Kaila Morris’ Facebook page doesn’t get much traffic outside of September and December.
December 15 is her birthday and September 17 is the last time anyone ever saw or heard from her.
Each year on those dates, Kaila’s mom, Bonnie Thames, and Kaila’s best friend, LaBriska Walker, make Facebook posts on her page, something they have been doing for 16 years now.
Technically, Morris is a missing person, which makes her case one of 300 missing person cases in Mississippi.
Yet, with no one having seen or heard from Morris and no evidence of her as a living person since that September day, it’s likely she is dead. And since no signs of her body have been reported, it’s highly unlikely that, if she is indeed dead, it was the result of an accident.
In the immediate aftermath of her disappearance, few imagined that no one would know what happened to her all these years later. There was a good suspect from the start.
Suspicion immediately fell on her stepfather, Robert Triplett, who reported Kaila missing from their New Hope home on Sept. 18. Aside from being the last person to see her, other reasons to suspect Triplett soon emerged. During the investigation, Triplett admitted that he had massaged the 21-year-old Morris after she had taken her shirt off. He also said he massaged her upper thighs.
So Triplett was off the charts on the Creep Meter from the start, but there was a pattern of behavior by Triplett that made him even more suspicious, including a rape conviction in Louisiana and a charge of attempted sexual battery in 2003 that was dropped with the alleged victim did not show up for the trial.
There were other things that pointed toward Triplett. Investigators found that Kaila’s bedsheets were freshly washed after she vanished. Triplett’s explanation was that she had asked him to wash them before she left the residence. He also said that Kaila asked him to check on property that she owned in Pickens County, Alabama. Triplett said that he went to the property with an ax and a shovel, but got his ATV stuck for two hours.
Triplett said Morris left his residence at 8 p.m., which means Triplett was doing laundry and checking on property (with an ax and shovel) well after dark.
A search of the area Triplett checked on that night yielded no evidence. Neither did the ax or shovel.
Investigators eventually got a warrant for his computer. Hundreds of child pornography images were found on the hard drive. Triplett claimed he was unaware that the individuals in the photos were underage. He was subsequently arrested on charges of possession of child pornography.
In July 2010, Triplett’s trial seemed more like he was on trial for the disappearance of Kaila Morris than possessing child pornography. Among the evidence presented were the shovel and ax found at his home, the freshly washed sheets from Kaila’s bed, a statement by Triplett about an area where a body could be dumped and that Triplett was the last person to see Kaila alive.
Triplett, now 72, was found guilty and sentenced to 50 years in prison with a tentative release date in 2059, at which point he will be 106.
Those who believe Triplett is responsible for Kaila’s disappearance take some solace in that.
Over the years, there have been alternate theories about what happened to Kaila. The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office has been following leads on the case as recently as two years ago.
Slowly, the way Kaila Morris is thought of has changed, from the initial combination of hope, anger and suspicion to bittersweet memories found on her Facebook page.
Kaila’s case might eventually be solved, which happens with most missing persons cases.
The tone shifts from finding her to meeting her again someday.
Septembers and Decembers come and go but she is not forgotten.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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