“Something happened,” Reginald White told Dateline about his brother. “Somebody knows something.”
It’s been more than two years since James Bernard White vanished. The 59-year-old was last seen on March 18, 2022, in Saraland, Alabama.
“He didn’t just walk away,” sister Angela Butler added.
The family grew up in Alabama, where many of them still live. Bernard, as his family calls him, is one of seven siblings. Dateline spoke with three of the siblings and their mother, Linda White. “He was loving, laid back, quiet,” Angela said. “We were a very close knitted family.”
At the time of his disappearance, Bernard was living in Saraland, a suburb of Mobile, with his wife, Brenda.
“I talked to him that, um — March 16, two days prior to this happening,” Angela said. “His wife was actually in the hospital.”
According to the family, Brenda had been battling cancer. “I was just doing a check-in to see how they was doing, if they needed anything,” Angela said. “He was saying, you know, everything’s good. They were hoping, I think, to come home sometime that weekend.”
Angela told Dateline that on Friday, March 18, Bernard’s stepchildren -- Brenda’s biological children -- brought him home from the hospital to get freshened up.
Later that evening, Linda White, got a call from her son’s phone. It was Bernard’s stepson.
“I said, ‘What you doing with Bernard’s phone?’ and he said, ‘Bernard is missing,’” Linda said. Initially, she was confused, because she had just spoken to Bernard earlier that day. “I said, ‘I don’t understand what you’re talking about. My son has been missing for two hours — maybe he went to the store.’”
But according to Linda, the stepson insisted Bernard was missing.
Linda called the rest of the family to tell them the news. Reginald was out of town at the time, but Angela says she headed to her brother’s apartment that night. “When we arrived, there was already police there,” Angela recalled. “They already had search parties — everyone looking for him.”
The family told Dateline it would have been extremely unlike Bernard to just up and disappear. “He called Mama every night at eight o’clock,” sister Vanessa Pugh told Dateline.
There was no call from Bernard that night.
The searches for Bernard continued throughout the weekend. Reginald said when he returned to town, he spoke to neighbors for more information.
According to Reginald, a neighbor told him that after returning from the hospital on March 18, Bernard asked the neighbor to go to the store to pick up a few things for him. When the neighbor returned about 15 minutes later, Bernard’s apartment door was open with all his belongings, including his phone and wallet inside.
The family also said they took a look at the apartment’s security footage. They say it shows Bernard walking away from the apartment complex that afternoon but not returning.
“Here’s the key thing that we’re trying to figure out: What caused Bernard to go out of the house, leave his door wide open, and leave everything on the table?” Reginald said. “That’s the big puzzle.”
The Saraland Police Department is investigating Bernard’s case. Detective Devin O’Shea confirmed to Dateline that Bernard was last seen on security footage on March 18, 2022, around 6:35 p.m. “It shows him exiting his apartment and then he walks off camera towards the main road in front of the apartment complex and that is the last time he is seen,” he said. Bernard was reported missing by his stepson at 7:48 p.m.
Detective O’Shea told Dateline several searches were conducted for Bernard. “Right after he went missing, we put drones in the air checking all the surrounding areas, wooded areas,” he said. “We brought out dogs to try to pick up any kind of scent.” Authorities also reached out to local media to help spread the word but, according to the detective, there have been no substantial tips. A search of Bernard’s phone also didn’t provide any useful leads.
According to Det. O’Shea, the Saraland Police Department does not suspect foul play in Bernard’s disappearance, but is following up on all leads.
Bernard’s family says they believe something bad happened to him. “I don’t know what happened, but I know when he got to that road, somebody picked him up to take him somewhere and wrongfully did something or it was a hit and run,” brother Reginald said. “I’m thinking that someone lured him out there to the road.”
One thing the family is positive of, though, is that Bernard is no longer alive. “I believe in miracles, but I honestly think he’s deceased by now,” sister Angela Butler told Dateline. “If Bernard was out there somewhere, he would have reached out.”
In January 2024, Bernard’s wife, Brenda, succumbed to her battle with cancer — without her husband by her side.
The battle to find out what happened to Bernard continues. His family is hoping that someone will tell authorities what they know. “They think he just walked away but I know he didn’t just walk away,” Linda White said of her son. “Bernard is not that type of person.”
Bernard is 5’11” and 165 lbs. He was last seen wearing a gray University of Alabama short-sleeve shirt, gray sweatpants and gray and black New Balance tennis shoes.
The family is offering a $2,000 reward to the person who leads them to Bernard.
Anyone with information about the disappearance of James Bernard White is asked to call the Saraland Police Department at 251-675-5331.