What happened to Angela Shiers Barrentine? Family seeks answers in 2004 cold case
Family members still want to know what happened to their loved one who went missing on Thanksgiving Day 2004.
VICKSBURG, Miss. (WLBT) - Thanksgiving celebrations are still bittersweet for a Vicksburg family, as they continue looking for answers about what happened to their loved one 18 years ago.
Angela Shiers Barrentine was 27 years old when she was last seen alive on Thanksgiving Day 2004.
Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace says Barrentine was reported missing by her family to the Vicksburg Police Department. Eventually, the sheriff’s department began assisting in the search.
Months later, Barrentine’s skeletal remains were found in an upside-down pickup truck in the Big Black River just south of Highway 80, near the Kansas City Southern Railroad Bridge at the Warren and Hinds county line.
Her daughter, Ginger Lewis, was only 9 years old at the time.
“We used to take fishing trips together. We used to remake country music songs together. She would teach me to cook all the motherly daughter things. And I really kind of got that cut short for me taken from me,” says Lewis.
Lewis is now the same age that her mom was when she went missing. She’s working with Private Investigator Cory Seale to find answers about her mother’s death.
“I feel like a part of me is still a little girl who lost her mom and doesn’t understand why,” says Lewis. “I’ve spent the last 18 years wondering and hoping for answers that I still have not been able to get. It’s been very hard.”
Private Investigator Cory Seale says Barrentine left her home in Vicksburg that Thanksgiving morning to go to the store and was last seen in Edwards around noon.
“You know, it’s split between two different counties, Warren County and Hinds County. She visited both counties that day. She had friends in both areas,” explains Seale.
Seale says because of the condition of her body when she was found, Barrentine’s death has never been ruled either a homicide or an accident.
Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace says the investigation is still open.
“Again being an open investigation like it is, drawing any kind of conclusions about who did it and who didn’t do it again will be all speculation,” said Seale.
If you have any information about what happened to Angela Shiers Barrentine, you can contact the Warren County Sheriff’s Department or Central Mississippi Crimestoppers at 601-355-TIPS.
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