No one has seen or heard from Williams since June 9, 2001, when he did not show up for work sorting mail at the Tampa post office.

Co-workers thought Williams, then 31, had quit, but when he didn't send his father in Michigan a card for Father's Day, his family knew something was wrong.

His mother, Julie Williams, 54, of Ferrysburg, Mich., said she left him frantic messages on his answering machine: "Bradley, if I don't hear from you, I am calling the police."

So she did, urging them to check her son's apartment on South West Shore Boulevard.

Police later found Williams' two Persian cats and parakeet starving, his car gone.

"It's like he just vanished," Julie Williams said. "The worst thing is that people don't seem to care."

His mother has followed the recent disappearances of two 26-year-old gay men in Tampa with interest because her son was gay. Michael Wachholtz and Jason Galehouse, who investigators say did not know each other, were last seen Dec. 20. Wachholtz had left his home at 5305 Bay Club Circle about midnight; Galehouse left 2606 North Armenia Avenue Lounge about 2:45 a.m. with two men whom his friends did not see.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office on Thursday identified a body found in a Jeep Cherokee two days earlier at Camden Bay Pointe Apartments, at 5902 Memorial Highway, as that of Wachholtz. The cause of death has not been released.

Members of the gay community have wondered whether the disappearances are linked. In 1995, another gay man, James Shumaker, 36, was reported missing a few days after he was seen at the Parthenon Cafe in downtown Tampa.

Despite her interest in the disappearances of the two other gay men, Williams' mother bristles at connecting his disappearance to his sexuality.

"Why can't he just be a missing person?" she said.

Without A Trace

Law enforcement records show that 1,461 adults were reported missing in Tampa and Hillsborough County in 2003. As of Friday, all but 10 of those had been found.

"The majority of cases, they just leave because they want to be gone," said Tampa police Detective Jerry Keith, one of two investigators assigned full-time to handle missing people.

For the dozens of cases Keith resolves, such as a caretaker for a Tampa family who left without a word and wound up in a Baltimore shelter, there are mysteries like Williams and Mary Carol Hill.

Hill, then 37, was last seen at her Seminole Heights home June 3, 1994, while her husband and son, then 6, were on a camping trip in New Mexico, police said. She had quit her job at the Department of Children & Families to attend Stetson University. The case is still open.

The Hillsborough sheriff's office, which has one investigator assigned full-time to missing persons cases, has mysteries, too. On April 28, 1993, Bonnie Lee Dages, then 18, and her 4-month-old son, Jeremy, vanished after she withdrew $15,000 from a bank account. Her van, with her purse locked inside, was found at a grocery store at Lithia-Pinecrest and Lumsden roads.

"We found her car but never another trace of her or her son," Sgt. J.R. Burton said.

In Search Of A Lead

People can report someone missing at any time, but investigators do not get to every case immediately. Missing children, people with health conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, and those thought to be in danger or victims of foul play take priority. Otherwise, reports are assigned within hours or days, depending on work schedules, Keith said.

Investigators enter missing people into a national law enforcement database and delve into private details, such as emotional, criminal or financial problems; drug or alcohol abuse; and relationships.

"You try to find out who saw the person last," Keith said. "Who's he been talking to? What did his friends say? Is he mad at anyone? Did he take money?"

Investigators check cellular phone, credit card and bank records for activity. Sometimes they find people who want no contact with friends or family. All they can do is inform those concerned that the person is OK, Burton said.

Timing is critical. "Some missing persons cases are delayed by a week or more, and that's a real handicap," said Tampa police Detective Chip DeBlock, who is in charge of the Williams case.

Waiting, Wondering

After his mother reported Williams missing, police found a car he had rented abandoned in a strip mall parking lot on Kennedy Boulevard near Metropolis, a gay nightclub. But his mother says it is not clear whether he was in the club before he disappeared.

Williams left behind a boyfriend with whom he had moved to Tampa from Michigan and $4,000 in a bank account, she said.

DeBlock and Keith declined to discuss the Williams case but acknowledged that the mother is frustrated.

"It always bothers you not knowing what happened," Keith said. "Sometimes there's no evidence to pursue anything further. The leads don't pan out and there's nowhere to go."

To find her son, Julie Williams has worked with a private investigator, posted fliers on the Internet and established a fund at the Fifth Third Bank in Ferrysburg, Mich. She also turned to Lost But Not Forgotten, a nonprofit organization that matches descriptions of unidentified remains with those of missing people.

She says she has no hope that her son is alive.

"I've not had hope since the day it happened. I feel bad that I don't have hope. But he just would not ever not call," she said.

"If someone did something, I don't even care," she said. "I just want his remains. I just want him back."

MISSING

The majority of those reported missing are runaways under 18 years old, investigators say. Authorities are able to locate most of them.

* Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office:

Adults reported missing in 2003: 990
Those not located by Friday: 8
Juveniles reported missing in 2003: 4,361
Those not located by Friday: 44

* Tampa Police Department:

Adults reported missing in 2003: 471
Those not located by Friday: 2
Juveniles reported missing in 2003: 1,602
Those not located by Friday: 1