While the Missouri Highway Patrol was expected to restart a search for his body in the Missouri River this morning, Randy Chugg's family is describing him as big-hearted, hard-working and laid-back, but says he had a tumultuous relationship with his new fiance.
Jefferson City police responded to the Missouri River Bridge a week ago today, at about 4:43 p.m. to a report that a man, later identified as Chugg, may have jumped off the bridge.
"I don't know what we're going to do without him," said Jennifer Riley, Chugg's mother.
She spoke to the News Tribune on her couch, with family pictures and a cross on the wall above her and a pile of video games on the floor. Her two sons, Zac, 13, and Sammy, 12, were there as well, as was an out-of-town cousin of Chugg's who came to be with the family. They often call him Bubby, a nickname his mom gave him.
Sometimes choking back tears, Riley said that she's had a great support network through everyone at Southwest Elementary School, where she teaches. Flag Spring Baptist Church in California raised $500 for the family's Christmas.
The family lives in a duplex on West McCarty Street, directly across the street from the apartment complex where Chugg and his fiance lived.
Police have said their investigation revealed that Chugg and his girlfriend had argued before Chugg said he was going to jump off the bridge. He then left on foot. The bridge is just a few blocks from the apartment they shared in the 1100 block of West McCarty Street.
The girlfriend, whom police have not identified, told police she drove across the bridge and saw Chugg standing on the pedestrian walkway. She told police she parked at the Noren access and went to speak with him, but couldn't find him there.
Police found some of Chugg's personal items on the pedestrian walkway, near where the couple had on the bridge their "lock of love." Couples sometimes put their "lock of love" padlock on the pedestrian bridge. They're often inscribed with the couple's initials and a message.
Chugg was raised in Jefferson City until he moved to Warrensburg to live with his father during his high school years. He served in the Army, stationed in Fort Benning in Georgia, before a medical discharge for spinal injuries.
At the time of last week's incident, he was delivering papers for the News Tribune, cooking at Ecco Lounge, and delivering restaurant orders for My Dinner Taxi, his mother said. An artist, he also had an apprenticeship at The Inksling Studio, a tattoo shop on Industrial Drive.
"He was doing drawings for them, hoping to get a license to do tattoos," Riley said.
He wanted to save money for college, hoping to attend an art school.
"He was a busy boy," his mother said.
When he got engaged about three weeks ago, Chugg and his fiancee got matching skeleton key and lock tattoos on their ring fingers. They've been together since this past March, Riley said.
She said their relationship was sometimes tumultuous, but that her son was in love. "When he loved, he really loved," she said. "He would do anything for anybody."
Riley said her family, including Chugg, are members of Woodcrest, a non-denominational church. Sometimes they worship at the church's Jefferson City location and other times at its Columbia location. Chugg also was a guitar player who previously played in a Christian band, Tribulation to End Us All.
She also described her son as an aspiring fiction writer who was working on a novel.
Chugg's mom said his friends were as diverse as his interests. "He had all kinds of different friends from all walks of life," she said.