ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. — Nicholas Tonic would give you the shirt off his back, his mother Susan Baker told WMAR-2 News.
He had a passion for music, was great with electronics, and loved his family, she described.
"He was happy," Baker said in a January interview. "He was looking forward to the future."
One night, in December 2003, Baker let her son take the car to see his girlfriend.
"And I said, 'Well, make sure you come and pick me up for work in the morning because I've got to go to work.' And he said 'Okay, mom.' His last word to me was, 'I love you, mom.' And, you know, 'I love you, Nick.' And those were our last words," Baker remembered.
The next morning, Nick wasn't there to take Susan to work. He never showed to his girlfriend's, either, Baker recalled.
"And by that evening," Baker continued, "I hadn't heard from and I said, 'Something's not right.' And I started calling. I called police, I called the hospitals, all the hospitals, and there was no report to him anywhere."
A few days later, the car was found abandoned in Millersville, about 15 minutes from Susan's home at the time in Severn.
"Time has passed," Baker said, "but the feeling doesn't go away. That same feeling that I felt when I went to that car, when I looked in the car, when I saw, you know, the blood stains in the car. That doesn't go away, that longing."
On the morning of January 23, 2004, more than a month after he was reported missing, Tonic's body was found in Hanover.
"There was no real answers as to why not. Where did he go? Why did this have to happen to him? I think it was just the shock of it all," Baker said.
Baker reached out to WMAR, requesting that our Maryland Cold Cases team review her son's case.
We also sat down with Anne Arundel County Police Detective George Davis, who works for the department's homicide unit.
"What we're asking is, if this was your family or this was your family member, let's give those folks some answers," Davis said.
Davis has worked Tonic's case in the last year and tells us there's recent movement. Someone came forward with information.
Though they had been questioned by police years ago, they hadn't shared details at the time out of fear for their own safety.
"Because of that, time has passed," Davis explained. "This person has grown older, and this person says, 'reflecting back, I should have spoken up that night.' And their conscience got to them, and they said, 'Look, I need to unburden my conscience,' which is a very common thing we see in inactive cases."
That person, Davis said, solidified a lot of what police believed. But there's still work to do.
"This person put us in a direction of some other folks that we should interview and speak to, which is what we're actively in the process of interviewing some of these folks. Some of them are currently incarcerated in this state and other states and state or federal penitentiaries. So it's a matter of lining up interviews," said Davis.
Davis noted police can never really give a grieving family 'closure' - but he strives to get them answers.
Baker longs for those answers; she lost Nicholas, and two months later, his brother, Patrick, died of heart failure.
"I almost think that when we lost Nick, that Patrick really died of a broken heart from losing his brother. It was just so overwhelming. It was overwhelming for him, because it was so sudden. Nick was there, literally one day, and the next day he wasn't," Baker said.
Baker feels Nick was robbed of the chance to be a father; and herself, robbed of being a grandmother. Since Nick's father passed in 2015, Baker feels she must hang in there, and see the case resolved.
"If there's a message to the community, folks watching this, that you want them to hear, what might that be?" WMAR-2 News Maryland Cold Cases reporter Jack Watson asked.
"If you know something, say something," Baker replied. "That's the number one thing, if he knows something. So it's just been too long. Nick was a good guy. He really looked out for all his friends. He was a good soul. I would just really want people to understand that empty feeling that I'll always have."
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
If you remember anything about that night, or the days following, you can call Anne Arundel County Police homicide investigators at 410-222-8050.
If you have a Cold Case you'd like our team to highlight, please reach out to jack.watson@wmar.com or storyideas@wmar.com.
