Justin Gaines wanted to look good for the ladies.

The Gainesville State freshman was home on a Thursday night and sought assurance from his stepfather his shirt looked OK.

A night of fun with friends was the plan, but as often happens, the plan changed.

Gaines and the group headed to Wild Bill’s, a dance club in Duluth. Armed with a pass to get in for free, Gaines was ready to go, but the others were left to pay a cover charge. They chose not to pay, and Gaines went in without them.

No big deal, guys do it all the time.

Toward the end of the night, Gaines called friends for a ride home, but found no takers. Surveillance cameras showed him wandering in and out of the club, the last time around 2 a.m.

It was Nov. 2, 2007.

He has not been heard from since.

“It’s hard to think of what he’d be doing now, but I know he would be excelling at it,” his mother, Erika Wilson said in a phone interview. “He is a good kid and has a great personality.”

* * *

On college campuses, most women are constantly warned of the dangers of crime, but men not so much.

Whether through DNA or social norms, men tend to worry less about their own safety. But men are targeted just as much as women, University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said in a phone interview.

“We all have the same opportunity to be victimized,” he said. “But men and women see crime in a different light.”

Men and women view their risks differently, he said.

“Men are going to look at situations from the perspective that they control things, and women are going to ask more questions,” he said.

The sexes tend to be victims of different kinds of crimes. Men are more likely to be involved in an armed robbery or battery crime, and women are more likely to be victims of sexual assault, Williamson said.

Students should think they can be a victim of a crime, Williamson said, adding they should also control how much they drink. Alcohol is the biggest factor in crimes in Athens and consuming alcohol moderately could dramatically reduce students’ risk to crime, he said.

For men, ordinary actions can lead to terrible consequences. A simple aside can land a man in the hospital. Williamson cautions men against fighting with men they don’t know at bars. Many men think fighting involves saying a few curse words and “maybe throwing a punch,” but “you never know how the other party is socialized,” Williamson said.

There have been cases in Athens where one man used words and another used a knife, he said.

He also said online social networking exposes students to risk. Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow individuals to comfortably talk to people they may not know.

Though students should not cut themselves off from the things that increase risk – such as alcohol and online social networking – Williamson said they should act wisely.

“We tell people all their life not to talk to strangers, but all the things we teach as a society to be safe go out the window when people sit down at their computers,” he said.

Williamson also said youth can increase the risk of crime. Statistics from the National Crime Information Center show there are 31,703 missing individuals ages 18 to 21.

“As you become more worldly, you take less risk,” he said.

* * *

In the six weeks after Gaines’ disappearance, his mother joined other groups to look for him continuously. Texas EquuSearch, the organization that helped look for missing persons such as Laci Peterson, participated in a five-day hunt for Gaines, and the Georgia Defense Team also helped for a weekend.

They scoured the area around Wild Bill’s for clues, but nothing was found, leading Wilson to believe Gaines left the nightclub in a vehicle.

“In the beginning [the search] wasn’t thorough,” Wilson said. “We had to do another search to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”

Professionals from Texas EquuSearch trained Gaines’ family how to conduct proper searches.

“It was things like submitting all of Justin’s stuff to the NCIC [National Crime Information Center] national database not just the GCIC [Georgia Crime Information Center], because if something horrible happened to him, his remains would be unidentified,” Wilson said.

Gaines’ family was introduced to Bob Poulnot, a private investigator who volunteered to work for them pro bono.

“He is my sanity,” Wilson said. “I know there is someone who cares. He is trying to help us find closure.”

Wilson, who has six other children ranging from a daughter in eighth grade to a 22-year-old son at Ohio State, spends much of her time searching for her seventh child. She maintains a Web site dedicated to Gaines’ disappearance – justingaines.com – and started the Justin Time Foundation. The organization helps families in the early stages of searching for loved ones between the ages of 17 to 25, by forming search parties, providing dogs and thinking of the little things – such as food for searchers.

“It’s my life now,” she said. “I haven’t worked since this happened. My job is to find information and help others.”

She calls attention to all missing people, she said. “College students are especially overlooked,” she said.Her group offers assistance as police departments are not equipped with enough time or resources.

Since Gaines was 18 at the time of his disappearance, and there is no law against being a missing person, police were not required to search for him, Wilson said. Because he went missing in Gwinnett County, police are bogged down dealing with daily crime in a large metropolitan area.

“I think a lot of things slip through the cracks,” Wilson said.

To let college students know they can be victims, Wilson blogs about safety, encouraging young people to travel in groups and always making sure they have a safe ride home.

She continues to search for her son, whose disappearance inspired her to start the foundation. Her mission is to help others – and find her son.

“I’m not going to stop searching and looking for leads,” she said. “I don’t want Justin to be forgotten.”