Katie Ferguson’s family have been left desperate for answers after she went missing while on a long distance drive across the US with her boyfriend who is now under investigation
Missing mum-of-two Katie Ferguson (
Image: Facebook)
The family of a mum who disappeared after last being seen with her on-again, off-again boyfriend have been left desperate for answers.
Katheryn “Katie” Ferguson, 33, was last seen October 5 on a cross country trip from Alabama to Wyoming with Adam Shane Aviles Jr. of Cody, Wyoming. He remains under investigation and has not been charged with Katheryn’s disappearance.
He was arrested on a charge of felon in possession of ammunition, according to a criminal complaint filed November 13. Authorities in Wyoming have said that a search of his car found dried blood, a loaded Glock magazine and a “projectile hole” in the front passenger door, according to the complaint.
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Adam Aviles, Jr. and the missing woman Katie
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Image:
facebook)
The complaint said that on November 2, Katheryn’s mum Mona Hartling contacted Cody Police Department to say that her daughter was missing.
The missing woman’s sister, Amanda Ferguson, confirmed to NBC News that their mum was the one who first contacted the police. She said her younger sister had moved to Alabama from Wyoming in May to get away from Aviles, who had allegedly been “abusives” to her during the relationship.
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The distraught sister said: “She was scared of him. She didn’t want the girls around him.” But according to the complaint, Katie had contacted Aviles to take her back to Cody after relapsing on drugs. The paid, along with their two daughters, were making the trip. The two girls, aged one and four, are now staying with their paternal grandmother, Amanda Ferguson said.
The day her mum reported Katie missing, Aviles told police that she was not missing but didn’t want to have contact with her mum, the complaint stated. Two days later investigators found Aviles’ car abandoned in rural Cody with rubbish bags covering the windows. Police broke in due to the connection to the missing persons case and deputies wanted to make sure no one needed medical help, the complaint said.
Aviles is currently being held on a federal charge of being a felon in possession of ammunition, which he has pled not guilty
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Parks County Sheriff’s Office)
A law enforcement officer reported “he could smell the odour of ‘putrefied blood'” inside the car. The passenger’s seat was missing and there was evidence of cleaning products inside, the court records show. A Glock handgun magazine loaded with live ammunition was also in the car, the complaint said.
It continued: “There was also what appears to be a projectile hole in the front passenger door.”
As deputies investigated, Aviles approached them saying that it was just out of gas. Before he returned to Wyoming, Aviles had three more interactions with the police.
The first was October 5 in Trumann, Arkansas, the report said. It read: “K.F. was present in the passenger seat and Aviles Jr. was operating the vehicle. There was no projectile hole in the passenger side door on bodycam video.”
Texas State Patrol interacted with him on October 9 with body camera footage showing the missing Katie not in the car and the bullet hole in the passenger door hidden by tape, the complaint said. On October 11, Aviles encountered Colorado State Patrol officers and Katie was again not in the car.
Aviles was driving the car during each of the three encounters, the complaint said. His previous record includes being convicted of heroin possession in 2017 in Park County, Wyoming.
Amanda Ferguson says she last spoke to her sister on September 24. She described her sister as a “goofball” and a doting mum who would never have missed out on her youngest daughter’s first birthday, which was last month. She is hopeful that her sister is still alive.
“I still have a little bit of hope. But with all the evidence I’ve heard, if Katie is still alive, I just want her to know that we love her and miss her and we’re here for her,” Amanda Ferguson said. “But if she isn’t, I want to know where she’s at so I can properly say goodbye to her. Our whole family would love that.”
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