Note to our digital readers: Per the family's request, we are spelling Stephen’s name as “Steven” moving forward.
Twenty-one years ago this month, Steven Adams walked out of his college classroom after taking finals and simply vanished.
His father, Carl, still searches for answers in a case that has left him with nothing but painful questions and an unshakeable determination to find the truth.
"I reached out to you because Channel 2 and the media in general are the only voice I have," Carl said.
WATCH: Father refuses to give up hope 21 years after son's disappearance in Tahlequah:
On December 13, 2004, Steven finished his finals at college. Around 11 o'clock, his girlfriend called. Steven told her he was giving someone a ride to Keys, just outside Tahlequah. That phone call would be the last time anyone heard from him.
"That's the last word we heard from him, and they pinged his phone there about halfway between Tahlequah and Keys," Carl said. "He just disappeared off the face of the earth."
For Carl, the uncertainty is perhaps the cruelest part. Over the years, he has heard disturbing rumors about what may have happened to his son. Stories involving drug dealers and violence that no parent should ever have to contemplate. But he believes Steven was targeted for one specific reason.
"We believe that he was stalked and murdered over his child custody case," Carl said. "He was loved by everybody that knew him. He didn't have an enemy in the world. The only thing his death would benefit anybody was the people that hated him over the child custody thing."
Investigators with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, the OSBI and the family have searched everywhere they could physically reach, but without new tips, the case has stalled.
"If there's no new tips, it's just dead in the water," Carl said. "The only thing that keeps me going is being able to speak out and put out some new posters every once in a while and hope that maybe someone will grow a conscience."
For a father, the pain of losing a child never diminishes.
"It's a pain that never goes away and to me it's just like it happened yesterday," Carl said. "Yeah, 21 years have went by but every day it's just like it happened yesterday."
Carl's grief is compounded by the inability to say goodbye properly.
"When you think a filthy drug dealer took your son's life that didn't even know him, didn't know his heart," Carl said. "Did it for some drugs or some money and has dumped him like a piece of trash somewhere, it's just hard to live with."
Twenty-one years later, he continues to hope that someone, somewhere, will finally come forward with the truth about what happened to his son on that December day in 2004.
If you have any information about Steven Adams's disappearance, please contact the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office or the OSBI.
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