Three years ago today, Pamela Bass was picking up her granddaughter and just happened to glance at Facebook.

The post read, “Body found in Pratt City,” and she had a sinking feeling. Her son, 29-year-old Antonio “Toni” Bass, had been missing for five days.

“As a mother, I knew it was him,’’ Pamela said.

Toni’s execution-style murder remains unsolved.

“Would I want them to find somebody? Sure. But am I expecting it? No,’’ Pamela said.

“Am I sitting up just waiting on that day? Not anymore,’’ she said. “That’s the only way I can move forward.”

Toni was a son, father of two daughters, brother, businessman and active in social justice movements. He was always a visible presence at the Magic City Classic celebrations with one of his cars he called Big Blue.

Toni was last seen by his family about 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9, when he dropped his daughter off at her grandmother’s home. He returned to his Warrior Road apartment where a neighbor’s security camera recorded him about 6:20 p.m. checking his mail.

Pamela said there were immediate signs – both in his apartment and his car – that something was amiss. She filed a missing person’s report, but it wasn’t until really two days later that it seems the investigation kicked into high gear.

“They didn’t (initially) seem to think there was foul play,’’ she said. “They just took the report as if he were a missing person.”

Birmingham police roped off the apartment with crime scene tape and flooded the small building’s property. By then, however, so many people had been in and out of Toni’s apartment that the crime scene – if indeed it was one – was contaminated, she said.

“That interfered in the evidence from the beginning,’’ she said.

“Birmingham has so many cases that are unsolved,’’ she said. “I feel they’re overworked and understaffed. They do their best.”

Pamela came to suspect the worst had happened to her son.

“I was hoping, but when we got to the fourth or fifth day (of him missing), I knew,’’ she said. “He was a Facebook junkie, and there was nothing. He talked to me every day. He talked to his daughter every day. He was very vigilant.”

On Sept. 14, 2020, her worst fears were confirmed.

Toni’s remains were found shortly before 3:30 p.m. that Monday in a field on Pratt Highway. The resident who lives next to the field saw the body and immediately called 911.

Toni was found near a tree in the small field adjacent to Doug Mason’s driveway. “I drove into my driveway and saw a dead body right there,’’ Mason said. “I immediately called 911.”

Mason said he’s been down his driveway several times today and did not notice anything amiss the other trips. “It’s not something I expect to see when I drive in,’’ he said.

More than 100 of Toni’s friends and family members flocked to the scene, including Pamela.

Right after she had seen the social media post about a body being found, she received a call from the detective asking her what kind of tattoos her son had.

Almost at the same time, her sister called and said, “Where are you?”

“I said, ‘I’m going,’’’ Pamela recalled telling her sister. “She said, ‘I’m going to take you. I don’t need you to go by yourself.”

“She must have gotten called first,’’ Pamela said, “because she was there in two minutes.”

Since Pamela was already in Pratt City, they didn’t have far to go. Still, “That was the longest two-minute ride.”

“When I first got on Pratt Highway, cars were already on the side of road like two miles back,’’ she said. “As we were going down the road, I recognized his friend’s cars.”

Toni’s body was decomposed, and his hands had been bound behind his back.

“He had to have been on his knees and he was executed,’’ she said. “When he fell backwards, his hands were under him, so they were intact.”

Toni had the names of his twin siblings tattooed on each of his hands, which were all that had been spared decomposition. That was key in a swift identification.

Because of where the body was found, which just over the line into unincorporated Jefferson County, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office became the lead investigative agency in the murder.

Few leads have come in over the past three years.

Toni left behind two daughters – Zorihanna Bass and E’Yana Kay Marshall, who just seven months old when her father was killed.

“They’re doing well,’’ Pamela said. “The baby knows her dad somehow. I asked her who she looks like, and she said, ‘My daddy.”

Toni’s obituary read, “Antonio was so excited about his new venture, he had just started his own trucking company, Bass Transportation. He loved doing risky skits in fast cars. It didn’t matter what type of car you had, he would always include you in any events he was having. He didn’t discriminate, he loved everyone around him.”

“Antonio would protest for our social justice and civil rights, he demanded justice for those that needed it, most notably being involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. His presence will be truly missed.”

Pamela said she misses Toni every day – the way he talked, the way he laughed, the fact that he was always the life of the party.

“That was my child,’’ she said. “You don’t get closure.”

She doesn’t know why he was killed, and she’s had to stop trying to figure it out.

“As a mother, I had to stop having gut feelings, or what ifs or maybes, or it could be this, or it could be that,’’ she said. “That’s what kept my anxiety high.”

“I have given it to God,’’ Pamela said. “I just pray He give me strength. You never know when triggers are going to hit.”

It was in Toni’s death that Pamela said she saw how many people he touched. She won’t let him be forgotten and she now speaks out on crime and violence.

On Sept. 23, Pamela will be on a panel for The Genesis Project’s Community’s Response to Gun Violence which will be held at Lawson State Community College. She is a co-founder of The Genesis Project, a non-profit that mentors and educates youth.

“I speak on it every opportunity I get,’’ she said. “We’re trying to bring awareness to violence.”

Anyone with information on Toni’s death is asked to call the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office at 205-325-1450 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-1764.