CBS Austin. "We will have all eternity to answer all the questions of why this road why here why then what happened all those questions they don’t mean anything when you think about will your child ever walk through the door again".

His prayer is that Jason is home for Christmas.

Jason's mother told KTRK that she's just worried about her son being out in the cold night temperatures.

"I just ask for prayers because we just need a lot of prayers. We need this to work, we need God to help us out and all the prayers," she said.

 

Update from Kent at 3:00 pm:
- The swamp is drained. From the best they can tell, Jason is not in there. They are...

Posted by Southminster Presbyterian Church Missouri City, Texas on Friday, December 18, 2020

 

LOOK: 50 photos of American life in 2020

 

 

More From 101.5 KNUE