Sarah Miles gave birth to her son Ricardo Devoncian Miles in Indiana on February 14, 1988, reports The Natchez Democrat.
The family moved to California and later to St. Joseph, Louisiana, where they had relatives.
Sarah describes her son Ricardo as a sweet and happy child. She said Ricardo got into trouble sometimes, but no more than the average child reports The Natchez Democrat.
A few years after graduation, Ricardo married his high school sweetheart, Andrea.
He would often visit his mother in California, where she lived at one point.
Although Sarah moved, she would spend time between there and Louisiana.
“He used to come see me in California,” Sarah told The Natchez Democrat. “We would laugh and talk. It was a really good time in my life.”
On June 2, 2017, Sarah Miles left their family home in St. Joseph, Louisiana, and went to work, reports The Natchez Democrat.
Sarah made plans to have dinner with Ricardo later that evening and told him goodbye.
According to The Natchez Democrat, Sarah told Ricardo she would see him later.
It was a sunny day, and 29-year old Ricardo and his grandmother, Flora Miles, decided to go fishing.
The pair went to a small inlet near the Lake St. Joseph Lighthouse, a well-known local dining spot in Newellton, Louisiana.
The inlet sits off Lake St Joseph between Hillcrest Drive and Main Street.
Flora and Ricardo were enjoying the breeze while fishing when a man in a white pickup truck pulled up.
Ricardo turned to his grandmother and told her he would be back shortly.
“He told me, ‘I’ll be back in 10,’” Flora told The Natchez Democrat.
Ricardo got in the truck, and the driver pulled off.
His family has never seen him again.
According to The Natchez Democrat, 10 minutes grew into 20, and then into hours.
“He wouldn’t leave his grandmother out by the water by herself," his mother Sarah told The Natchez Democrat.
Several hours after Ricardo left his grandmother at the fishing inlet, Ricardo's sister received a text from him.
Ricardo asked his sister for his their uncle's phone number.
“Why would he ask her for that?” Sarah told The Natchez Democrat. “He would have his uncle’s number. They were close.”
When Monday arrived and there was still no sign of Ricardo, his mother contacted the Tensas Parish Sheriff's Office and reported her son missing.
An extensive search was launched for Ricardo. The FBI, state police, and Catahoula and Ouachita Sheriff's Offices aided in the search, reports The Natchez Democrat.
“It’s like he was just gone,” Sarah told The Natchez Democrat as she rode down a dusty dirt road near Newellton, near a farm where Richardo used to work. “It hurts so much. Every day I wonder, Where is he? Where is my son?”
Authorities retrieved the surveillance cameras of the parking lot from The Lighthouse, the dining spot located near the inlet.
“You could see him getting in the truck on the camera,” said Debby McGee, who is co-owner of the Lighthouse with her husband, Wesley, reports The Natchez Democrat. “It’s such a terrible situation. I hate it for the family.”
Wesley McGee was cutting grass the day Ricardo disappeared and remembered seeing him.
“They were fishing, and I didn’t really think anything of it,” Wesley McGee said. “He just got in the truck with the fella and drove off.”
Authorities said they interviewed and questioned the man driving the white truck several times.
Authorities said the man told them he picked Ricardo up on June 2, 2017, and then dropped him off at an intersection in Newellton.
Authorities refuse to release the name of the man, reports The Natchez Democrat.
“I can’t get into the body of it, but at the end of everything, he wanted an attorney,” Chief Deputy Rob Rushing told The Natchez Democrat “At that time, we had to stop the interview.”
In 2018, Sarah received a text from a friend that body was found at Tensas High School.
Frantic, Sarah immediately drove to the High School.
“It was a baby,” Sarah told The Natchez Democrat. “They found a baby in the Dumpster.”
Ricardo has never been located.
“We’ve done everything we could with everything we had to go on. We track down rumors and more often than not, when we get to the bottom of it, that’s what they are — rumors," Deputy Rushing told The Natchez Democrat.
"The investigation … it’s not at a halt. It’s so unfortunate for the family, but we’ve done everything we can do at this time. Until something happens, we get a tip or find a break, this is where we are.”
Ricardos mother Sarah is tired. She told The Natchez Democrat her blood pressure has taken a sharp rise, she finds herself frowning more often, and she feels tired.
“Sometimes,” Sarah told The Natchez Democrat. “I think it’s killing me.”
“I can’t go anywhere until I know,” she told The Natchez Democrat. “Sometimes I look out at these bayous and think, ‘Nobody would ever find him here.’ There’s no way to search it all.”
Ricardo Devoncian Miles was 5"10"-5'11" and weighed 210-225 pounds when he vanished.
Please contact Tensas Parish Sheriff's Office at 318-766-3499.
Comments / 794