NEW ORLEANS -- One family is looking for answers as police search for who killed their loved one, then threw his body in a storm drain.
When Joseph Consonery was reported missing April 19, his family began has been searching for him tirelessly.
"I was everywhere; Michoud, John Road, France Road, the Lake, Almonaster," said Rochell Scott, Consonery's mother.
She filed a missing person report a few days after Easter. In that time, his relatives kept hoping.
"I really just wanted to bring him home, whatever the case may be, whether he was dead or alive," said cousin Jonas Scott.
That search finally came to an end Sunday. It turns out Consonery was just two blocks from his mother's home.
"This was real gruesome," said Scott. "All my years, I've never heard of anything like this. For you to take someone's child and stuff them in a hole."
Consonery was last seen alive in the 4800 block of Touro Street, leaving his girlfriend's home. Police found the 22-year-old's body inside of a storm drain. Crews had to dig around the drain to remove his body. A coroner's report later revealed he had been shot.
With all the debris and the nearly hidden drainage ditch, his family believes whoever did this knew where to hide a body.
Consonery's mother said it's not clear how long he was in the drain, but the news stunned everyone.
"He loved his family," she said. "Beautiful smile, cracked jokes, made everybody laugh, help you if he can, he loved his daughter."
Members of his family will always remember he was a hard worker and had a gift for rapping.
"I wouldn't expect it in a million years for it to be this early," said his cousin.
They are now preparing to lay him to rest.
"Whoever did this to to my son, I just want him to be brought to justice," his mother pleaded.
While they are no longer praying to find him, they continue to pray no one else gets hurt by whoever killed him. Police have yet to make an arrest.
Anyone with information on Consonery's death is asked to call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.