KC Unsolved: Family continues push to find missing teen Desirea Ferris seven years later
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A Liberty teenager who went missing seven years ago is the focus of an investigation that seems close to being solved — if only police could prove what they suspect.
Desirea Ferris went missing on May 2, 2017.
Patti Tam’s living room stands filled with photo albums and collages of her youngest child.
“She was my baby,” Patti reflects. Ferris was 18 when she went missing on May 2, 2017. “There’s probably nothing left of her. She deserves to be home.”
It has been seven years since Patti has heard Desi’s loud laugh.
“I was initially assigned the case as the primary detective from the beginning,” Liberty Police detective Josh Bodenhamer told KCTV5.
He said he thinks about what Desirea’s mom must be going through.
“Not knowing what happened. Not knowing where [Desirea] is, not knowing anything other than that she’s gone.”
Bodenhamer has pored through mounds of phone and Facebook records, following up on dozens of leads.
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“We have interviewed approximately 50 people, all suggesting she’s likely no longer alive,” he said. “But still, not enough evidence to prove his suspicion or locate Desirea to bring her home. It’s frustrating. There’s no other word for it.”
A map of cell phone data over 24 hours confirms the s investigators have received from Desirea’s sister starting at their home in Liberty. A man named Jason Keegan picked them up at 4 a.m. on May 1. For 12 hours, they drove around Kansas City, from one house to another.
“They were short stops. She said that she and Desirea didn’t get out of the truck,” Bodenhamer said.
At 4:30 p.m., Keegan dropped them off at a McDonald’s at 31st Street and Van Brunt Boulevard. At 5 p.m., another man picked them up and took them to a Liberty McDonald’s.
“Desirea’s sister walked home from here. It was close to their house,” the detective said. “She said Desirea didn’t want to go home yet.”
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So Desirea went to that man’s house at 81st Street and Highland Avenue. He told police she hung out until about 1:30 a.m. on May 2.
Then a white truck came to pick her up. He never would say who was in the truck.
Investigators said the last tower that Desirea’s phone pinged off was at 83rd Street and Hillcrest in Kansas City, Missouri, at 4:51 a.m.
Scent-trained dogs searched that area. They found nothing — and still no arrest.
A search warrant affidavit described cell phone records showing Keegan and Desirea texted each other 23 times between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. that night. He DMed her on Messenger at 12:23 a.m. saying he wanted to see her. There were Messenger calls between the two at 1:03 a.m., 1:19 a.m. and 1:25 a.m., according to the search warrant affidavit.
Keegan’s lawyer said neither he nor she has any comment on Desirae’s case.
Ten days after her disappearance, Keegan was pulled over and found with 3.8 kilograms of meth and a handgun.
He is serving an 18-year federal prison sentence for that.
“We just need someone that has detailed, credible information,” Patti said. “It’s hard.”
Hard to keep hoping that someone will give up where she is, alive or not.
“How can somebody look at themselves in the mirror every day knowing what they know or knowing what they did and be OK with it?” Patti asked herself. “It just takes one person to make that phone call or even drop a letter or something. But nobody’s willing to do it.”
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There is a reward of up to $2,000 for information leading to an arrest. To qualify for the reward, anyone can call the Greater KC Crimestoppers TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.
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