Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Mom of Young Kids Left Home for a Fresh Start with Her Ex — Now She’s Missing

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

Police are searching for a Wyoming mother of two who moved to Alabama to try and get a fresh start — but her family says they haven’t seen or heard from her in two months. Katie Ferguson, 33, was last seen alive in Arkansas in early October when she was on a cross-country road trip with her two young children and her ex-boyfriend. The Law&Crime Network's Angenette Levy breaks down the mysterious disappearance in this episode of “Crime Fix,” a daily show that covers the day’s most trending true crime stories.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: SPECIAL OFFER: Save 20% OFF on your entire order of POM Pepper Spray with code "Takeover20" ONLY on Nov 28 at https://bit.ly/TAKEOVER20-BFSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law & Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A Wyoming mother of two moved to Alabama to try to get a fresh start, but her family says they haven't seen or heard from her in two months. 33-year-old Katie Ferguson was last seen alive in Truman, Arkansas in early October. She was on a cross-country road trip with her two young children. Also on the trip was Ferguson's ex, the father of her kids, Adam Aviles Jr. Aviles and the girls made it back to Wyoming, but Ferguson was not with them.

Her mom reported her missing, and when police started investigating, they found a Dodge Durango registered to Avila's abandoned with trash bags blocking the windows. When deputies got inside, they say the front passenger seat was missing and there were Clorox wipes and the smell of blood. Deputies also found a Glock pistol with live ammunition. They ended up arresting Avila's on one federal charge of being a felon in possession of ammunition, which could put him away for more than a decade. But they haven't charged him in relation to Ferguson's disappearance. Her family says they fear the worst, but hope they'll see her again. I'm Antoinette Levy. It's Tuesday, and this is Crime Fix, law and crimes rundown of the top stories for the day in the world of crime. A high school baseball coach in Florida who

allegedly made students take lewd photos of themselves won't go to jail and won't have to register as a sex offender. Can you believe that? 43-year-old Samuel Figueroa entered a no-contest plea to child abuse and unlawful use of a communication device. Charges like molestation and offenses against students by authority figures were actually dropped thanks to a plea deal. A judge sentenced Figueroa to 72 days in jail, which he already served, and 10 years probation. Multiple female students at Celebration High School in Central Florida said Figueroa had made lewd comments, touched them inappropriately, and demanded photos of the girls in their underwear or bikinis.

While he's on probation, Figueroa will have a curfew, he has to ask for permission to leave the state, and he can't work at a school, and he has to stay 1,000 feet away from where children gather. This next story is so sickening and disturbing, it's literally one of the worst things I've heard in a while. Patrick Medlin was sentenced to three life sentences for kidnapping, raping, and torturing a woman and subjecting her 13-year-old son to it. Medlin was found guilty of charges of first-degree rape by instrumentation. That means he actually used something to rape this woman. He was also found guilty of maiming, possession of child pornography, and other charges.

Prosecutors in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, said the victim was zip-tied, raped and assaulted using a baseball bat, alligator clips, a hammer, and pliers. This happened in April of 2020, but COVID delayed the trial until September of this year. Those three life sentences should tell you this guy is one of the worst out there. Protecting yourself and your loved ones is really one of the most important things that you'll ever do in your life. And this little thing right here, palm pepper spray, can help you do just that. We've told you many times here on Law & Crime about palm pepper spray and how powerful it is as a self-defense tool. If you get into a jam and heaven forbid you're ever attacked, you can just point it and spray. Christmas, of course, is coming and Hanukkah is right around

the corner. And today only, you can take 20% off with the code TAKEOVER20 when you log on to PalmPepperSpray.com. This is all part of Palm's Takeover of Law and Crime's YouTube channel for the day. Remember, go to PalmPepperSpray.com, put in that promo code TAKEOVER20 to get 20% off. In South Carolina, Alec Murdoch was back in court today for a sentencing on his financial crimes cases. He's admitted to stealing millions and millions of dollars from his former clients and law firm. And the clients he admitted to swindling, one a lifelong family friend, had some very, very harsh words for him.

Take a look. When all this came about, Paul, Paul, and Maggie, I couldn't believe it. I didn't believe it. But after sitting here today and hearing some of the devious things that you did to people, these victims here, it changed my mind, bro. Once again, I ask you, what kind of animal are you? Boy, I gave you my all.

