One Year Later: Alicia Minton Still Missing

Police Continue Search For Rogers Woman

Last updated Saturday, May 31, 2008 5:51 PM CDT in News

By Melissa Sherman
The Morning News

Rogers Police, the Benton County Sheriff's Office and the Benton County Prosecuting Attorney's Office still list the case as a missing person case.

The status of the case could change, said Van Stone, prosecuting attorney.

A year ago, Minton called her mother to ask if she could pick up her children, Christina, 13, and Samuel, 5, while she headed to Beaver Lake with a friend.

Mathis couldn't make it, she was stuck at work. That was the last time she heard her daughter's voice.

Three days later, Mathis filed a report with police saying her daughter was missing. A few days later, a full-scale search was undertaken on Beaver Lake.

"I think something's happened to her," Mathis said. "Because there's no way she would have missed all that's happened this year and not try to contact us. If she was alive, we would have heard from her.

"(Authorities are) still searching, investigating, following leads, but if they could find her," Mathis said. "I think that would help us let go a little bit.

"Right now you can't," she said. "It's a part of you that's gone but you don't know what happened. It's not closed, not over. Not until they find her."

Murky Search

Authorities have released little regarding Minton's disappearance.

She was last seen June 1, 2007, at a school in Rogers wearing a red bathing suit, red tank top, shorts and pink flip flops.

She dropped her children off with a friend at Enterprise Rent-A-Car on Walnut Street and headed to the Prairie Creek area of Beaver Lake.

On June 7, her silver BMW was found in a parking lot near the intersection of Locust and Second streets. Almost two weeks later a purse, identified by the family as Minton's, was found near Deer and Bear islands, near the Arkansas 12 bridge.

"Our attitude is we're going to look for every single fact that we can," Stone said.

Dozens of people have been interviewed. Police are still receiving phone calls related to the case.

"The public needs to know the agencies are investigating thoroughly," Stone said. "Everyone understands if you release too much information you could jeopardize a case."

Absent of any new information, if another search were conducted, authorities would resume at Deer and Bear islands, said Capt. Ron Largent of the Rogers Police Department. A credible witness told authorities Minton was last seen near that area, said Chris Sparks, an investigator with the sheriff's office.

The search for Minton was concentrated around those islands, on land and in the water, for several days.

Sonar crews and divers scoured Beaver Lake looking for clues.

But the lake wasn't kind in return.

Sunlight disappears after 50 feet. Trees rooted in the area between the islands, originally a creek bottom, are smeared with silt. The slightest touch to any branch will cloud a diver's view. Sonar equipment dangled from above can easily wrap around even the smallest tree limb.

There are several hazards to the lake which cannot be seen from the surface, said Alan Bland, a ranger with the U.S. Corps of Engineers in Rogers.

Before the valley was flooded to form Beaver Lake, a few houses, a church and two cemeteries were located north of Deer Island, Bland said. Now underwater boulders, fences and old foundations can be hazards to divers.

There is no current north of the islands, Bland said. What residents see on the surface is the wind moving the water.

If a person dropped a soda can into the lake and it hit the bottom, 20 years from now the can would be there, Bland said. Even when Beaver Dam opens its gates, there is no current to pull the can from the bottom.

If a body fell into the lake north of the islands, it would also stay where it fell, Bland said.

The average depth of the lake is 70 feet with 50-degree temperatures. At that depth, without the sunlight, a body will not decompose quickly and will stay preserved, he added.

The sheriff's office has jurisdiction over the search efforts at Beaver Lake for Minton. The Rogers Police assist in the search at the lake and also work on the facts revolving around Minton's disappearance.

Above the lake the only hazard is the wind.

Cpl. Jeff Fozard of the sheriff's office flies the department's Bell OH-58 Kiowa helicopter, which dances over breezes. He flew the helicopter over Beaver Lake during the initial search to help investigators locate evidence along the shore or floating in the water. He still flies over Beaver Lake when the department calls him out to help search the shore for clues of Minton's disappearance.

Evidence collected during the initial search is still being sent to the State Crime Lab in Little Rock for forensic analysis, Sparks said.

"To me it's a cold case when there's no leads coming in and there's no where to go," Largent said. "But we're not there yet."

Person Of Interest

Randall Todd Greenway, 36, of Rogers is the sole person of interest in Minton's disappearance, Largent said. Police released Greenway's name as a suspect in a joint news conference in July 2007.

Investigators have followed several tips as to what may have happened to Minton but all have lead back to Greenway, officials said. Greenway was Minton's on and off again boyfriend. Minton on several occasions between 2006 and 2007 contacted Rogers police regarding her safety relating to Greenway.

On one occasion in June 2006 Rogers police responded to Greenway's residence on North 37th Street and found Minton lying on the driveway next to her vehicle with a golf ball-sized lump on her head. Greenway reportedly dragged Minton from his home and then beat her head against the concrete.

Minton also contacted police twice regarding threatening text messages she received from Greenway in early 2007.

On June 9, 2007 Greenway was arrested on drug charges and a probation violation not relating to the Minton case. On June 21, Greenway was sentenced to 20 years on five felony drug charges. He's currently at the Wrightsville Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction.

He declined an interview request.

Family Left Behind

Alicia Minton was the strong one in her family.

Taking short pauses, Hurt recalled her sister as someone who would protect her from bullies.

"I want proof she's gone," Hurt said, not only for herself but to help tell her son, Tanner, and Minton's children what happened.

She knows authorities are still looking for her sister and she doesn't want them to give up, she added.

There are some days Minton's daughter asks about her mother. Mathis said she will talk to Christina about the good stuff and "fun things" she and Alicia did.

"Christina looks so much like her momma," Mathis said, smiling.

Minton's son, Samuel, knows something's wrong.

"He'll ask about his momma," Mathis said. "He's not old enough to understand anything else other than she's not here right now."

"How do you tell a 5-year-old their momma is not coming back?" Mathis asked. "What words do you use to explain to someone at that age that they'll understand that she's just gone?"

Everything authorities find is not immediately detailed to Mathis and she's fine with that.

She's heard a lot of rumors from different people about what happened to Alicia, Mathis said.

"None of them are very good."

"I hope that's not the way it happened," she said, taking a long pause.

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