Mark Tippett is a friendly and loving man, doing well in life. He has a home and two new cars, and a job he enjoys and is excelling at, according to his sister, Sherry.

He recently won a regional service award for his work at Spy Glass Apartments in Cedar Cove. “He works hard and he had his life together,” Sherry told The Bay Net.

Her brother, and his wife Lisa, had recently been to visit her in New Mexico, where she is an attorney.

It was 10 a.m. Labor Day when Sherry received a phone call that shocked and devastated her, and ultimately just didn’t make sense.

Lisa Tippett, her sister-in-law called Sherry in tears to tell her Mark had gone missing. “She said she and Mark had had a fight over something and he walked off with a hunting rifle and a bottle of her Xanex,” Sherry recalls. Her sister-in-law told her she’d been home on the couch Sunday evening waiting for Mark to come home, but he never did.

On Thursday, Sept. 7, a poster and information of Mark’s disappearance was circulated to the local press and community. By the weekend, when her brother was still missing, Sherry Tippett packed her bags and was on a flight from New Mexico to Baltimore.

“It just doesn’t add up,” Sherry told The Bay Net. The description of Mark’s departure, armed with a rifle, sounds to Sherry like he could have been suicidal, but that isn’t her brother, she insists. “Mark is a survivor,” asserts Sherry.

“He was abandoned by his mother at an early age. He has made a life for himself and works hard.” The weapon Mark is said to have left the marital home with was a hunting rifle that belonged to their father. Mark inherited it, according to Sherry, and it is now missing.

“I suspect foul play,” said Sherry, who hired a personal detective to help locate her brother. She also received a phone call from a man who saw the missing person information and her number on The Bay Net. The man said he believed he was with Mark on Sunday evening, after the time he had reportedly left his Cedar Cove home with a gun. Sherry met with the witness, who says he played several games of pool with a man fitting Mark’s description at Dew Drop Inn on Sunday evening. Sherry listened to the description by this man, and to the recounted conversation, and she is convinced it was indeed her brother Mark he was with. If correct, as Sherry believes it is, that sighting would place her brother at Dew Drop Inn from 10 p.m. until the close of the bar. Sheriff Zylak, speaking to The Bay Net, was unable to yet deny or confirm the sighting.

“The whole investigation has been led astray,” suspects Sherry. “I’m very upset about the initial reports being false. I know from over 20 years as an attorney that the first 8 hours of the investigation are crucial,” she told The Bay Net.

Other sources suggest Lisa was not at home Sunday evening as she told Sherry. One witness places Lisa at a local motel. Sheriff Zylak was unable to comment on that matter.

“At this point in time we have no indication of foul play, and we’re still handling it as a missing person,” Zylak told The Bay Net. “We have no evidence that the initial report was inaccurate.” However, he added, “There are a lot of questions. We’re still looking into it. We’re doing everything we can.”

Mark and Sherry are two of six siblings. “He’s the baby,” she said. “I’m not leaving the state until I’ve found my brother.”

Mark Tippett is a white man, 6-foot tall, and weighing approximately 200 lbs. He has a gargoyle tattoo on his upper left arm.

He was last seen wearing a Johnny Cash t-shirt and blue jeans, on Sunday, Sept. 3.