VILLA RICA, Ga. -- He's a 21-year veteran with the Atlanta Police Department and works his share of accident scenes.
Adam Wright often had the heartbreaking conversation with parents who suddenly found out their child was gone standing at the side of the scene. He tried to calm them - and hold them back as their worlds fell apart.
"I've always looked at it from the other side. I've never looked at as a parent," he said. "That is going to be even harder going back to it and now putting myself in that person's position."
None of it prepared him for the day that he would find his own son dead - for reasons that neither evidence nor science has yet to reveal.
"You really can't imagine as awful as it is what is going through that parent's mind until something like this happens," Adam said.
Jarred Bailey Wright was already gone when his parents found him. He hadn't answered his phone for hours. His parents, who were on a camping trip, were worried. He'd stayed behind rather than go on the trip with dad, his mom Julie and his younger brother Bradley.
Soon, their worst fears came true.
"Everything looked normal, except he didn't wake up," Adam said.
Jarred had been complaining about a stomach ache just days before. He'd called mom and dad about it and they told him to get some stomach medicine with hopes it would make him feel better.
He went to work, though, and played basketball with a close-knit group of friends.
Texts Adam found on his son's phone the day he got home revealed that the medicine never worked. He had been sending messages to a friend about his stomach pain. Eventually, Jarred decided to try and sleep it off.
It's been four days since Adam died in his sleep and autopsies and common sense don't seem to be providing answers. He was a healthy high school athlete who moved on to focus on his academic career at West Georgia College.
Growing up, he'd passed all of the physicals needed play. He'd passed the others required for college, too. No problems ever showed up and there wasn't any reason for his parents to suspect one.
"My son never drinks - never did any drugs," Adam said.
Even now that he's gone, Adam said they still don't know what happened to Jarred. How did his son, a criminal justice major looking to a future - possibly in law enforcement just like dad - suddenly die?
Answers are a small consolation right now. They might bring some closure. But they won't bring a young life back.
"I can't come up with anything of what happened to my son and why he isn't here with us today," dad said. "I just wish I was here for him."
They said that for several days, strangers have been sharing stories with them about their son and how he helped anyone in need, made sure everyone in school felt included and always did it with a smile.
"That just makes us so happy to know that he has touched so many people in the community," Julie said. "He was loved by everybody."
Jarred's funeral is planned for May 11 at 2 p.m. at Villa Rica First United Methodist Church.
