Hey, y’all, and welcome Southern Macabre! I’m Aeryn and I’m so glad you’re here for our weekly Missing Person Monday episode. Even if it is Friday.
I apologize for my mistake yesterday – I deleted Most Haunted in Tennessee and re-uploaded it as Haunted Castle in Tennessee so you can listen to this week’s paranormal episode. I won’t get in a hurry next time because this took me all day to fix.
As usual, I will list the corresponding law enforcement phone number after each story and I will get pictures uploaded to our Facebook page, Southern Macabre, today.
So, without further ado, I present Missing in Mississippi.
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In 1960, Columbus, Mississippi was a small town where everyone knew everyone and it was considered a good place to live and raise a family. The lock and dam, Leigh Mall, Walmart, etc. hadn’t been built yet so there wasn’t much apart from Main Street where Mississippi University for Women is located. That’s when it earned its nickname “The Friendly City”. Sadly, that’s not the case today with crime on the rise.
We’re not talking about today, though. Today we’re going to go way back and talk about Lyrian Wyvonne Barry, a 23-year-old mother of an 8-month-old girl who came from a close-knit family that included her parents, three sisters, and four brothers. She was an African American woman who stood 5’ tall and weighed about 150 pounds.
After she graduated in 1956, she met Eulice “Eddie” Stallings from New Orleans. She moved there with him, but a short time later she returned to Columbus, Mississippi with their newborn daughter, Gloria.
Eddie moved back to Columbus so her family assumed that he still had feelings for her. They moved in together, but it wasn’t a good situation. It wasn’t long until she had her family help her move out. Her sister, Betsy Hurt, said he was using and selling drugs, which made Lyrian angry.
Lyrian began seeing him in secret, but he was seeing multiple women until he married a woman because she was pregnant with his child. It was at this time Lyrian connected with her distant cousin, Sonny Lucas, who lived in Columbus and St. Louis, Missouri.
Shortly after Eddie got married, she gave Gloria to Betsy and boarded a Greyhound bus for St. Louis to live with an aunt. Betsy was pregnant and the plan was for her to give birth in Columbus and then Lyrian was going to help her move to St. Louis. She figured that she would have a job and her own place by then.
Sadly, that didn’t happen because she vanished not long after she arrived at her aunt’s home. Her aunt saw that someone was looking for a live-in maid either in Needham, Massachusetts or Bridgeport, Connecticut, she couldn’t remember which. The night she was going to leave for her interview, Lucas’s wife beat her up.
She has never been seen or heard from again.
Unfortunately, her parents, a few siblings, and her daughter passed not knowing what happened to Lyrian. They always hoped that she was still alive, but her social security number has never been used and there isn’t a death certificate anywhere.
If you know anything, call Columbus Police Department at 662-244-3554
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This case is crazy! So, on New Year’s Eve in 1986, James Michael Welter gets in a car accident while drinking and driving. He was a 34-year-old Staff sergeant with the U.S. Air Force and was on leave until January 6th and had to be in court in Ocean Springs on the 15th. He didn’t show up for either so he was deemed AWOL (Absent WithOut Leave) by the military and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
In March of that year, they found his 1986 Ford Granada being driven by the arresting officer! He claimed that he had bought it from two unknown individuals at a salvage auction. It was scrapped later.
Also, at the time of his disappearance, he was purchasing a timeshare through Dixie Resort Corporation, Indian Point Resort, in Gautier, M
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