Sheriffs locate people of interest in connection to missing Colorado man
POPLARVILLE, Miss. (KRDO) - Police have located two people in connection the disappearance of 37-year-old Stephen Walker.
According to the Pearl River County Sheriff's Department Facebook page, Johnny Morris and Hailey Cole were found in Mississippi around 8 a.m. MST.
The pair are believed to have connections to Colorado cases; an ongoing missing person case in El Paso County and homicide in Park County.
According to the sheriff's office in Mississippi, a concerned citizen called dispatch because they said someone was breaking into a car early on Monday morning and the man matched Morris' description.
Pearl River County deputies searched the area and said they found Morris and Cole camping in a shed.
Security camera video shared with KRDO13 appears to show Morris by a shed, walking around someone's backyard.
Lucretia Harrell tells KRDO13 that she called 911 after motion sensors went off and she checked her security cameras.
"Immediately my response was when I called 911 was to say, I think this is Rankin Morris that y'all were looking for," said Harrell.
Harrell says she knows the Morris family.
"He actually did some fence work for me a couple of years ago. So I knew Rankin," she said.
According to the sheriff's office, Morris and Cole were booked into the Pearl River County jail on outstanding warrants from the Mississippi Department of Corrections for failure to appear, Lamar County, Mississippi for receiving stolen property, and Wiggins, Mississippi for contempt of court/failure to appear.
Pearl River County Sheriff’s Office investigations at the scene of Morris and Cole’s capture led to Pearl River County charges of commercial burglary and attempted residential burglary.
KRDO13 is waiting to hear if warrants will be issued out of El Paso or Park Counties in Colorado. As of right now, the pair have not officially been declared "suspects" in a missing persons and homicide case, instead have been identified as "people of interest."
Meanwhile, the man they're believed to be connected to-- Stephen Walker-- is still missing and members of his community in Colorado Springs, Colorado organized a search party.
Walker went missing on Dec. 19 and deputies say large amounts of blood were found in his sober living home.
"So this [search party] means everything to me.... We want to find him. We need to find him. And we're going to continue until we do," said Stephen Walker's mom, Judy Waggoner.
Friends say Walker is a shining light who frequently helped others along their sobriety journey.
"He's an inspiration. He got sober. He actually helped me get sober. We were sober together in Arizona for a while. He was just a big inspiration," said one friend.
Members of the public who may have information related to the Park County or El Paso County investigations are asked to call the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office Regional Communications Center non-emergent line at 719-390-5555.
