Roy Whited missing person case

Roy Whited

One of Sparta’s well-known, well-loved figures has been missing for 10 months, and there are as many questions now as there were nearly a year ago when it was discovered that Roy Whited was nowhere to be found.

While this is an ongoing missing-person’s investigation, White County Sheriff Steve Page sat down with The Expositor recently to discuss the case and what is being done to locate the iconic Sparta resident, a well-known businessman, a beloved coach, and a compassionate pastor. While the sheriff was open and honest during our conversation, the fact that the case is still an active investigation meant there were some things he still couldn’t discuss. Sheriff Page was quick to explain that any “no comment” answers were not intended to hide facts or confuse Whited’s friends and family but instead were to maintain the integrity of the case and not allow unfounded speculation or taint any avenues they may still be investigating.

“I want to find Roy as much as anyone else,” Sheriff Page said. “He was a friend of mine, too. A good man. A part of this community. We are working every day to find him.”

WHAT WE KNOW

Friday, May 3, 2024 

• Roy Whited went to his office as usual.
• Approximately 2:30 p.m., Roy Whited met with people at a property on Indian Mound Road for the purpose of acting as realtor in the sale of a property
• At 3:45 p.m. Whited’s truck was caught on a neighbor’s surveillance camera pulling into the driveway of his Lovejoy Road residence
• At some point that afternoon, another neighbor claims to have seen Whited walking along Lovejoy Road

Saturday, May 4, 2024

• There was no confirmed contact with Whited by anyone. No one has said that they saw or spoke with him on this date.

Sunday, May 5, 2024

• Roy Whited did not show up at church. He was the pastor at BonDeCroft Church of Christ and should have been at the church in order to prepare for service.
• When Whited was not at church and could not be reached by phone, some members of the church, along with Whited’s landlord who was also a church leader, went to his residence.

Sheriff Page said he was at church, although not Whited’s church, when someone asked if he had heard “the news” that Roy Whited may be missing. Page said he called and requested that deputies go to Whited’s residence for a wellness check, but, as we now know, Whited was not there.

What was done in the days immediately following

Whited’s disappearance?

Sheriff Page said that investigators spoke with every resident on Lovejoy Road in the early stages of the investigation. In addition, they spoke with colleagues, family members, and business associates as well as church members.

Searches of the surrounding area, including the large 3,300-acre hunting lease property behind Whited’s home were conducted. Searches were done on foot, using 4-wheelers, and on horseback. Page said helicopters were called in, bloodhounds were used, and drones were flown over the area.

“The drones were so high-tech and the water was so clear that you could see turtles,” Page said about the thoroughness of the search. “We had cameras that are able to pick up a piece of denim the size of a quarter, but they didn’t pick up anything.”

Page went on to say there are trail cameras throughout the woods in the area, both those designed to catch game and those hidden with the intent of catching trespassers, yet there was no sign of Whited anywhere on the property.

What is being done now?

According to Sheriff Page, the investigation is ongoing. He pulled out a casefile close to a foot thick. Each paper a report on a subject, a potential witness, a response from the TBI, or a new lead.

“We are checking every lead that comes in, no matter how obscure it may seem,” Page said.

He talked about a potential siting in DeKalb County where a witness said that they had seen Whited, driving a red jeep, pull up beside them at a traffic light. Page said he tracked down the vehicle that Whited used to own that was similar in description but that it had been sold to someone out of state.

Page talked about a caller that claimed Whited had broken into her apartment, and she had fought him off with a chair.

Both times, along with others all documented in the case file, Page and investigators took every lead as if it would be the one that led them to Whited and followed through on them until they hit dead ends.

Sheriff Page said on two separate occasions a singular bone had been found in the vicinity of Whited’s property. Both times the bones were sent off for evaluation and were determined to be animal. In addition, skeletal remains found recently in Cumberland County were determined not to be Whited’s, but detectives from the White County Sheriff’s Office made calls to get confirmation before moving on.

A list of questions for

the sheriff

With the general information out of the way, Sheriff Page let me begin asking questions about the case to get a better understanding of what has happened and what is being done to find Roy Whited. Here are those questions, along with his answers.

Question: What was Roy wearing on the day of his disappearance? Was his work attire different than that a neighbor was said to have seen him wearing?

Answer: Roy Whited was wearing a light-colored shirt, possibly blue jeans, and either cowboy boots or tennis shoes. I do not know if he changed clothes at any time during the day.

Question: Why a difference in his possible footwear?

Answer: A Lovejoy Road resident said that he saw Roy walking on the road and that he was wearing cowboy boots. However, his boots were found in his home. It’s also unlikely that if you were going to go for a walk, you would choose to wear a $500 pair of cowboy boots when tennis shoes are available.

Question: Who was the last person reported to have seen Mr. Whited?

Answer: The last person he was known to have had contact with was people he was working with to sell a property on Indian Mound Road. We can confirm that Roy met with them the afternoon of May 4, 2024, and they said that he appeared normal at that time.

We have another possible sighting by a neighbor on Lovejoy Road where Roy lived. However, the neighbor said that he did not speak to him. The neighbor claims to have seen Roy walking on the end of Lovejoy that is nearest Highway 70, approximately one-and-a-half miles from his residence. The neighbor stated that he knew Roy and recognized him when he went to see why his dogs were barking. He said that Roy was walking back southbound in the direction of his home.

Question: The neighbor’s dogs barked when they saw Mr. Whited? Was there a vehicle that may have dropped him off? The dogs did not bark if/when he was headed northbound?

Answer: Not according to the neighbor who made the report. He only claims to have seen Whited heading toward his home and did not make any mention of an earlier sighting or any vehicles.

