Bringing Elsie Wiggington home: The investigation continues

AMHERST CO., Va. – The search for Elsie Wiggington is picking up speed, nearly a year after her disappearance, and 10 News is urging authorities to share any information they can about her case.

Elsie’s family remains hopeful that she will show up, but also tells us they are preparing for the worst.

“We just need to know where she is so we can give her a funeral and help them get through this,” said Elsie’s foster sister Tracey Coleman.

As we reported on Wednesday, Elsie’s foster sister Tracey Coleman claims the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office botched the reporting of her missing in June of last year.

“The sheriff’s department at the time did not pursue the case and did not fulfill its duty of care,” Coleman said.

Under new management, Sheriff Jimmy Ayers said they were concerned and were working with the family, but we wanted more information.

We have called the sheriff several times, but no one has answered. We have also sent him emails asking him to send us copies of all missing persons reports for Elsie, but so far we have received no response.

Coleman told us at the office that a more intensive investigation is currently underway.

“They interview people, they have a list of people they want to talk to,” Coleman said.

Coleman told us about a history of abuse between Elsie and her husband that left her fearful for her life.

“She said, ‘He’s going to kill me,'” Coleman said.

So we decided to track down her husband to hear his side of the story.

We found his Facebook page and sent him a message but received no response.

And when we called the number that Elsie’s daughter Sativa had given us, we immediately received an automated message saying that the call had been declined.

The next step was to go to court. We spent several hours poring over the documents, looking for anything we could find about Elsie, her case, or her husband – but we came back empty-handed.

There appear to be no charges against her husband at this time.

Coleman said legislation regarding how missing persons reports are handled needs to be changed.

“In this day and age when we send people into space and have nanobots, can we not find a single human being on Earth?” Coleman said.

We continue to review court records and remain in contact with Elsie’s family and the Sheriff’s Office as the investigation continues.