Unsolved mysteries: The missing persons cases haunting the Wilmington area
On Sept. 20, 2000, Pamela Bradshaw was dropped off at her residence on Red Cross Street in Wilmington. She was last spotted leaning into the passenger side of a blue Cadillac-style vehicle with a white top.
"That was the last time that anybody ever had any communication with her," said Sheryl Allder, Bradshaw's only daughter.
Nearly 24 years later, Allder is still looking for answers.
She described her mother as fun, loving and carefree.
"She definitely had a big heart," Allder said. "She was a good mom, but you know, drugs take over your life," she added, noting Bradshaw struggled with addiction.
Potential suspects were identified in Bradshaw's case, but no one has been charged, Allder said.
Unfortunately, the unsolved nature of Bradshaw's case is not unique. There are at least 17 other unsolved local missing persons cases, according to ones registered with the Community United Effort (CUE) Center for Missing Persons.
If you have any information about these cases or others, contact CUE at 910-232-1687.
Artis Russell Bryant
On the morning Feb. 26, 2021, Artis Russell Bryant went out to run few quick errands with his brother.
At 8 a.m., the two took a trip to a nearby Riegelwood Credit Union, stopping by a local gas station to buy cigarettes, a lighter and ice cream on the way home.
After returning to his residence at 4032 Northwest Road, Leland, Bryant was spotted by his sister-in-law. She went to prepare him breakfast and then discovered that he was missing.
Family and friends of Bryant were not successful in locating him during searches of his residence, a nearby family residence, and a mobile store on U.S. 74/76.
More: 'Suffered long enough': Family seeks closure in Brunswick County missing persons' case
Brunswick County Sheriff Brian Chism previously said the extensive missing persons investigation conducted in the days following Bryant's disappearance included use of helicopters, law enforcement K-9s, and search and rescue teams, but provided no leads.
The Northwest Police Department and Community United Effort (CUE) Center for Missing Persons is offering a $10,000 cash reward for anyone able to provide information that leads to the direct location and recovery of Bryant. This reward remains active until June of 2024.
Artis Hill, Bryant's son, said Bryant may have been suffering from dementia at the time of his disappearance.
Distinguishing characteristics: Black male, 5-foot-10, 120 pounds, black hair, brown eyes. Last seen wearing a black hat, black jacket, dark pants and black shoes. 70 years old at the time of disappearance.
Bobby Robinson
Bobby Robinson was last seen in Wilmington at 7 p.m. on May 14, 1995.
Robinson left on foot, stating he was going for a walk, and has not been seen since, according to the CUE Center for Missing Persons.
Robinson, who was 41 years old at the time of disappearance, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.
Distinguishing characteristics: Black male, 5-foot-7, 165 pounds, black hair, brown eyes. Burn scars on upper arms.
Charles Kuebler
Charles Kuebler was last seen swimming in Wrightsville Beach on July 26, 2016. He was 58 years old at the time of disappearance.
Distinguishing characteristics: White male, 6-foot-1, 170 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes.
David Cottle
David Cottle Jr. was last seen in the area of 1604 Cotswald Court in Wilmington on March 9, 2013.
He has not been seen or heard from since.
Distinguishing characteristics: White male, 5'10", 180 lbs., brown hair, blue eyes. Tribal tattoo on his right bicep. Wears glasses. Forty years old at the time of disappearance.
David Miranda Hernández
David Miranda Hernández was last seen on Apr. 1, 2023.
The 16-year-old was swimming with friends near Fort Fisher when he was swept out by the ocean.
His body has yet to be recovered.
Distinguishing characteristics: Hispanic male, 5-foot-6, 150 pounds, black hair, brown eyes.
Previous coverage: 'His heart was right': Family of teen missing near Fort Fisher pleads for more support
Deloris Melton
Deloris Melton was last seen on April 15, 1994, at a bar called High Tides in Ocean Isle Beach.
Her family suspects foul play.
"She had family, a fairly good job, a son, a nice place to live, and money in the bank," according to the CUE Center for Missing Persons webpage.
Distinguishing characteristics: White female, 4-foot-11, 120 pounds, blonde hair, blue eyes. Scars from a breast reduction. Chipped tooth. Ring engraved with the word 'shorty.' Thirty-eight years old at the time of disappearance.
Ebonee Shanetta Spears
Ebonee Shanetta Spears was last seen at Pointe-Taylor Estates on Jan. 15, 2016.
Prior to her disappearance, Spears visited the Wilmington Police Department at 615 Bess St., located several blocks from her home.
