Katie Ferguson | Courtesy photo. Watch Nate Eaton’s interview with Angela Ferguson in the video player above.
IDAHO FALLS — Katie Ferguson has been missing for 18 months, and her family members hope someone will find her soon.
Katie, a 33-year-old mother of two young girls from Cody, Wyoming, hasn’t been seen since October 2023.
“She was returning to Cody from Florida with her boyfriend and her two kids,” explains Angela Ferguson, Katie’s stepmother. “Her boyfriend returned to Cody with just the two kids and without Katie. She went missing along the way.”
Adam Aviles Jr., Katie’s boyfriend, was sentenced in September to 87 months in federal prison for being a felon in possession of ammunition. U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson found that Aviles unlawfully possessed the ammunition in connection to the voluntary manslaughter of Ferguson, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release.
Katie is presumed dead but her body has never been found.
Aviles was arrested in November 2023 after the Park County Sheriff’s Office in Wyoming found bullet holes, a fully loaded .45 caliber magazine and ammunition, and numerous blood-stained items inside his vehicle. He is a convicted felon and is not allowed to possess firearms or ammunition.
“She knew him in Cody and they were dating. He was following and threatening her, and she wanted to get away from him so she went to Florida,” Ferguson tells EastIdahoNews.com. “I helped her pay for gas and a hotel to get her to Florida to get her away from this guy.”
A short time later, Aviles went to Florida to see his kids, who were with Katie. He had a trailer to haul stuff, according to Ferguson, and the group began their journey back to Wyoming.
Katie was last seen in Trumann, Arkansas, around Oct. 5, according to court documents in Aviles’ federal criminal case, which noted there “was no projectile hole in the passenger side door.”
Four days later, Aviles was pulled over by Texas State Patrol and law enforcement found a “projectile hole” in the passenger side door of his 1999 Dodge Durango. Katie was not in the vehicle, according to the indictment.
A month later, on Nov. 4, the Durango was found in the Oregon Basin area near Cody. Investigators executed a search warrant and allegedly found dried blood and three “fired projectiles” consistent with a .45-caliber round inside the passenger side and two stuck in a door, a federal complaint says.
The front seat was missing, and a “large portion” of the truck’s trim was removed and stuffed in trash bags in the back seat, the indictment says.
Ferguson says the investigation shows Katie was likely killed between Texarkana, Texas and Arkansas.
“They’re trying to find a fire pit where she might have fallen into the fire,” says Ferguson. “I feel like they’re getting close to finding her…They’re doing search parties and they have cadaver dogs out.”
Ferguson was inspired to speak out now after watching “American Murder: Gabby Petito” on Netflix. A vlogger making a video discovered Petito’s van in Wyoming’s Bridger–Teton National Forest after the young woman had been reported missing.
RELATED | Gabby Petito’s mom speaks out ahead of ‘American Murder’ Netflix docuseries
Ferguson believes a member of the public may be able to help solve the tragedy that has haunted their family for the past year and a half.
“What we’re wanting now is just a finder. We have the guy in custody. He got put away…now we need some closure,” Ferguson says.
Watch our entire video with Angela Ferguson in the video player above.
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