News Updates
We will provide the most up to date information on the search for Shirley Hunt on this page.
April 3, 2009 -
Shirley Hunt Case Reopens http://www.cbs19.tv/Global/story.asp?s=10105911
A new
development in a two-year-old missing woman case. Rusk County Sheriff
Danny Pirtle said the hunt for "Shirley Hunt" is not over.
The
Rusk County sheriff's department said it will reinvestigate the
disappearance of Shirley Hunt. Hunt went missing from her Rusk County
home in June of 2007.
Sergeant Amber Rogers said the sheriff
wants "to make sure no stone is left unturned and the department did
everything it could to find Hunt."
Hunt who had advanced
Alzheimer's was last seen wearing denim shorts and a white shirt with
black trim and a long sleeve blue shirt.
July 27, 2007 -- Texas Equusearch (http://www.texasequusearch.org) Saturday, August 11, 2007 – Crews will be going to Henderson, Texas in search of Shirley Hunt, missing since June 19, 2007. Please view her poster below for more information. We will need horses, ground searchers, and ATV’s. A command center will be announced at a later date. If you can help or need additional information, please contact Carol Moyers at
carol.moyers@texasequusearch.org .
July 25, 2007 -- Tyler, Texas
Patsy spoke with Diana Nieman-Harris, a Family Services Manager from the “Alzheimer’s Association” in Dallas. She said she would be glad to work with the family in any way possible. She seemed very nice and said to tell the family that her thoughts and prayers are with you all. They discussed the www.findshirley.com website, and she said she has already been there and has shared the information with their Dallas staff, national office staff, and offices in all the counties they cover. The staff who handles the “1-800” number in Dallas also has the info so that if anyone calls to report they have found an unknown person who may have Alzheimer’s, they can check into the possibility that it may be Shirley. Diana said she spoke to the Sheriff’s Office in Henderson on 7-24-07 to offer her assistance.
July 24, 2007 -- Henderson, Texas
Sarah called all Assisted Living and Nursing Homes in the Lufkin and Nacogdoches area.
July 23, 2007 -- Tyler, Texas
Patsy Tyner (family friend) called the “Texas Hospital Association” in Austin, the “Alzheimer’s Alliance of North East Texas” in Tyler, the “Alzheimer’s Association Northeast Texas Chapter” in Tyler, and the “Texas Department of State Health Services” – Communications Division and Alzheimer’s Division in Austin to see if they had any suggestions to aid in our search for Shirley. They had no suggestions for anything that has not already been done or that is not being done now. She asked them all specifically if there was a way to phone or email all Texas hospitals at once, and they all assured her there is no such mechanism in place.
Patsy also called the “Texas Department of State Health Services – Regional Office” in Tyler - where she used to work - to see if they had any suggestions. Her former boss’s assistant checked with several different programs; and they, too, could not think of anything that the family has not thought of.
July 22, 2007 -- Kilgore, Texas
Someone called and reported seeing Shirley around the Kilgore College campus. Sarah, Nancy, Bobby, Dennis and Sgt Logan from the Sheriff's Dept. all met in Kilgore and drove all around the campus for at least an hour and saw nothing. The campus police said that there had been orientation that day for all new students and it was probably someone connected with that. The phone call had come from Jacksonville and Bobby was to call Sgt. Logan and he was going to check that out.
July 22, 2007 -- Jacksonville, Texas
Sarah and Nancy went to the Jehovah's Witness Church, and were told that they did cover the New Summerfield area and that one of their church members had gray hair and could have been the woman reportedly seen at a Hispanic lady’s house last Saturday.
From there they went to the Waller Broadcasting station and Sarah talked with a Hispanic man who had someone put it on the radio then, in Spanish and English.
They then went to the Catholic Church. Sarah spoke with the Priest and asked him to tell his congregation on Sunday that no one would be deported if they had Shirley and would give her to us.
July 22, 2007 -- New Summerfield, Texas
Nancy and Sarah went to the Davis Nursery to talk to a Hispanic lady named Maria, but she had gone to Mexico. She is the counsel for a lot of Hispanics in that area. They were told she would be back next week.
Then they went to the Catholic Church and spoke to the Priest. Sarah gave him one of the fliers in Spanish and told him the same thing about not wanting to get anyone in trouble, all we want is to get Shirley back.
July 18, 2007 -- Henderson, Texas
Nancy called 12 psychiatric hospitals in the state of Texas and none of them have any unidentified people or Jane Does.
July 18, 2007 -- Lexington, South Carolina
Sari Ness (cousin), a spanish teacher, sent an email to Telemundo Dallas asking for coverage of Shirley's story.
