Rhonda Weisinger is still waiting for answers about what happened to her husband Eliga Ray Ferguson, who went missing a year ago today.
Ferguson was driving from the Houston area to make a delivery in Dallas a commercial truck driver when he disappeared from a truck stop off of Interstate 45 in Palmer.
“He had spent the night there because he was supposed to deliver in Dallas, but he was not able to make it because he was too tired and ran out of hours. So he pulled in there to sleep. I woke him up that morning. He said to call him around 5 a.m. I did,” Weisinger said. “We played phone tag because he didn’t have a good signal. We tried to reach him with his hands-free headset so he could drive. We really had a hard time because he had to walk around the parking lot there at that service station to get a good signal.”
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
Once a connection was established, Weisinger and Ferguson talked for about 90 minutes, she said. Ferguson informed his wife during the call that “people in black SUVs were searching my vehicle,” and he had “a gut feeling that he was going to jail,” she said.
“He did tell me during that time that his phone was beeping at me. We were able to talk for 90 minutes after that and then it went dead. I haven’t heard from him since,”
Weisinger said. “He kept telling me that people in black SUV’s were searching his vehicle. Just that gut feeling hit me. I don’t know how to describe it, I just knew. I kept calling his phone after the hour and half that we talked. I kept calling his phone and it kept going straight to voicemail. So I knew something was wrong.”
Ferguson did not indicate if the people searching his truck were law enforcement officers, the number of individuals searching the vehicle and the number of black SUVs that were present, Weisinger said. During the conversation, Weisinger could tell Ferguson felt distressed and was worried about the situation, she said.
After a couple of hours following the 7 a.m. phone call, Weisinger called the Palmer Police Department asking them to perform a welfare check on Ferguson, she said.
“They told me they found his truck with the window down and a half eaten banana. But none of his stuff was in there supposedly. On Dec. 15, the man that owned the truck that he was driving, his secretary told me that Ray’s stuff was in the truck and did I want to come and get it? I told them, ‘Yes, I would be there,’” Weisinger said. A missing persons bulletin also states his truck was found with the engine running. “Everything that Ray had was there except for his cell phone, headset, a phone charger, a carton of cigarettes and Mucinex Day and Night because he had a head cold.”
The time between when the phone died and Weisinger contacted Palmer police was “the most horrifying thing that I could ever experience. I would not wish this on my worst enemy. None of it,” Weisinger said.
Eight days into Ferguson’s disappearance, on Dec. 11, 2013, a caller contacted the Angelina County Sheriff’s Department, according to an incident report taken by department officials. Ferguson is from Lufkin, which is covered by Angelina County. The report stated the caller, whose name was redacted, saw a report on the local news and enquired if deputes had checked area hospitals for Ferguson. Angelina deputies checked local hospitals in the area, but did not find any sign of Ferguson, the report stated. Palmer police would not release any information and directed the Waxahachie Daily Light to the Texas Rangers regarding the case because the Rangers are currently handling it. The Rangers are the law enforcement division of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Weisinger met Ferguson in 1987 because he was a friend to her husband at the time and the pair later married Oct. 12, 2006. Ferguson would help anyone need, especially people who were elderly because that is how he was raised, Weisinger said. He liked to fish, hunt and just talk, she said.
“He was a good-hearted person that would help anybody. If they broke down on the side of the road, he would pull over and help them. That was just the way he was raised and what he was taught,” Weisinger said. “We have a lot of the same interests. He would get other men in trouble with their wives for opening the door for me
He was a good-old, country boy.”
Ferguson had been working as a commercial truck driver starting at age 17, driving logging trucks. At the time of his disappearance, he was working for J&M Carriers who is based out of Coldsprings and was carrying coiled steel as his cargo, Weisinger said. Ferguson started working with J&M Carriers in September of 2013. The route he was traveling on was one he regularly traveled, Weisinger said.
About three weeks after Ferguson’s disappearance, Weisinger requested help from the Texas Rangers and contacted Ranger Steven Rayburn. Rayburn is stationed in the Lufkin office near Weisinger’s home. According to an incident report, Weisinger contacted the office on Jan. 6, stating Ferguson’s last known location was a truck stop of I-45 in Ellis County and his employer later recovered the tractor-trailer he was driving.
When contacted by the Daily Light for further information about the investigation, and where that investigation currently stands a year later, Rayburn said he was unable to comment on an ongoing investigation. The Daily Light also contacted DPS media relations office and Sgt. Loony Hashel also stated the Rangers were unable to comment on an active investigation.
“For the longest, they told me that they had no leads and they were questioning his ex-wife, his kids and all of us. On Nov. 5 of this year, Steven Rayburn called me to let me know that Ranger (Adam) Sweaney out of Waxahachie had called him and told him they had found remains in the area where Ray went missing,” Weisinger said. “He said it would take three to six months before they would find out anything on DNA testing and that is all they knew. Steven said he had not been told that if it was a man, woman or if it was Ray or what. They would not even tell what personal effects were found with the body.”
Weisinger said she remembered the time when she was notified about the new information; it was at 6:52 p.m. and she was driving to the store. She said she had to pull over to the side of the road because her “heart had stopped.”
According to a previous Daily Light article published on Nov. 5, the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office was notified about the discovery of human remains in Palmer by hikers on Nov. 2. The remains were found in a wooded area off of East Campus Road in Palmer.
“Several hikers located what they believed to be human remains near a dry creek bed,” said Dennis Brearley, the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy at the time. “Ellis County investigators responded to the scene and confirmed the discovery of the human remains. Crime scene personnel collected several items of evidence as well as the human remains.”
The remains were sent to an anthropologist at the University of North Texas’ anthropology lab, Brearley said. Anthropologists at the lab are currently working to identify the remains’ sex and identification. The cause of death is unknown at this point in the investigation and officials don’t know how long the remains have been there, according to a previous article. At the time of the discovery, Brearley said results from the study of the remains are expected to take a minimum of three to four months.
However, as of press time Tuesday, Brearley said he did not want to make any statement on either case until officials positively identified the remains. The Daily Light also contacted the DPS media relations office to confirm that Rayburn contacted Weisinger. Hashel reiterated that DPS had no comment on the matter at this time because Ferguson’s case is still an active investigation.
The past year has brought difficult moments for Ferguson’s family, Weisinger said. After Ferguson disappeared, his family suffered another loss.
“On Dec. 23, his brother passed away,” Weisinger said. “Burying him on top of Ray being missing — it had been really traumatic on the family.”
Weisinger has battled depression and has been taking anxiety medicine since Ferguson’s disappearance, but her family, friends and faith have helped her hold on.
“God brought me to where I am at. God is going to keep me sane. I miss him and I love him a whole bunch,” Weisinger said. “I just want him to come home.”
Weisinger said the holidays have been tough without Ferguson at home, but prayer has helped. Although it has been a tough year, Weisinger said she remains hopeful she will see Ferguson again.
“It is still going to get rougher until he is home,” Weisinger said. “Then, I am going to duck tape him to the wall so he can’t go nowhere.”
Ferguson is described as having blonde hair and green eyes. He is a white 57-year-old male, 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds. He was last seen wearing a baseball cap, blue shirt and jeans and is known to wear a goatee and mustache. Those who have any information or think they may have any information about Ferguson or his disappearance are asked to contact DPS at 1-800- 346-3243.