At the station, Spears asked to use the pay phone.
"She was acting strangely and appeared to be disoriented," according to CUE Center for Missing Persons webpage. "She was directed to the pay phone in the lobby and was unable to operate it."
Spears paced back and forth between the front desk and the pay phone for approximately 10 minutes before leaving.
She has not been seen or heard from since.
Previous coverage: Five years later, Wilmington still seeks answers in Ebonee Spears' disappearance
Distinguishing characteristics: Black female, 5-foot-8, 130 pounds, black hair, brown eyes. Tattoo of a rose on right shoulder. Tattoo of a butterfly on top right foot. Dyed blonde hair at the time of disappearance. Thirty years old at the time of disappearance.
Gaston Callum
Gaston Callum was last seen on Nov. 13 or 14, 2010, at the running track of the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He was riding a mountain bike.
In January of 2010, Callum was evicted from his place of residence. He placed all his artwork in a storage unit, leaving a note behind on the back of a Michael Jordan photograph, asking that whoever receive the photo to please take care of it.
"Family members state that he had a passion for photography," according to the CUE Center for Missing Persons webpage. The 48-year-old was unemployed at the time of disappearance.
All of Callum's personal belongings were left behind, including his wallet.
Distinguishing characteristics: 6-feet, 180 pounds, light brown hair, blue eyes.
Greg MicKey
Greg MicKey was last seen around 12 p.m. on June 18, 2005, while scuba diving with friends.
MicKey's friends lost sight of him in rough waters near Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower, roughly 30 miles southeast of Bald Head Island.
"According to his diving partners, he was last seen on the surface about 50 feet from his boat," according to the CUE Center for Missing Persons. "A strong cross current swept him and his dive partner northwest of the boat during a free ascent after they failed to find the anchor line at the end of the 100-foot dive."
One of MicKey's diving partners made it back to the boat. The United States Coast Guard recovered another diving partner nine hours later approximately four miles northwest of the original dive site.
MicKey, then 49 years old, left behind his buoyancy compensator and tank when attempting to swim back to the boat. Divers found MicKey's open weight belt on the ocean floor four days following his disappearance, but his body was never recovered.
He "was an advanced certification diver in a full wetsuit, mask, fins, and snorkel so close to the boat," according to the CUE Center. "What happened to him remains a mystery."
The U.S. Coast Guard conducted 40 search missions over more than 1,000 square miles using aircrafts and board without success. Additionally, others have conducted private searches.
A ship was sunk in memoriam to MicKey in 2006.
Distinguishing characteristics: White male, 5-foot-10, 172 pounds, dark brown hair, brown eyes. MicKey was last seen wearing neon green flippers, a gold wedding ring with a woven rope inside the band and identifying script, a dive watch with a silver face and a silver band, and a Dacor black wetsuit.
Previous coverage: Family honors diver by sinking ship
Jonathan Kyle Brackett
Jonathan Kyle Brackett was last seen on Aug. 1, 2009, near a wooded area in Surf City.
Originally from Carolina Beach, the 18-year-old was visiting family in Surf City on the day he disappeared.
In the days prior to his disappearance, Brackett told his mother her planned to join the military. Brackett's mother said he seemed to be in a good mood at the time of the conversation.
When Brackett picked up his last paycheck from his place of work, he told a friend he wouldn't be in the next day because he was leaving.
"He was in the company of some people who worked for a carnival in Carolina Beach when he disappeared," according to the CUE Center for Missing Persons webpage.
Brackett was on probation at the time he went missing. His family does not believe he would have left before his probation had completed.
He was never heard from again.
In 2010, the CUE Center took part in a search for Brackett in Surf City with no success.
Distinguishing characteristics: White male, 5-foot-9, 150 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes.
Mary Rachel Bryan and Leila Lewis Bryan
Leila Lewis Bryan and her four-year-old daughter Mary Rachel were last seen around 9 p.m. at Carolina Beach on May 10, 1941.
Leila told her husband, Eddie Bryan, that she was taking a trip to a local grocery store and left in a 1935 Ford coupe.
Berry Lewis, Leila Bryan's brother, drove around Carolina Beach in an attempt to locate Leila and Mary Rachel with no success. Professional divers searched local waterways and officers visited gas stations up to 100 miles away.
Advertisements were placed in newspapers across the country. Officers in Pinellas, Florida, began searching for Leila and Mary Rachel after a report of a spotting of the pair nearby.