Question: So, Mr. Whited was not seen walking near his home nor in the large bend on Lovejoy Road?

Answer: No.

Question: What was the condition of his rental house? Were there any signs of forced entry or abduction? Was the house locked or unlocked?

Answer: The house that Roy rented was locked when the church members who went to find him arrived. They had the landlord, who was both a member of the church and also lived next door to Roy, with them. He had a key. Nothing appeared to be disturbed inside the home.

Question: Were there security cameras on or around the house?

Answer: There was only one camera at a neighbor’s house. That camera could just catch the road and start of the driveway but did not reach down the property. This is how there was footage of Roy’s truck arriving on the afternoon of April 4, but no other footage. Roy did not have any security cameras on the property himself.

Question: If the neighbor’s security camera caught the truck pulling into the driveway, did it not catch Roy walking on the road, either to or from his house?

Answer: No, it did not.

Question: What personal belongings were in the house? It is known that Mr. Whited owned guns. Were they in the house?

Answer: Everything looked to be in the house as it should be. Roy’s phone was plugged in beside his bed. His Bible with notes was on the table. His laptop was there. He did have guns; however, one gun box was empty. I cannot confirm whether or not Roy had the gun with him, as no one reported seeing it and we have not located either the gun or Roy at this time.

Question: Was his cellphone examined? Were there repeated conversations or texts to the same number that were causing Mr. Whited concern over the weeks leading up to his disappearance? Did his phone die or go into low-battery mode before it was plugged in on Friday, May 3, 2024?

Answer: TBI was involved from the start. On May 6, they were contacted for data extraction on the cell phone. His laptop was sent as well and was examined. They have not said anything about low battery mode, and I have no way of knowing that information.

Question: Were Mr. Whited’s residence and truck fingerprinted to determine if someone other than he himself had been in them?

Answer: No, everyone got in his house and truck before we ever got involved, before we were ever called. People entered his home and truck looking for him. They contaminated the scene making it difficult for us to conduct an investigation that included fingerprinting.

Question: Was his truck unlocked and accessible? Where were the keys: in the ignition, on the console, in the house?

Answer: The keys were in the truck. I don’t know where, again the scene had been compromised by the time we arrived. Roy was bad about losing keys, so he had a habit of leaving them in the truck, so he didn’t lose them.

Question: Were neighbors questioned about Mr. Whited’s disappearance? Have flyers been passed out to area residents?

Answer: Yes, the White County Sheriff’s Department spoke with all of the residents on Lovejoy Road about the possibility of having seen Roy. I don’t know about fliers, that is not something the Sheriff’s Department would do.

Question: Did you speak to coworkers or other acquaintances of Mr. Whited? What did they have to say about his mood in the weeks prior to his disappearance? Did they identify anything that was bothering or concerning him?

Answer: We got conflicting statements from people. Some said he was ‘normal Roy’ while others said he seemed like he had the “weight of the world” on him. I myself was at Rod Run (in Pigeon Forge, TN) with Roy in the middle of April and had dinner with him. He appeared fine when I was with him. He was just out enjoying life.

Question: What situations as a pastor was Mr. Whited attending to in the week/weeks prior to his disappearance?

Answer: I am sure he was preparing sermons. His Bible was found, and he was an avid studier so there were plenty of notes all through it. He was also preparing to speak at a funeral that was to be held on Monday, May 6. Of course, we know now that he did not make it to that.

Question: What homes and people did Mr. Whited visit in the days/weeks prior to his disappearance?

Answer: I cannot answer that.

Question: Did Mr. Whited make anyone upset with him in the weeks prior to his disappearance?

Answer: I cannot answer that.

Question: Did Mr. Whited have any arguments, “blow ups” or disagreements that we know of in the week/weeks prior to his disappearance?

Answer: I cannot answer that.

Question: Mr. Whited’s neighbor and fellow church leader, who also happened to be his landlord, went to his office to speak with him on the Friday of his disappearance. What did they talk about.

Answer: I do not know. But this individual has been questioned extensively and is not suspected of any wrongdoing.

Question: Was there a note left at Mr. Whited’s residence – either from him for from another party – who might have been involved in his disappearance?

Answer: No.

Question: Were cameras at the large airports in Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga viewed for possible sightings of Mr. Whited? Were logs checked at the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport and Crossville Memorial Airport?

Answer: Yes, we had cameras at all of the close by major airports reviewed. We checked flight logs and cameras at local airports. There have been no sightings, no evidence, of Roy coming or going at any of them.

Question: Is there any evidence that Mr. Whited may have been setting cash aside over the months leading up to his disappearance? Money he could use to move on without having access to his bank accounts?

Answer: We would have no way of knowing that. If he had cash and he just didn’t record or deposit it, unless we found it, we wouldn’t know.

Question: Is your department working with the private investigator hired by a local group?

Answer: No.

Question: And, probably the hardest question of all – do we have any evidence that Mr. Whited is still alive?

Answer: I’m not claiming that Roy is deceased, obviously, we would all like to find out that he is alive and well. What I can say is that there have been no phone calls or bank activity since his disappearance. He has not used his Social Security number. He has not logged on to social media or contacted friends or family in any way that we are aware of.

As we approach the one-year anniversary of Roy Whited’s disappearance, friends and family are seeking answers. So is Sheriff Steve Page. Anyone with any information at all, or who suspects that they have seen Whited, are encouraged to call the White County Sheriff’s Department at (931) 836-2700.

“This case will stay open until he is found. We will continue to follow up on every lead, answer every phone call, until we can bring Roy home,” Sheriff Page concluded. “We want to find Roy - for his family, for this community, all of whom love him.”