TEMPLE, Texas—Relatives who prepared a newspaper ad that read “Please come home” for a missing family member instead found the man dead under his wrecked car from an accident that appeared to happen more than a week earlier.

Erik Ray Aguilar, 22, was found by chance Saturday in a remote field by relatives who noticed his car while driving to church, police said.

He was reported missing March 7.

Friends and family members had been searching for Aguilar since his disappearance, posting fliers across town and drafting a newspaper ad that was to read, “Please come home. Mom misses you and loves you! Please call!”

“I can’t believe my brother is dead,” said Ericka Aguilar, 19, the man’s sister.

“I knew there was something really wrong when he didn’t contact me on my birthday.”

Aguilar’s car appeared to swipe a guardrail before crossing a Temple highway, going up an embankment and rolling at least once, Temple police Sgt. Allen Teston said.

Authorities believe the accident occurred shortly after Aguilar was last seen March 5.

The car was about 100 yards off the roadway Saturday when family members, driving by the field, spotted Aguilar’s car. Teston said Aguilar was thrown from the sedan before it came to rest on top of him.