• Collectively, Bob Allwardt, Walter Weiss, Skip Ensley and Sam Love have more than 150 years of law enforcement experience under their badges. Allwardt said he found all the notes and information for the cold cases stuffed in a drawer. Working with the Ellis County Sheriff’s office 17 years and Dallas County Sheriff’s office 26 years – when he arrived in Ferris, he began the daunting task of untangling years of forgotten pieces of the two cold cases.
    Collectively, Bob Allwardt, Walter Weiss, Skip Ensley and Sam Love have more than 150 years of law enforcement experience under their badges. Allwardt said he found all the notes and information for the cold cases stuffed in a drawer. Working with the Ellis County Sheriff’s office 17 years and Dallas County Sheriff’s office 26 years – when he arrived in Ferris, he began the daunting task of untangling years of forgotten pieces of the two cold cases.
    RITA COOK / News Editor

    FERRIS – Sometimes cold cases remain cold for months, for years – sometimes forever.

    In the small city of Ferris with only about 2,800 residents, two cold cases rocked the community about 10-years-ago. 

    These days, four men have vowed they will not let these cases stay cold.

    Two of the four men have left the Ferris Police Department, one man still holds a reserve commission there, and the fourth is an investigator hired to help with one of the cases about a year ago.

    Collectively these men – Bob Allwardt, Walter Weiss, Skip Ensley and Sam Love – have over 150 years of law enforcement experience under their badges.

    Allwardt came on board with his reserve commission in Ferris in February 2017. 

    He said he found all the notes and information for the cold cases stuffed in a drawer. Working with the Ellis County Sheriff’s office 17 years and Dallas County Sheriff’s office 26 years – when he arrived in Ferris, he began the daunting task of untangling years of forgotten pieces of the two cold cases.

    Weiss, who left the Ferris Police Department late last year, had been there 13 years and worked both double homicides back in 2009 and 2010.

    Love, who is now the police chief in Rome, Texas was the police chief in Ferris when the murders occurred. He has been gone from his job in Ferris for a few years, at least three or four chiefs have sat in that seat since his departure.

    Ensley was brought on because he has a history of solving cold cases with a bulldog attitude. He has solved a few cold cases over the years and currently is the owner of Dallas Polygraph Services working with law enforcement agencies from around the country. 

    “I only do a couple of cold cases a year,” Ensley said. “This case was sent to me and I want to stay a part of this case is because it is not solved yet.”

    While several years ago some of the evidence from 2009 murders were sent to the Sheriff’s Association of Texas Cold Case Review Team in Austin, nothing has been returned with any answers.  

    The Cold Case Review Team was formed back in 1985 and provides help to law enforcement agencies on unsolved-major crimes.  

    A panel of experts in cold cases recommended to revisit the evidence with new technology.

    Weiss, now working as a legal assistant and doing insurance adjusting said he has faith in all the different methods of finding the answers to cases such as these in Ferris.

    “It will be hard to ask one of us to go away and not help, too,” Weiss said. 

    “We don’t presume to play police, but we will provide testimony when the court calls on us to do so.  

    “We are dedicated to continuing to assist the authorities who are onto the case now in any way they need.”

    It was in 2009 the first brutal murder occurred.  

    Ferris residents Stephen Taylor and Janine Johnson, living in the 400 block of Church Street, were brutally hacked up sometime between the evening of March 21, 2009 and the following day.

    To date, there has been no motive as to the reason Taylor was stabbed more than 70 times, and Johnson as many as 50 times.

    The second double homicide took place on Jan. 28, 2010. 

    In what appears to have been a rejected relationship, Melinda Schene and Nathan Moses were murdered in the 600 block of Valley View Street. Schene was the resident of the home on Valley View, and Moses was her roommate.

    The police are hoping with new technology some of the unanswered questions will be answered as law enforcement techniques have changed in the last decade.

    Technology or not, Allwardt said he plans to keep the  memories of these murder individuals alive until he has some answers for the families.

    “When I looked up the families and talked to them, what I told them was I am not guaranteeing you that this is going to be solved, but it has gone a whole lot further than it was,” Allwardt concluded. 

    “We are willing to bring in people who have some knowledge and who have ability in respect to these murder cases and I have a commitment to try and get these cases resolved for the families.”

    Check out ECP-TV’s interview this week with Allwardt, Weiss and Ensley at www.elliscountypress.com.

    Tags
    Ferris Texas
    EllisCountyPress.com