42-year-old Raymont Earl Willis Jr lived with his girlfriend on Johnson Hill Road in Waverly, Ohio. Waverly, Ohio used to be known as a "sundown town." A town where black people had to be inside before dark, or they risked being arrested or worse. On July 1, 2020, the Pike County Sheriff's Office served a search warrant at their home. Agents located two small plastic bags of marijuana, some change, a shotgun, $1,500, a 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe, and 20 DVRs, reports NBC 4.
On July 4, 2020, Raymont called his daughter, Brittney Hewell, sometime between 4 am and 5 am. According to NBC 4, Raymont told Brittney, "The sheriff’s raided my house, but I’ll be OK.”
One day after that phone call, Raymont, nicknamed Frog, called his girlfriend and said he was on his way home, reports the Charley Project. Raymont never arrived. Raymont is a man focused on his family, especially his children and grandchildren, so it was out of character for his family not to hear from him. His girlfriend reported him missing on July 11, 2020.
Authorities immediately suspected the disappearance of Raymont was connected to the disappearance of another man, Koby Roush, who vanished the day after Raymont, on July 6, 2020. On July 20, 2020, authorities reported that Luke Farmer was wanted for questioning in connection to the disappearances of Raymont and Koby. On July 7, 2020, at 3:11 am, Luke Farmer was pronounced dead after suffering from a drug overdose at a house in Pike County. According to NBC 4, he died in front of several friends who attempted to give him Narcan and CPR. The Ross County coroner's report showed Luke Farmer tested positive for "amphetamine, methamphetamine, and designer opioids 4-ANPP, fentanyl, and nor fentanyl," reports NBC 4.
Rumors began to circulate that both Raymont and Koby had been put in woodchippers and fed to hogs.
“About my father, yes,” Brittney told NBC 4. “He was fed to the hogs, cut up in a chipper, and fed to the hogs. I was told he was in a barrel as well.”
Brittney went to the Waverly area and searched for her father.
“Someone actually whispered to me while I was sitting in a car, ‘I know where your dad is,'” Brittney told NBC 4. “The person that [they] said done it was standing right in front of me.” She told NBC 4 that she was "afraid for her safety."
Kelsie Houpe is a volunteer searching for Raymont. She has visited the former homes of Raymont, places he frequented and the last place he was known to be seen, on Watson Road. Kelsie told NBC 4 she spoke with several people who had "tattoos identifying KKK and Arian Nation."She told NBC 4 that visiting the former sundown town "took courage."
“Yes, it did,” Kelsie told NBC 4. “It was very scary. It was terrifying. But I felt like, it’s now or never.”
When Kelsie visited the Watson Road location where Raymont was last seen, witnesses reported that Raymont had run into the woods.
“When I went there, there was actually a giant jump to even to get into the woods,” Kelsie told NBC 4. “The guy that went with us is almost 7 feet tall and very slender. And he had trouble climbing up there. There’s no way that Raymont just jumped up there.”
Britney Hewell wants to know what happened to her father.
“I just want closure. I can’t be satisfied about the situation. … It’s different having an obituary than a missing paper. All I have is a missing paper of him,” Brittney told NBC 4. “It’s hard to keep going on with life knowing that he’s somewhere out there…and no one’s trying to bother to find him or anything. It would mean so much to me, and his other children, and everybody else that wants him home.”
Raymont Earl Willis is 5'10"-6'0" and weighed 203 pounds when he vanished.
If you have any information, please contact the Pike County Sheriff's Office at 740-947-2111.
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