Dad sent disturbing text before going missing

A missing New York dad reportedly sent one, final text message to his mother.

It read, "Please help me mom".

Michael Stewart, 40, was last seen on December 20 leaving O'Neill's Irish Pub in Staten Island nearly two weeks ago.

According to New York Daily News, surveillance footage of the man 30 minutes later at around 7 pm shows him arguing with several people outside a barbershop not far from his home.

Police are reportedly treating the case as a homicide.

"It doesn't look good," Stewart's aunt, Roxanne, tells the New York Post. "They're not telling the extent of whether he's dead or not. They can't tell us that, they said, but I know right now the homicide [squad] is on it."

Stewart has two children, a daughter aged 4 and a son aged 11. He missed celebrating Christmas with the family.

"He loves his daughter," Roxanne says. "She's been crying every night for him. She's starting to see that something's wrong."