Gonzalez was reported missing after he was last seen alive at a Florida rest stop along Interstate 95, and the investigation accelerated when investigators later found his body and the semitrailer in different parts of southeastern Georgia, the FBI said. Tony Thomas, an FBI spokesman in Atlanta, confirmed Thursday that the body discovered in coastal Glynn County belonged to Gonzalez, 41, AP reported.
Authorities said Gonzalez was traveling to Miami with vehicles he had picked up April 16 at the Port of Brunswick on the Georgia coast. The FBI said he went missing while en route and that he had completed more than half of his trip to Miami when he was last seen.
According to the FBI, Gonzalez pulled into the rest stop on April 17 at about 1:20 a.m. Federal agents later posted a missing person bulletin about the case and described how his tractor-trailer was found later that day in Port Wentworth, west of Savannah. Investigators said the semitrailer was located roughly 320 miles (515 kilometers) away from where Gonzalez had been last seen.
The FBI said GPS data indicated the semitrailer began moving again hours later, at about 7:50 a.m. The FBI described a route in which the truck drove south a short distance on I-95, took the first available exit, and then turned north, heading back toward Georgia.
Thomas said he could not provide further details because the investigation remains active and no charges or arrests had been announced, AP reported. The FBI also said some of the vehicles missing from the truck when it was located in Georgia were later found in Florida, while others have not been found.
As federal investigators work to determine what happened, the case also underscores how logistics routes spanning state lines can complicate timelines—particularly when a driver is last seen in one location but key evidence surfaces in another.