Police hope lamps will lead to clues about missing man

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Nov 4, 2002 by DeeDee Correll

They're a matching pair: identical sterling silver lamps about 3 feet high with ornate bases, slender handles and white shades.

For years, they sat in a home in the Broadmoor area.

The lamps vanished Nov. 5, 2001 - and wherever they are, police say they can help determine what happened to their owner, 83-year- old J.D. Ferguson.

"We're just hoping maybe they were seen by somebody and may lead us to someone responsible for Mr. Ferguson's disappearance," Colorado Springs Police detective Derek Graham said.

Ferguson was living alone in his home while his wife, Doreen, 87, was at the Brighton Gardens nursing home.

The afternoon of Nov. 5, he went to see her, ran a few errands and returned home.

He never was seen again.

When his housekeeper arrived at 10 a.m. the next day, she found a scene police won't describe except to say it was "pretty obvious" something bad happened to Ferguson.

"We believe foul play was involved," Graham said. "We have evidence to indicate a crime's been committed."

Doreen Ferguson died Nov. 7, apparently too ill to realize her husband was missing.

Her obituary, reflecting the uncertainty of the situation, did not include her husband of 57 years on the list of survivors.

Police asked the public for help, and Ferguson's children offered $5,000 to anyone who came forward with information.

Both pleas were met with silence, and the few tips police received led nowhere.

"Zero. Zilch. Nothing's coming out of this," Graham said.

Some aspects of the case are similar to those in the widely publicized case of Jennifer and Abby Blagg, who disappeared from their Grand Junction home eight days after Ferguson vanished.

At the time, Graham spoke with investigators in Grand Junction.

"They occurred at the same time - within days, and based on the fact that all of a sudden two people were missing from their houses, we had to chase it," Graham said.

But it's clear the cases aren't connected, he said.

Jennifer Blagg's body was found six months later in a landfill, and her husband Michael was arrested. Six-year-old Abby remains missing and presumed dead.

But the last year yielded little movement on the Ferguson case.

In April, police organized a search-and-rescue near Old Stage Road, which they selected because it's near the Broadmoor area.

"It's a quick, easy location to take a body up and dump it," Graham said.

More than 100 volunteers combed eight miles of the road.

"We found nothing," said Graham, who hoped the warmer weather might lead a hiker to stumble upon Ferguson's body.

Summer passed with no sign of Ferguson.

The detective has little to go on today but the hope the lamps will surface - perhaps someone who bought them at a pawn shop or garage sale will realize their connection to the case and contact police.

If they can find the lamps, Graham said, perhaps they can provide a clue about who took them from Ferguson's home - presumably the same person responsible for Ferguson's disappearance.

"They're old lamps, unique," Graham said.

Ferguson's son, Harley Ferguson of Colorado Springs, declined comment.