One in a series on unsolved cases in Ruston and Lincoln Parish.
by Wesley Harris
Case No. 3
James Wiggins
Type of Case: Missing Person
Date: December 2002
Status: Remains missing
A few days before Christmas in 2002, 21-year-old James Wiggins left his home on Vaughn Avenue in Ruston, telling his mother he was walking to a nearby grocery store for cigarettes.
James never returned home.
This wasn’t like James, but the family was not extremely concerned initially. But when he still had not returned a few days later, his sister reported him missing to Ruston Police.
The following morning, the owner of Goose Creek Grocery on the White Lightning Road several miles outside of Ruston, found a young man sleeping on the store’s doorstep. When the owner opened up, the young man came in and bought a pack of cigarettes. The owner checked this man’s identification and reported to police he was certain it was James Wiggins. Several weeks later, a woman came forward and claimed she believed she had spoken to James in Jonesboro about 20 miles from Ruston.
Over the years bizarre leads arose in the disappearance of James Wiggins. Some indicated James may be alive, while others pointed to his murder. But no one knows for sure.
A podcast series called “The Vanished” profiled the Wiggins case in 2021, including interviewing his sister at length about James’s personality and background.
The sister described James as a quiet young man who spent most of his time by himself. Making friends was not easy, causing him to struggle to fit in growing up.
“Our childhood, it wasn’t great,” the sister recalls in the podcast.
There was abuse from their father, she noted, and turmoil in the family likely influenced how James grew up.
“James was just always quiet,” she recalls. “I mean, he just kept to himself…I got married and moved off to California and James, when I came home, he just stayed in his room all the time playing his video games and listening to his music.”
As a teen, James attended school only occasionally. Another sister suspects he was bullied at school causing his attendance to drop.
By 2002, James was living in Ruston with his mother and her boyfriend. As far as his family knew, James had no friends and spent his time working or in his room at home. His mom became concerned about his mental health when she noticed changes in his behavior. Bizarre statements about celebrities he knew and things he could do alarmed her.
James’s mother began locking herself in her bedroom at night. Eventually she had him committed for a mental evaluation. He responded with great anger in a phone call to his sister.
After his release from the hospital, James returned home. At the time of his disappearance, he was a dishwasher at Anthony’s, an Italian restaurant in downtown Ruston.
On the last day his family saw him a few weeks after the evaluation, James announced he was walking to the grocery store to buy cigarettes. He asked his mother if she wanted him to bring her a Diet Coke. He only took an umbrella with him.
A few days later, the sister reported him missing.
Tips received reported sightings at the Goose Creek Grocery 14 miles from home and weeks later, in Jonesboro, 20 miles from Ruston. Two separate tips named a brother and sister who may have been involved in killing James. Yet another tip around 2019 left the family perplexed. Someone called from a Florida mental hospital and left a message for the sister. When she returned the call, she was told they had no one named James Wiggins as a patient. Other than that, they cited HIPAA laws as forbidding any other assistance.
A call to Ruston Police from Florida could have been a hoax. The caller claimed James was in police custody. But the call disconnected and further investigation proved fruitless.
When retired DEA agent Eric Watson became Ruston’s police chief about ten months ago, he learned of a number of cold cases in the department’s files. He committed to reviewing those cases personally and increasing RPD’s investigative staff to work them when new leads could be determined or interviewing witnesses or potential suspects again might be beneficial.
Watson acknowledges no one who worked at RPD in 2002 when James Wiggins disappeared remains with the agency. The loss of personnel familiar with a case is an obstacle, but Watson has directed investigators to add cold cases into their workloads to follow-up as much as possible.
“Everyone matters or nobody matters,” Watson said, reciting the powerful credo of fictional LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch from the Michael Connelly novels. “Cases like this deserve to be examined again. We will not forget them.”
Sergeant Hannah Laborde and Lieutenant Kayla Loyd recently reviewed a 2016 cold case. Spotting some inconsistencies between physical evidence and the statements made by an individual, and learning that individual was wanted on an unrelated warrant, the investigators conducted more interviews and made an arrest.
If you have any information about the disappearance of James Wiggins, please contact the Ruston Police Department at (318) 255-4141 or Ruston-Lincoln Crime Stoppers at 318-255-1111.
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Podcast: https://www.thevanishedpodcast.com/episodes/2021/4/12/episode-278-james-wiggins?rq=278
Missing Person Databases: https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/735?nav
http://identifyla.lsu.edu/profile.php?id=299