The money you stole from me, you could have asked me for it and I would have gave it to you if that's how I felt about you and your family. That was Jordan Jenks. Alec Murdoch actually calls him JJ. Murdoch stole millions from his clients by settling their lawsuits, in some cases giving them some of the money and in others not giving them any of the money at all. Murdoch told the victims who spoke that he heard them and that what they said resonated with him. He then addressed Jordan Jinks directly. I hope that the time will come when you can look back and know that despite the things that I did, that I care about each one of you. Because I do. I did terrible things. One more thing, JJ, going back,

I do want to tell you as to how close I feel to you. My wife loved you. And you are absolutely right about everything you said. But you are absolutely right about everything you said. But you are dead wrong about one thing. And I would never

hurt Maggie and I would never hurt Paul. And it is important to me that you know that. Because she did love you. And I hope you know that. Because she did love you. And I hope you know that. Alec Murdoch actually pleaded guilty to 22 counts of the more than 100 he had faced. His sentence was an agreed-upon sentence of 27 years.

As part of the plea agreement, he'll have to serve 85% of that. But he's still serving two life sentences for the murders of his wife and son, Maggie and Paul. Murdoch could get a hearing on his motion for a new trial early next year in the murder case. We have another story for you from the low country of South Carolina. Remember Stephen Smith? He was the openly gay teenager found dead in a road in Hampton County, South Carolina back in 2015. Well, the team working for his mother to determine how Smith died is now publicly talking about the results of a second independent autopsy for the very first time. Smith's death received national attention because his death is unsolved and it happened in the area where the Murdoch family lived. For years, the rumor mill

in Hampton churned as people whispered about a possible Murdoch connection to the crime. Podcasters and documentaries only added to the noise, but Dr. Michelle Dupree, who oversaw Smith's exhumation and second autopsy earlier this year, doesn't believe the Murdochs were involved. I really don't think that the Murdochs were involved. You know, we don't know who was in the vehicle, of course, not yet. We have some suspicions and people of interest, but I don't believe the Murdochs were involved. I believe this was truly an accident, a tragic accident. In fact, Dr. Dupree said the results of Smith's second autopsy weren't much different from the first conducted back in 2015.

Essentially, it was the same thing. There were some very minor differences, but you know, you've had three forensically trained pathologists look at the body and examine it, and you're not going to get much of a difference on that. The interpretation may be a little different, but essentially it's the same thing.

You know, we found no injuries whatsoever below the head, other than a little bit of road rash on his arms, which you would expect. And even though we don't believe that he was struck with the vehicle proper, we believe he was struck with something on or attached to the vehicle. And so technically, it is still a hit and run. One of the key questions that's really still out there, did the driver know he hit someone or was this intentional? One of the attorneys representing Stephen Smith's mother, Sandy Smith, believes Smith's family will eventually get answers. I am confident that SLED is behind this.

We've had many conversations with Chief Keel. We have a great deal of confidence in his agency. And so, yes, I think when they start applying their full resources and demanding answers, that somewhere, someone in this chain with material information is going to break and is going to share. Stephen Smith's mother, Sandy, is looking at increasing that reward for information that leads to an arrest from $30,000 to $40,000. Anyone who has information about Smith's death is asked to call the offices of Bland Richter or to call SLED. The judge presiding over the Delphi murder case tells the Indiana Supreme Court it shouldn't rule on a

request to reinstate Richard Allen's former defense attorneys. Those attorneys, Brad Rossi and Andrew Baldwin, withdrew after a friend of Baldwin's admitted to leaking graphic crime scene photos he took from Baldwin's office to a podcaster through another person. Those photos ended up all over YouTube. Richard Allen's civil attorneys are now asking the Indiana High Court to remove Judge Francis Gall from the case and reinstate Razian Baldwin to his defense team. But Judge Gall's lawyers and the Indiana Attorney General's office, they basically argue that Allen's team skipped some legal steps and should have appealed to her or the appellate court, not the Indiana Supreme Court. Richard Allen has pleaded not guilty to killing Abby Williams and

