By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
A Grayson man who went missing earlier this month, David Stallard, was still missing as of Monday, August 24, more than three weeks after he was last seen by friends and family. Angela Ramey said that Stallard, who she has been friends with since she was three years old, has never been gone more than a couple of days without contacting her. But Stallard has been missing since August 2, twenty-two days, and Ramey has not heard anything from her childhood friend.
“We grew up together and went through high school together,” Ramey said. “He was the person who, no matter how big of a mess I was, he was there for me. If I had a problem, he would help me figure it out.”
Ramey said she feels bad because if the roles were reversed, she believes he would have already found her before now.
“I guarantee it,” Ramey said sadly.
Ramey said the problem began when there were multiple fires on the hill (Henderson Cemetery Road off Route 2) where Stallard lived.
“I say multiple fires because there were multiple fires set. He was building a house,” she said. “And he was so proud of his house. Every time I was near there, he would say, Angie, you’ve got to see what I’ve got done to the house.”
The house that Stallard was so proud of, Ramey said, was one of the fires that had been set. There was also a truck parked next to the under-construction house that had also been burned.
“There was also a tent that was burned,” Ramey said. “And a camper that was burned.”
According to Ramey, Stallard was living on the property, and a woman he had helped get out of a domestic violence situation was staying in the camper.
Ramey said that Stallard was no angel, and had a turbulent past, but said that whatever transpired on the property was nothing like anything she had seen before. She said that according to the woman renting the camper, the last person to speak with Stallard was his neighbor. The woman said there was some sort of confrontation between the two and then Stallard ran off into the surrounding woods. This, Ramey said, was the last time anyone had seen Stallard.
Posters of Stallard are circulating on Facebook and in public places, and Ramey hopes this will yield some sort of information about his whereabouts. The poster gives Stallard’s basic information as being a white male, age 49, 5 foot 7 inches tall, with brown, curly hair. Stallard has hazel eyes and numerous tattoos. Ramey asks anyone with any information about Stallard to report it to the Kentucky State Police.
When asked if it was possible that Stallard just packed up and left the area, Ramey simply said no.
“The thing about this that screams that this wasn’t his doing was the face on his mother’s tombstone,” she explained.
Ramey said that the tombstone had the face of his mother embossed on it, and that face had been deliberately taken off as though by multiple strikes of a hammer.
“If he had been having an episode, going out of his mind or going crazy, he wouldn’t have been able to do that without damaging the rest of the tombstone,” she noted “This deserves to be investigated regardless of what his past was.”
Ramey said she feels as though the police have not taken the search for Stallard seriously enough, and hopes that the more questions she asks, the more she spreads the word around, that someone will come forward with information about her friend David Stallard.
The Carter County Times has reached out to the Kentucky State Police for comment, but calls placed to KSP post 14 in Ashland had not yet been returned at press time.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
