Police search for leads on man who’s been missing for nearly 23 years
By Brett Rains
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POCOLA, Oklahoma (KHOG, KSHB) — Kenneth Weaver has been missing since Christmas Day in 2000.
“It’s been over 8,000 days that we’ve not seen or heard from him,” Becky Glenn said about her brother. “Your head tells you that after this long he’s not here, but your heart doesn’t believe it.”
Weaver is from Fort Smith. Glenn told 40/29 News it took five years before her family could officially file a missing persons report for her brother.
“Arkansas would say no, it’s Oklahoma. Oklahoma would say nope, it’s Arkansas, and neither one of them wanted to file a report,” she said. “A lot of families who have missing loved ones on the borders are having the same problems. It is crazy. No family should have to go through that.”
The investigation and case file rests with Pocola police after Weaver’s friend reported that he dropped the 37-year-old man off at another friend’s house in the small, Oklahoma, town that borders Fort Smith.
“The flow of information on a case that goes back and forth across the state line sometimes gets lost in the shuffle and that’s exactly what’s happened with this case,” said Capt. Wayne Barnett with Pocola police.
Information later revealed that Weaver may have been driven to Fort Smith. Pocola police have not received any new leads on case in more than 10 years. According to Barnett, there are some credible tips in the lengthy case file that was composed with help from Glenn.
“(Leads) that range from — he left on his own to go somewhere else, to where he was done harm to him because of a drug debt that he possibly could have owed, or that somebody had disposed of his body,” Barnett said.
Glenn also started the “Missing Kenneth Ray Weaver” Facebook page to try and help generate leads to help find her brother.
“Someday soon I hope to be able to post that we now know where he’s at and we can bring him home and the person who’s responsible will get the knock on the door that they’ve been dreading all these years,” Glenn said. “If someone’s hurt him, which is what we suspect, they’re getting away with it, and my mom — she’s elderly — she deserves to know what happened to her baby. And we aren’t any closer now than we were 23 years ago.”
Tips in the case can be reported to Pocola police or through the Missing Kenneth Ray Weaver page on Facebook.
“I know that someone in our area or several someones in our area know what happened to Kenneth Ray Weaver,” Barnett said.
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