Libby German on Valentine's Day back in 2017. This battle over the lawyers and whether they said they would withdraw or not has really turned this entire case into a mess. Because of this, Allen's trial has been pushed to October of next year. It was originally supposed to start next month. He's currently being represented by two public defenders. In Kentucky, new details are coming to light about the death of a four-year-old girl. Chloe Darnell was last seen alive in September. Her cousin, 24-year-old Brittany Slaughter, had custody of her. Now Slaughter and her boyfriend, Adam Hayes, are charged with murdering Chloe and abusing her corpse. During a preliminary hearing yesterday, a judge heard testimony that Slaughter and Hayes

had a history of abusing Chloe. WKYT in Lexington reported that Hayes and Slaughter initially told a deputy investigating Chloe's disappearance that she had hit her head and they were too high to call 911 for help. But at the hearing, it came out that Hayes would actually discipline Chloe very severely for doing things a normal four-year-old does, like wetting her pants. Chloe's cause of death hasn't been determined yet, but a preliminary autopsy revealed she had fractures to her skull and ribs. Experts are still trying to determine when those injuries occurred. And get this, this story is pretty unbelievable as well. A man who was just released from prison after serving more than 30 years for murdering two pregnant women is actually back in jail,

accused of murdering his wife. Joseph Wingard was released from prison in Illinois in January. He'd been serving time for the murders of those two pregnant women in the 1990s. Then in June, someone found Wingard's wife, Lone Williams, shot in the abdomen at her home. She died at the hospital. Police say Wingard had been on the run until last Saturday night when he turned himself in. Wingard faces a first-degree murder charge. Lone Williams' daughter told a local newspaper that her family feared Wingard was taking advantage of her mom because she'd recently won some money in a lawsuit. Two men are under arrest after police say they found a young woman's body in an orchard not far from where her car was found on fire. All of this happened in Madeira County, California. One of the

men, 23-year-old Vicente Jasso, is the ex-boyfriend of the victim, Melanie Rios Camacho. Police say Jasso dated the victim for a few months, but the two broke up a few days before Thanksgiving. Police identified Jasso and his friend, Jose Lopez Hernandez, as the suspects in Camacho's murder. They were able to bring in the friend for questioning, but when they tried to stop Jasso's car, he led them on a high-speed chase, throwing some of the victim's belongings out the window as he went. He was eventually captured and charged with murder, while Lopez Hernandez was charged as an accessory.

Police say Jasso has a history of domestic violence complaints against him. Still going, just blew the stop sign and found him. So you're looking at a slow speed chase in Ann Arbor, Michigan that involves a stolen forklift. And guess who's behind the wheel of it? A 12-year-old. Yes, police say that boy stole the forklift from Forsyth Middle School

and drove it around for more than an hour with police and sheriff's deputies following him with their lights and sirens on. Eventually, the boy stopped the forklift. He was taken to a juvenile detention center. The entire chase started after police received a call that a child was trying to steal a piece of construction equipment from a school. The key was actually hidden inside the cab of that forklift, which was left unlocked. This next story is pretty crazy too. A man on a flight from New Orleans to Atlanta apparently decided he didn't want to go after all. Fellow Southwest Airlines passengers say he opened an emergency exit and walked on the plane's wing

before being caught by airport personnel. This all happened Sunday at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. The 38-year-old man, who hasn't been identified publicly, may have been having a mental health emergency. Officers say he was incoherent and may not have been fully aware of his surroundings. The plane hadn't started moving yet, thank goodness, and no injuries were reported. Some panicked passengers believe the man might have left something dangerous on the plane before he got out, but police say they didn't find any evidence of that. The man was taken to a hospital and no word yet on whether or not he's going to face charges. And finally, a female wrestler whose popularity spiked in the 1990s and early

2000s is going to spend the next 17 years in prison for driving drunk and killing a man. Tamara Sitch is better known by her wrestling name, Sunny. In March of 2022, she was in Volusia County, Florida, when her Mercedes crashed into a Kia at a stoplight. The elderly man driving that Kia, 75-year-old Julian Lassiter, another vehicle in front of him, and he died at the scene. Sitch was treated at a hospital and released. Officials say her BAC was 0.28. That's more than three times the legal limit. In August of this year, she pleaded no contest to DUI resulting in damage to a person and was sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison. And this is not such his first DUI. In fact, she'd been arrested for at least six previous DUIs in multiple states.

And that's it for your Crime Fix for this Tuesday, November 28, 2023. I'm Anjanette Levy. Have a great night. We'll see you tomorrow.