Troy Matthews describes his older sister, Shalunda Matthews, as a “feisty,” “adventurous” people person – one of the people that made him tough.
“She’ll take the lowest of the lows of people and make them her friends,” Troy told The Dispatch. “She’s just an outgoing person, (a) good person to be around. People like to be around her.”
Shalunda was last seen Oct. 20, 2008, by her boyfriend at the time, who said she had left their shared home that morning to pick up items from a store. The family knew something was wrong when she never showed up to visit her autistic son, who was in her mother’s care, at the start of November.
So the Matthews family filed a missing person report with the Columbus Police Department. The boyfriend was interviewed at the time and cleared as a suspect. But soon after, good leads dried up, Troy said.
“The leads that they did have were sending them all over the place, and it was a bunch of bogus, a bunch of people that sit on their porch and fan flies and just come up with stories,” he said.
There was never an organized search for Shalunda, Troy said, and no “dedicated officer” took over the investigation, resolved to bring the case to its conclusion. Looking back over the last nearly two decades, Troy is unsure whether law enforcement ever had the tools to find his sister in the first place.
“Probably if she was in a bigger place, a bigger city or something, maybe they would have put more manpower in place to do so, but I don’t think they can really solve any cases around there if the family doesn’t put forth their own private investigation team to go do work that you pay for yourself,” Troy said. “My mom, my family, don’t have the resources to do such things.”
Shalunda is one of 13 people considered missing from the Golden Triangle, according to the Mississippi Repository for Missing and Unidentified Persons, a statewide database and collaborative tool used to help identify and resolve cases.
Among those cases, six people have been missing for more than 15 years, with most cases seeing little to no progress since the cases were opened.
Rhonda Dequier, founder of the nonprofit Missing in America, works to manage missing persons campaigns, raise public awareness and coordinate search efforts alongside law enforcement for missing persons cases nationwide. Dequier said one reason many cases go cold is due to a lack of immediate action by law enforcement. Even still, she believes all cases can be resolved.
“I think the biggest misconception is those are not solvable,” she told The Dispatch on Friday. “That they’re not worthy of investigation, they’re not worthy of advocacy or being in the spotlight or in the media. … It takes one piece of information to put together a puzzle to reignite the whole investigation and to ultimately solve it.”
“Every case is so unique,” said Jesse Goliath, founding director of the state repository. “But … the more the investigator reaches out to other resources, other agencies to get information and just really (gets more) eyes on it … the more likely it can get solved.”
Here is a look at the five other oldest missing persons cases in the region, according to the state repository.
John Heflin
OKTIBBEHA COUNTY
John Heflin, 25, was last seen in January 1969, when his mother dropped him off at his sister’s house in Starkville.
It’s believed Heflin had previously been involved in illegal activity with a man in Longview, allegedly acting as the getaway driver for a crime, according to the state repository.
Before his disappearance, a friend had allegedly driven Heflin to the man’s house. Heflin returned from that visit crying. He offered no clear explanation to his friend on the basis that doing so could put his life in danger.
The friend urged Heflin to go to the police, but he refused, saying the man had threatened to kill his family. Heflin, who was living in Jackson at the time, had two sons.
Perception can sometimes play a part in why a case goes cold, Goliath told The Dispatch. Victims who society perceives as imperfect might not necessarily receive the same investigative resources as a young child, for example. As those cases become hotter, others become colder, he said.
“This is a person first,” Goliath said. “People are already going to have preconceived notions about (why) this person is missing … or that they put that situation on themselves. … But they are a son. They are a daughter. They are a parent to someone who is looking for them.”
Lester Raymond Jones Jr.
OKTIBBEHA COUNTY
Lester Raymond Jones Jr. was less than 10 miles shy of his destination when both he and his vehicle disappeared on Jan. 11, 2010.
Jones was 25 at the time of his disappearance. He was a graduate student studying biomedical engineering at Mississippi State University and a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.
He was on his way from Starkville to Jackson when he stopped at a Sprint Mart in Flowood, the state repository said. The black-and-white surveillance clip from the gas station is the last known sighting of him.
His cellphone was later recovered from the bathroom, though an investigation headed by Starkville Police Department yielded no further evidence of him or his vehicle.
Both Dequier and Goliath said a lack of resources is a major challenge when investigating missing persons cases.
“They’re stretched thin, and missing person cases compete with violent crime, limited funding (and) shortages,” Dequier said. “… I don’t believe that translates into the lack of care from law enforcement, and it just makes it challenging for missing person cases in general, because a crime hasn’t taken place. So therefore, they don’t get the resources that they need until there is proof that a crime has taken place. People say it’s not against the law to go missing, and that’s true.”
Jessie Barnes
CLAY COUNTY
Jessie Barnes, known by loved ones as Little Jessie, was 28 when she went missing from West Point. She was last seen on July 7, 2000, at a family member’s home near the 800 block of Little Street, according to the state repository.
Ten days later, she was reported missing after she didn’t show up to her grandmother’s funeral.
Barnes’ family told investigators it wasn’t abnormal for Barnes to go a few days without contact, but it was unusual to go weeks without or leave behind her young daughter, according to The Charley Project, another online database of missing persons cases.
Before her disappearance, Barnes told her sister a man had threatened her with a knife, though she could not remember his name. It remains unclear whether or not the threat was related to her disappearance, the state repository said.