July 17, 2007-- http://www.projectjason.org
July 15, 2007 -- Henderson, Texas
Received word of a rumor in Henderson that some Hispanics around New Summerfield had Shirley but didn’t want to turn her in for fear of being deported. Several family members went to New Summerfield with translators to assure that community there would be no problems with the law for turning her in. The sheriff was not involved in this effort.
July 14, 2007 -- Jacksonville, Texas
Ricky searched shelters.
July 13, 2007-- Henderson, Texas
Dogs from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice were brought back to search again. The search began at the church and continued down the back roads that were searched before. Neely Cemetery was also searched since footprints, believed to belong to Shirley, were seen there immediately following her disappearance. Nothing came of the search.
Some of the family then met with Sheriff Deason, Detective Logan and Sgt. Evans (dog handler) regarding other places to search and what to do next. Two suspicious cars could not be searched or sniffed due to lack of probable cause. Sheriff said his recommendation was to wait and see what happens and that his department didn’t know what else to do. Detective Logan was going to take flyers to the bus station to be given to each driver.
Ricky Hunt (Shirley's son) spoke to Kenny Ray, a Texas Ranger in Tyler. He said he was willing to help with the permission of his superiors. Nancy then spoke to his superiors and was told they would only help if the sheriff wanted them to.
Bobby and Ricky spoke to Detective Logan about getting the Texas Rangers involved. Logan said they did not want their help.
July 13, 2007-- Wylie, Texas
Traci Cox (Shirley's niece) sent email with notification of this site and requesting everyone to send emails to various news media. (If you did not receive this email, check the Media Email page. If you would like to be added to the mailing list, send a message on the Contact Us page.)
Sarah spoke with Cindy at TE because we could not find Shirley's picture on the web site for missing persons. It was back online, with the corrected information. Cindy said she would saturate local news media to get Shirley back out there.
July 9, 2007--Tyler, Texas
Kenny Ray is the Texas Ranger located in Tyler who serves Rusk County. Sarah will call him if we need his help. Sheriff Glen Deason said it was permissible to contact him.
July 9, 2007-- Henderson, Texas
Shirley's sisters solicited the help of a family friend to put together email to send to every Sheriff in the state of Texas with picture of Shirley. The first set of BOLOs (Be On the Look Out) sent out by the Rusk Co. Sheriff did not include a photograph. These will be sent out on Tuesday.
Sarah and Nancy will begin working on e-mails to relatives and friends to saturate CNN, FOX and MSNBC to get Shirley national coverage.
July 9, 2007-- Henderson, Texas
Sarah Harris, Ava Phillips and Nancy Harris (Shirley's sisters) met with Sheriff Glen Deason and Brian Bathke to get questions answered about the investigation, leads, dogs, license plate duplications, Hispanic taking missing person flier, and several other topics. Glen agreed to call in some more dogs - when did we want them - they said now and he made the phone call to Sgt. Evans at Tennesse Colony (Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice) Palestine area.) Everyone met up at Jam's on 79 and 1798 and all went to Valero Station in New Summerfield to begin search at station and Old Mill next door. Shirley was reportedly seen at Valero Station on 6/23. The dogs turned up nothing. We next went to Townley Lumber Yard which is approx. 5 miles from Bob's & Shirley's house. The dogs turned up nothing.
Sgt. Evans said he will continue to come back and search for Shirley until we find her. He is training dogs Tues, Weds.and Thurs. but will be back and start with the area behind Townley Lumber. He will have "suspicious" car sniffed. His dogs are named Bonnie and Clyde and he has worked with them for a long time. Sgt. Evans has been doing this work for 27 years, and if the dog comes within 1/4 of mile and wind in right direction the dog will pick up her scent and find her. He also did not put too much confidence in the dog search from last Friday. When he starts searching again he will search for traps, which would include culverts, ditches and briers which would hold on to a body. Seems to be very knowledgable and gives freely of information.
July 8, 2007-- Henderson, Texas
Ava Phillips (Shirley's sister) spoke with Billy Smith from Laredo, Texas, as requested by Sandy Burns from Pampa, Texas. Billy suggested Ava contact James Prince (Sheriff of Bowie Co.) in Texarkana. Billy said he only knew dogs in W.Virginia and Idaho. Billy said Prince might know of someone within 100 mile radius of Henderson that could help us. Billy said that he felt like Shirley was looking for a place that felt safe and like home and she was probably somewhere between where she currently lives and where she wanted to go, and was more than likely more than 100 yards off of the road. Billy said she could possibly be submerged and we wouldn't know until the water receded. Billy has been doing this kind of work for 37 years. He has his own dog search business.
July 6, 2007-- Good Spring, Texas
Click on the Search One Report for details.