The Texas Attorney General’s Office has publicly released a shred of evidence from the days when a Cody woman disappeared: Her boyfriend’s Oct. 9 traffic ticket.
Adam Shane Aviles Jr., 26, is in federal jail awaiting trial for allegedly possessing ammunition despite being a felon. But he’s also a murder suspect and is connected to the disappearance of his on-and-off girlfriend Katie Ferguson, according to court documents.
Wrong-Way Driver, Unsecured Little One
A police trooper in Morris County, Texas, issued two warnings and one citation to Aviles on Oct. 9, according to a traffic ticket the Texas Attorney General’s public records office released Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily.
By that time, Ferguson was missing.
When federal investigators reviewed body camera footage from the Texas stop one month later, they noticed a taped-over bullet hole in the passenger-side door, court documents say.
The documents also say that Aviles was in his Dodge Durango with his two young daughters during that traffic stop, but Ferguson was not in the body camera footage.
The ticket, issued at 5:55 in the evening, cites Aviles for reportedly not having a young child secured in a proper safety seat. It also includes two warnings: one for driving on the wrong side of the road in a no-passing zone, and another for veering onto an “improved shoulder” of the road when it was prohibited.
Aviles was ordered to appear in a Morris County court Nov. 9, but by that time he was in jail in Park County on suspicion of drug possession. Soon after they arrested Aviles on the drug charges, Park County authorities handed Aviles to federal authorities for the more serious felony ammunition possession charge he now faces.
Possessing firearm ammunition as a felon is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
Reunited
Aviles went to Alabama in late summer or early autumn to retrieve Ferguson and their two young daughters. He came back to Cody in October with the two little girls, but without Ferguson.
Park County authorities found Aviles’ Dodge Durango on Nov. 4 in rural Park County. Its front passenger seat was missing; it reeked of blood and contained bloody clothes and cleaning supplies — along with a loaded magazine, court documents say.
A bullet hole also pierced the front passenger-side door.
While investigators scrutinized the Durango, Aviles approached the vehicle with a gas can in his hand, says an affidavit filed in federal court last month.
This Four-Day Window
Ferguson went missing sometime between Oct. 5 and Oct. 9, court documents indicate.
A Trumann, Arkansas, police officer visited with Ferguson and Aviles on Oct. 5 when the family’s vehicle looked “suspicious” to the officer because of the way it was parked, according to body camera footage provided to Cowboy State Daily.
Appearing fatigued yet smiling intermittently, Ferguson explained that the pair had reunited and were just passing through town. The officer left them.
Four days later during the Texas traffic stop, Ferguson was not in the Durango, court documents say.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
