The family of a missing Wyoming woman fears the worst as no one has heard from the mother of two in months. When she disappeared, Katheryn Ann Ferguson, 33, was on a cross-country road trip with Adam Shane Aviles Jr., 26. The pair were in an on-and-off relationship and shared two children. Ferguson reportedly moved to Alabama to get away from Aviles last summer but contacted him in October, asking him to bring her and their girls back to Wyoming. The father and children made it, but no one has seen Ferguson since.
When relatives reported Ferguson missing November 2, police began a search and discovered a 1999 Dodge Durango covered in blood with a gun inside. Now, the family is imploring anyone with information to help them find Ferguson and determine what happened to her.
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Ferguson reportedly left Wyoming for a fresh start.
According to a GoFundMe page created by Ferguson's brother, Alen Ferguson, and her mother, Mona Hartling, Katie Ferguson and Aviles had a tumultuous relationship, and he had "abusive tendencies." Katie Ferguson left him and moved to Alabama with their daughters, Evie, 1, and Harlow, 4, to live with Hartling and start a new life. But her family says Aviles manipulated her into moving back.
"There were many abusive moments of Adam hurting Katie over and over again mentally and physically and emotionally. He had a manipulative way about [him]. He could always draw her back in. It often takes 7 times to break the cycle before the victim leaves," the GoFundMe post claims.
The family of four headed back to Wyoming.
Her mother reported Katie Ferguson missing on November 2. She wrote November 5 on Facebook that her daughter had been missing since the beginning of October. She was last seen in Little Rock, Arkansas, around October 10. The family was traveling from Dothen, Alabama, to Cody, Wyoming. Aviles and the girls made it back, but no one saw Katie Ferguson again.
"Please keep your eye open for my beautiful daughter her family is sick with worry and Friends' we need her to come home we love her with all our heart and soul. If anybody has seen her please call the Cody Police department," she wrote.
Days later, police found Aviles' abandoned vehicle.
Katie Ferguson's older sister, Nicole Ferguson, told KTVQ she saw Aviles in Cody on Halloween but did not speak to him. Her sister was not with him. Family also told the news station he was pulled over in Texas on October 9 but Katie Ferguson was not in the car. Her family fears the worst.
"I never in a million years thought he would do something to her, I didn't," Nicole Ferguson said, per KTVQ. "But now I think he did and I think it was really bad," she said. "I don't think she's alive. I really don't."
Police found the car Aviles drove near the Oregon Basin on November 4, reportedly smelling of putrefied blood with a bullet hole in the door, according to the Cowboy State Daily.
The car reportedly resembled a crime scene.
The Dodge Durango's front seat was reportedly missing, and multiple Clorox wipes were inside the vehicle, according to court documents obtained by the Cowboy State Daily. A Glock pistol sat near the center console fully loaded. The car appeared to have a "projectile hole" in the front passenger door sealed with duct tape. As officers continued to investigate the Durango, Aviles Jr. reportedly appeared with a gas can and said he had run out of gas.
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Police arrested Aviles on an unrelated charge.
Police arrested Aviles Jr., a convicted felon, for possession of ammunition, according to a release from the US Attorney's Office District of Wyoming.
"Aviles was detained at the request of the government and will remain in custody pending trial. If convicted, Aviles faces up to 15 years' imprisonment with three years of supervised release and up to a $250,000 fine," the release notes. "A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors."
He has not been officially named in Katie Ferguson's disappearance.
"It all points in a very tragic direction, and so it's hard. It's hard to hear the rumors, to hear what might have happened to her," Angela Ferguson, Katie Ferguson's stepmother, told KTVQ. It's just unfathomable. It's devastating. It's the most tragic, awful thing."