Barnes is described as “mentally disabled” and “very trusting in nature” with difficulty remembering names and numbers. Her 54th birthday was in July.
Dequier said as cases grow older, what families often need most is consistent advocacy for victims and transparent communication from law enforcement.
“They expect effort, honesty and to not be forgotten,” she said. “So any awareness that communities or media can do to keep their missing person in the public eye so that the chances of a resolution are greater is absolutely what the families hope for. They can’t hope for anything more than that, and to hope that if anybody has any information that they come forward.”
Madeline ‘Midge’ Ponds
LOWNDES COUNTY
Madeline ‘‘Midge’’ Ponds was only 17 when she was last seen working at a convenience store in Columbus. Her mother had dropped off dinner for Ponds, who was working alone, before leaving. Less than five minutes later, a customer found the store unattended.
Ponds’ personal items were still inside the store and in her vehicle, which was parked outside. About $600 was missing from the register. Investigators – both from Lowndes County and Pickens County, Alabama, where Ponds’ family resided – believe she was taken against her will, but the case has seen little progress.
Older cases become inherently more difficult to solve as evidence deteriorates and witnesses’ memories fade, Goliath said. But as technology evolves, investigation methods do as well.
In 2010, investigators with Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office dredged a well behind the convenience store where Ponds disappeared, following up on decades-old rumors and a partial alert from a K-9 unit that could indicate a body was inside.
A camera system was used to observe the contents of the well and its walls as it was drained, but no evidence of a body was found.
While time may make a case more difficult to investigate, Dequier said it could also render a “change of heart” in those who have never come forward with details about someone’s disappearance.
“Maybe someone isn’t willing to come forward in the beginning, and maybe after 10 years … their circumstances are different, and they’re finally ready to come forward,” Dequier said. “Not getting it out there in front of the public and just letting it go colder … might stop that person from coming forward.”
Kaila Morris
LOWNDES COUNTY
The 16-year anniversary of Kaila Morris’ disappearance passed on Sept. 17. Her 37th birthday was last week.
“December is difficult because it’s the month she was born,” said Morris’ mother, Bonnie Williamson Morris Thames. “She was born 10 days before Christmas, so the holidays are hard. Every holiday is hard.”
Morris was last seen at her family’s home in Lowndes County in 2009 after making a surprise visit home from Starkville, where she attended MSU, to see her mother.
Morris’ former step-father, Robert “Butch” Triplett, was the last known person to see her. Triplett told investigators he saw Morris leave in a dark-colored vehicle, and he believed she was visiting her best friend in Alabama. She left behind her medication, her English bulldog, Tonka, and her wallet.
At about 8 p.m. the following day, Triplett reported Morris missing to the LCSO. An investigator cleared Triplett as a suspect in her disappearance shortly after the case opened.
Triplett, however, was arrested a month later and sentenced to 40 years in prison after pornographic images of minors were retrieved from family computers during the investigation into Morris’ disappearance. He also had past sex crimes in Mississippi and Louisiana.
Searches were held for years by community members and GTR K-9 Search Team. Thames said parties searched every bridge, creek and roadside bump between Lowndes County and Carrollton, Alabama, though no evidence ever turned up.
Thames remembers Morris as a voracious reader, a gifted dancer, a loyal friend and a lover of animals. The two took a special trip together nearly every year to see musicals, visit museums and zoos, or take boat rides up and down rivers in new cities around the country.
Still, Thames said the two travel together.
“I can wear some of clothing, or some of her hats or her jewelry, and I take something of hers with me wherever I go, so that she can be with me too,” Thames said. “I talk to her as I’m putting luggage in the car. I say, ‘Come on Kaila. Let’s go. Let’s go see what God has created.’”
Sixteen years later, Thames said she has found some peace in “not knowing,” though she and her husband Keith continue to search for her.
“I feel that God has told me that before I pass away, her remains will be found and she will be able to be buried next to her father, and I am at peace with that,” she said. “I know that God is going to answer that prayer.”
Though it has taken time, Thames said she has found purpose following Morris’ disappearance.
“I’m here to help other people get through hard times and know that God is still with them and know that he will stay with them and pick them up,” she said. “… The loss of a child is indescribable. And whenever that happens, I feel like I can help the next person that loses a child by showing them that this is survivable, and you can still have joy in your life.”
Other missing people in the Golden Triangle
Shaundra Harris, 45, and Bobby Knight, 45
The couple was last seen together in New Hope in February 2023. Knight’s vehicle was later found burned in Crawford, but neither he nor Harris have been seen or heard from since.
Golden Triangle Crime Stoppers (662) 494-0109
Rahman Hernandez, 30
Hernandez was last seen in West Point Nov. 21, 2018. His mother said it is very unlike him not to make contact with her or other family members.
West Point Police Department (662) 494-1244
Andrianne Lewis, 28
Lewis was walking near the 1000 block of East Broad Street in Clay County on May 20, 2021, wearing a red blazer and carrying a beige purse. Lewis is originally from Jackson.
West Point Police Department (662) 494-1244
Jessie Young, 58
Young was last seen April 10, 2022 in West Point, driving a maroon 2000 Ford Expedition. Neither he nor his vehicle have been located.
Clay County Sheriff’s Office (662) 494 2896
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
