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FERRIS – Just last week, The Ellis County Press reported information about two double homicides that have been sitting as cold cases in the city of Ferris for 10 years.
A number of investigators have come and gone on these cases. One detective – Walter Weiss – who was working at the Ferris Police Department when the murders occurred, just recently left the department.
Weiss said he still feels strongly connected to the cases because “no one seems to give a thought to the families.”
The police chief at the time of the murders – Sam Love – has moved on, but still has interest in helping when needed.
Cold Case Investigator Skip Ensley is working on the case as a consultant. He was brought in just a year ago, and said last week “we are very close to solving it.”
And then there is Bob Allwardt, who has been working on the double homicides with a Ferris Police Department reserve commission for the past two years.
That is, until Monday.
Allwardt came to the city to work the cases and worked with no compensation – and that remained the situation as of this week.
He has been dedicated to the two cases because he said he wanted to see the cases solved – for the families.
Prior to working with Ferris, Allwardt worked with the Ellis County and Dallas County Sheriff’s Departments, and is an expert fingerprint witness.
The Ferris Police Department, according to new Ferris Police Chief John DeLeon, decided this week to get rid of its reserve officers and to re-evaluate the program.
Allwardt was caught in the administrative decision.
Ferris City Manager Brooks Williams said he has been in touch with the various departments who are continuing to work on the cold cases, and there is no risk of these cases being forgotten even with key investigators from the city now out.
In fact, Williams said the Texas Rangers, FBI, Ellis County DA’s Office’s Chief Investigator Norris, Ensley and Ferris Chief John DeLeon and Ferris’ CID department are very much working on both of the double homicides.
Williams said all the agencies emphasized the Ferris Police Department had gotten the case to a good point where it is today.
They said it was a good job, and the cases can now be laid out with more structure.
In 2009, the first brutal murder occurred. Stephen Taylor and Janine Johnson, Ferris residents living in the 400 block of Church Street, were brutally hacked to death sometime between the evening of Mar. 21, 2009 and the following day.
To date, there has been no motive as to the reason Taylor was stabbed over 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.
“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 said last week about his determination to see the cases solved.
“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.”
Williams emphasized Monday, even with Allwardt now gone, both double homicides in Ferris are still a strong city priority.
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