In the summer following, a piece of an automobile windshield was discovered in Snow's Cut, a canal connecting the Cape Fear River and the Intracoastal Waterway. Investigations revealed the glass could have come from a 1935 Ford but were not certain. The fragment was sent to the State Bureau of Investigation in Raleigh but was lost as the case grew cold.
According to previous reporting, neighbors reported seeing Bryan's husband laying concrete at their home on the same night his wife and daughter disappeared. Eddie has since died and excavation of the concrete floor at 214 Raleigh Road in 2008 proved unsuccessful in providing any leads.
No one was ever charged, and the case was never solved.
Distinguishing characteristics (Leila): White female, 5-foot-7, 120-125 pounds, dark hair, dark eyes. Wearing a summer print dress, brown and white shoes, and a green turban. Thirty-six years old at the time of disappearance.
Distinguishing characteristics (Mary Rachel): White female, dark hair.
Raymond Gregory Walker
Raymond Gregory Walker was last seen in Oak Island on Nov. 15, 2008.
Walker owns a home in Oak Island and in Boston. Few details are available in his case.
Distinguishing characteristics: White male, 5-foot-8, 160 pounds, gray hair (balding), brown eyes. Gray beard and mustache. Large wire framed glasses with thick lenses. Fifty-seven years old at the time of disappearance.
Richard Borelli
Richard Borelli was last seen in Carolina Beach on April 9, 1999.
Borelli spent the day with his mother and then became upset when he had to go back to Neilson's Rest Home, an assisted living center where Borelli was living.
The 49-year-old was never heard from again.
Distinguishing characteristics: White male, 5-foot-6, 145 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes. Tattoo of the name 'Rich' on his arm. Scars on both forearms.
Rosalind Wall
Rosalind Wall was last seen in Southport on Feb. 12, 1995, at a residence on Fodale Avenue.
Robert Nichols, Wall's boyfriend, reported her missing two days later on Feb. 14.
Distinguishing characteristics: White female, 5-foot-4, 120 pounds, blonde hair, blue eyes. Scar on inner left arm. Butterfly tattoo on right shoulder blade and buttocks, black widow spider tattoo on one of her shoulders, and a purple flower tattoo on her left ankle. Twenty-nine years old at the time of disappearance.
Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk
Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk was last seen in downtown Wilmington at 7 p.m. on April 5, 2014.
Surveillance footage shows Van Newkirk walking into The Husk, a bar on S. Front St., at 3 p.m.
In 2017, a Pender County jury found a man guilty of second-degree murder in her presumed death, but a body was never discovered.
Distinguishing characteristics: White female, 5-foot-6, 105 pounds, reddish brown hair, brown eyes. Butterfly tattoo on her shoulder. Fifty-three years old at the time of disappearance.
Tammy Ferguson
Tammy Ferguson made a call to her mother from a pay phone at a gas station at the corner of South Navassa Road and Village Road in Leland on July 16, 1995, and was never heard from again.
Originally from Alabama, the 37-year-old had been living with her husband at Leland Mobile Home Park on Old Fayetteville Road at the time of her disappearance.
Ferguson, who worked as a maid at the Town and County Motel in Belville, told her mother she would be moving back to Alabama after collecting her disability check. She left behind all of her personal belongings, including an uncashed check.
Ferguson also left behind her only child. Her case remains unsolved.
Distinguishing characteristics: White female, 5-foot-5, 140 pounds, blonde hair, blue/gray eyes. Missing a finger on her right hand. Red rose tattoo with the name 'Tonya' and a skull tattoo with the name 'Joshua' on her upper arm. Other tattoos located on the back of her shoulder and above her breasts.
Pamela Bradshaw
Detectives are still working to pursue potential leads in Bradshaw's case.
Bradshaw's mother is almost 90 years old and currently lives in New York City. Allder said that she seeks closure in her mother's case not only for her own peace of mind, but for her grandmother's.
"I have my sad moments and withdrawn moments and, you know, just...want to walk the Earth to try...and find her," Allder said.
With children of her own, Allder relocated back to Wilmington roughly three years ago. She said being surrounded by family and friends in the area who knew her mother can be helpful in coping with her disappearance.
"I just try to keep a lot of faith that one day we will find her and...put it to rest...and who can be convicted needs to be convicted," Allder said.
Distinguishing characteristics: Black female, 5-foot-6, 120 pounds, black hair, brown eyes. Surgical scar on left breast. Removed molars. Forty-two years old at the time of disappearance.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: The unsolved cases of missing people in Wilmington, NC
