Published: October 11, 2008 02:45 pm      

Still no sign of man despite intense search

A little more than three weeks ago a man told his wife he was returning home to Yukon and left a house west of Indianola and seemingly vanished.

Despite a large and on-going search no sign of William “Billy” Wallace has been found. But no one is giving up the search. “We’re not going to give up,” Sheriff Jerome “Snookie” Amaranto said late last week.

Wallace, 65, was last seen in the evening of Sept. 18. He was driving a 2002 black Pontiac Sunfire, with a sunroof. The Oklahoma tag number is 155 NBC.

“We don’t have anything yet,” said Pittsburg County Dep. Jeremy Webb, noting that leads haven’t panned out and have led only to one frustrating dead end after another.

An individual search organizer, Mark Pruitt, had 20 search teams out a week ago Saturday, Webb said, equipped with GPS devices.

The group scoured hundreds of square miles of northern Pittsburg County, but no sign of Wallace or his car were found.

This is “one of the hardest cases I’ve ever worked,” Webb said.

Earlier in the search effort, on different days, a Civil Air Patrol plane, a television station helicopter and even a Texas search group that specializes in searching for missing persons with pilotless drones had no luck finding Wallace.

Flyers with Wallace’ picture have been placed where people might see them at locations along the Indian Nation Turnpike and family members and other searchers are still seeking any information that might lead them to Wallace.

If you have any information that could help, you are urged to call Pittsburg County Sheriff’s Office 423-5858.

John Yates is the news director for McAlester Radio.