Shawn Ezekiel Hughes' family and friends say they can't believe the 36-year-old Cody man with undiagnosed medical issues, including seizures, would just walk away.
But Hughes has been missing since Easter, and the Cody Police Department has no leads or tips about his disappearance.
A mental health episode he experienced that morning left Hughes speaking incoherently in the street in front of the home he shared with his longtime girlfriend, Diaka Kaba.
"This is not like him to leave me," she told Cowboy State Daily. "He's my best friend, and we're 2,000 miles from home. He would never leave. Something is very wrong."
Last Sighting
Hughes was last seen walking southeast bound from Yellowstone Regional Airport around 10 a.m. on April 5, and has not been seen or heard from since.
The Cody Police Department has attempted pinging his phone, which only works on WiFi, with no luck and has had no tips or leads since the last sighting of Hughes on video surveillance that morning, according to Juston Wead, support services lieutenant for the department.
Kaba said Hughes has been suffering from undiagnosed seizures over the past year, which had recently manifested into confusion and other odd behaviors.
On Easter morning, he had been taken to the emergency room after he was found speaking incoherently in the street outside their home in Cody, she said.
Doctors have not been able to get to the bottom of the cause of his medical condition, Kaba said, and he had scheduled to meet with a neurologist this past week prior to his going missing.
Kaba is concerned for his safety and has no idea where he might have gone.
Friends of Hughes also say this behavior is entirely uncharacteristic of a guy who is generally described as kind, hard-working and quiet.
Kaba said that Hughes would never leave on his own accord if he were of sound mind and judgment. He only has about $300, so he can’t get too far without running out of money.
Troubling Behavior
Hughes and his girlfriend moved to Cody from Charolotte, North Carolina, the summer of 2023.
They came to Wyoming to work at the Pahaska Tepee, a lodge just outside Yellowstone National Park’s East Entrance.
The plan was to stay a season, but they fell in love with the area and community and decided to stay. The couple moved into a rental about a half mile from downtown, where they walked or took cabs for transportation.
Kaba said people in Cody have been very welcoming, and that she and Hughes feel comfortable there.
Kaba works at Walmart while Hughes worked at a Maverik store up until two weeks ago when his health began to decline.
She was relieved when he told her he’d made an appointment to see a specialist, Kaba said.
His behavior over the two weeks prior to his disappearance began to get increasingly more incoherent, Kaba said, which culminated Sunday morning.
He’d had a seizure, but Kaba said she put him on his side and he seemed to be OK, so she left for work. He called her later that afternoon to tell her that he was seeing “light figures” in his room.
Police Respond
She came home from work, and the couple ordered pizza and had a good night. He seemed fine when they went to bed.
However, she woke up early that morning around 3 a.m. and heard Hughes deep in conversation with his cousins in Charlotte, but he wasn’t actually talking to anyone, Kaba said.
"What's going on?" she asked. "Who are you talking to?"
She had to work that day, so she said she tried to get back to sleep when she heard police pounding on her front door to tell her Hughes was in the middle of the street with no shirt on.
He was speaking nonsensically and had been knocking on neighbors’ doors to use their phones. He didn’t recognize her, Kaba said.
Declined Care
Hughes was taken to the emergency room by ambulance, and Kaba had no choice to go to her shift at 8 a.m. out of fear of losing her job, a decision she now regrets because Hughes refused care at the hospital.
Wead said that Hughes did not meet the standard for an emergency mental health hold, which requires that person be mentally ill and pose an immediate danger to themselves or others, according to state statute.
“Just having a mental health crisis in itself doesn’t meet that threshold,” Wead said.
Kaba assumed he planned to go to North Carolina. He had a backpack with him and about $300 in cash, Kaba said.
At the airport, Hughes did not attempt to buy a ticket.
Instead, he sat in the lobby for a “significant amount of time,” according to Wead.
He then went out into the airport parking lot where he was behaving strangely, prompting employees to call police, Wead added.
By the time police arrived, however, Hughes was gone. He left his backpack at the airport and had left the airport on foot.
That was the last time he was seen.
‘Fantastic Kid’
Lisa DeBuff knows Hughes and Kaba well.
As a driver for Explore Cody Transportation, she frequently gives them lifts.
It’s almost a daily thing, DeBuff said, taking them to work and errands.
She told Cowboy State Daily she was shocked to hear that Hughes was missing.
“He’s a fantastic kid,” DeBuff said of Hughes.
She had heard he was having issues with seizures but never saw him act incoherently, she said, describing his actions Sunday morning as completely out of character of the guy she knew.
She was not Hughes' taxi driver on Sunday. In fact, Kaba said that Hughes had specifically requested hospital staff call their competitor, Cody Cab.
“I think maybe Shawn told them not to call us because he knew that we would try to intervene because we know them so well,” DeBuff speculated.
Like Kaba, DeBuff is both confused and completely worried about Hughes’ safety, and said said she wants him home safely.
“Shawn’s one of my favorites,” she said. “I took to him right away.”
She’s described him as a “very likable person” who is “easy going and mellow.”
‘Big Teddy Bear’
Pat Wood agrees.
She’s the general manager of Pahaska Tepee and the person who hired the couple and brought them to Cody.
“This is very troubling,” Wood said. “It’s not like him at all. He’s never done anything like this before.”
She described Hughes as a “sweetheart” and “a big teddy bear.”
“He’s a fine, hard-working kid,” she said, “and they’re decent, normal people who are trying to live, work and see people in the world.”
After the first season ended, they fell in love with Cody, Wood said, and she kept in touch with them.
“Every time I see him, it’s a big hug and a big smile,” she said. “It’s very worrisome because he’s not someone who just takes off unless something happened."
Calling For Public’s Help
Meanwhile, Kaba is worried sick and has been on the phone frequently with family back home, but so far, nobody has seen Hughes in Charlotte.
She thinks if he would have gone anywhere it would be one of the cities he’s familiar with like Charolette, Denver or Las Vegas, a city he loves and where he’s celebrated his past two birthdays.
Hughes is about 6 feet, 9 inches tall with black hair and black eyes with an athletic build. He was last seen wearing a blue T-shirt, black jogger pants and black-and-white sneakers. He was also wearing a shoulder brace.
Both she and the Cody Police Department ask anyone who might have seen him or with another information to contact their office at 307-527-8700 or to call 911.
Tips can also be submitted anonymously to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation at 307-777-7181 or on the agency's website.
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
