Donald Ray Fortson, a 52-year-old white male, was last seen on November 3, 1998, in Cleveland, Alabama, a small community in Blount County. Known also as Don, he disappeared alongside his nephew, Huey “Eddie” Hazelrig, after what had begun as an ordinary workday. Donald and Eddie lived together and often worked together doing wallboard or similar labor jobs, and on the day they vanished, they reportedly completed a job and returned home by about 3:30 p.m.
After they arrived back, Eddie placed a long-distance phone call, and the two men soon left again, reportedly to check on one of the antique cars Eddie collected. Their last known sighting was at a tire store on U.S. 231, and after that, both men vanished from the lives of the people who loved them.
The details that followed only deepened the fear surrounding their disappearance. Donald and Eddie may have been carrying approximately $3,000 in cash when they left, a detail that has remained part of the public account of the case. They did not return home, and neither man was heard from again. That same evening, authorities found Eddie Hazelrig’s gray 1984 Isuzu pickup truck burning along Warrior Valley Road, just inside Etowah County. By the time firefighters responded, the truck had been badly damaged or nearly destroyed by the flames. Investigators reportedly determined that no one had been inside the vehicle when it was set on fire, and no blood was found, but the fire destroyed evidence that might otherwise have helped explain what happened to the two men.
Donald’s physical description placed him at about 5 feet 10 inches tall and around 150 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was 52 when he disappeared, and the available case summaries describe him as a man whose disappearance was tied closely to the disappearance of his nephew, not as an isolated event. Public missing-person listings and case writeups have long treated the two disappearances as connected, and family members and investigators have suspected foul play. The circumstances left behind were not those of two men simply walking away: a shared last sighting, a possible cash connection, an unexplained failure to return home, and a truck later found burning in another county all created a troubling picture that has endured for decades.
In the years since Donald and Eddie disappeared, their family has continued seeking answers. A $50,000 reward has been publicly offered by the family for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the disappearance of Donald Fortson and Eddie Hazelrig. That reward language reflects the pain and determination of a family left without resolution, and it also shows how strongly those closest to the case have believed that someone knows what happened. The Blount County Sheriff’s Office has been identified as the investigating agency, and the case remains publicly listed through NamUs as a missing-person case for Donald Ray Fortson, missing from Cleveland, Alabama, with a date of last contact of November 3, 1998.
More than twenty-five years later, the disappearance of Donald Ray Fortson remains a deeply painful mystery for those who remember him and for those still searching for the truth. What is known is limited but significant: Donald Fortson, age 52, and his nephew Eddie Hazelrig were last seen together in Cleveland, Alabama, after returning from work and leaving to check on a car; they were reportedly last seen at a tire store on U.S. 231; they never came home; and Eddie’s pickup truck was later discovered burning along Warrior Valley Road in Etowah County. No confirmed public resolution has been found in the sources reviewed, and the exact full sequence of what happened after they left the tire store remains unknown. At its heart, this case is the story of two men who vanished in the same afternoon, a family left with decades of unanswered questions, and an investigation still defined by the hope that one truthful piece of information may finally explain what happened to Donald Ray Fortson and Huey “Eddie” Hazelrig.Last Seen: Nov 3, 1998
