Father Receives Anonymous Call Leading To Discovery Of Fatally Shot Son In Building Basement

Detroit, Michigan -- An anonymous call made to the father of a missing teenager led to the discovery of the 18-year-old’s body in Michigan.

The victim, identified as Jacob Hills, was found Monday with multiple gunshot wounds in the basement of a vacant apartment building in Detroit.

Jacob’s family said the teenager had gone to a party with a friend Saturday but never returned home. They managed to track his phone’s location down and found the device with his vehicle in Dearborn Heights. However, Jacob was nowhere to be found near the car.

The gun he had recently received as a graduation gift was also missing, the Charlotte Observer reported.

After a missing person report was filed, Jacob’s father received an anonymous call about his son being in the vacant apartment building. Detroit Police Commander Michael McGinnis said the teenager’s body was found with multiple gunshot wounds in the building’s basement at 3 a.m. Monday.

"They found my son in a pool of blood. They stole his shoes off of his feet," the victim’s mother, Sadie Hill, told WXYZ 7 Action News.

"He would do anything and everything for anybody at any time. It did not matter," the grieving mother added.

Jacob, who had recently graduated with honors from the Grand Blanc High School, had enlisted in the National Guard and was preparing to leave home in about two weeks.

The family believes Jacob knew his killers and suspects that they were after his brand-new rifle and some graduation money.

“He wasn’t down there to cause trouble, and he wasn’t down there to buy a gun, of all things,” Sadie told ClickOnDetroit. “He wasn’t down there to buy drugs,” a family friend, Kristie Lang, added.

“He was down there because he was lured,” Sadie said.

Officials noted that a 17-year-old boy from Oxford was with the teen victim in the lead-up to his death and has changed his version of the events multiple times.

"We do have information on who he was with. You know, his friends, and we are in the process of trying to make contact with them so we can follow up with what information they can provide that would aid the investigation," McGinnis reportedly said.

As the investigation continues, friends and family members of the victim gathered Monday to hold a vigil for Jacob.

“He is, ever since he’s been little, he’s had the presidential award, he’s had honor roll constantly...” his mother said, according to WNEM. “He’s not perfect. No kid’s perfect. But I never had to really yell at him, I didn’t have to really punish him, and if he did anything wrong, he punished himself more than we could have I think.”