Mystery of fishermen who disappeared at sea until family received series of chilling phone calls

On 12 April 1990, four fishermen set sail from Georgia, US, for a seven-day trip to the Atlantic Ocean.

They were onboard a boat called the Casie Nicole, which had just spent several weeks being repaired before being put back out to sea.

The vessel's captain was Billy Joe Neesmith, and the crew consisted of his brother Nathan, their nephew Keith Wilkes and their friend Franklin Brantley.

When they set off the plan was simple, sail out to a reef around 90 miles away known as Tiger's Ledge and start fishing.

Between 3.30am and 4am the next morning (13 April), Nathan woke up to take control of the boat and noticed that it was moving rather slowly.

Waking up his brother they checked the boat's engine and found that it was surrounded by about a foot of water.

Attempts to pump the water out were unsuccessful as the pumps on the Casie Nicole weren't working, and when Nathan and Billy Joe went to wake the others, they spotted that their beds were surrounded by a similar depth of water.

Four men went out to sea in the Casie Nicole, only one returned. (Unsolved Mysteries)

Since the pumps wouldn't start, the four men tried a more traditional method of getting rid of the water, using a bucket to bail it out of the boat.

They also sent out a 'mayday' warning but received no response, and then the engine stopped working.

With no power, the ship's radio also stopped working and the fishermen decided to abandon ship, with them cramming into a two-man life raft.

However, this too was in a poor state of repair with a hole in it and by the time the sun was rising on 13 April the life raft was sinking as well.

The fishermen then made their own raft out of the hatch cover from the Casie Nicole, and looking out over the sea they could see their stranded ship about three miles away.

Nathan made the decision to swim back to the boat to see if he could get some help from there, and swam for hours before getting back to the fishing boat.

Unable to see the other three, he clung to the hull of the Casie Nicole to avoid drowning for two-and-a-half days.

At one point he saw another boat miles away which appeared to make several stops and thought it might be picking up the other fishermen.

Nathan survived after a styrofoam box broke free from the fishing boat and rose to the surface, and he was able to get inside it and float.

Three of the four men were never found, but then strange phone calls were made. (Unsolved Mysteries)

He was eventually rescued on the morning of 15 April about 20 miles off the coast, with the fishing boat also being found that same day.

However, the other three fishermen were never seen again and a search of the sea found no trace of them, the life raft or the hatch cover they'd been on.

Billy Joe Neesmith, Keith Wilkes and Franklin Brantley were missing, presumed dead.

On 5 October 1990 there was a strange phone call made to the home of Nathan and Billy Joe's sister Oneda.

Her mother picked up the phone and someone speaking Spanish spoke down the line, and the only English they spoke was to give a name and phone number.

The Casie Nicole's owner Doug Tyson also got a strange call that day, and over the next few months three more calls were made to Oneda and two more to Tyson.

On 6 March 1991 the caller said 'I'm bringing them home', but the trail goes cold from there as nobody ever came back.

The case was covered in a 1992 episode of Unsolved Mysteries.