Jones was last seen in Morro Bay, California on April 3, 2008. He left the harbor in his 30-foot boat, the Wild Thing, at 7:00 a.m. to pick up crab pots 20 miles off the coast. The trip was expected to take about four hours. He never retrieved the crab pots, never returned home and has never been heard from again. A few days after he went missing, the Coast Guard found his boat about 200 miles off the California coast, far from where Jones was headed on the day of his disappearance. The boat had run out of fuel and was adrift. There were lines over the side. Jones was not on board and an extensive search of the ocean turned up no sign of him.

Jones is an experienced fisherman. Although he is presumed lost at sea, some agencies list him as missing under suspicious circumstances. He has never been located.