A Navy veteran found deceased in his Texas apartment was thought by officials to have died up to three years ago, the last time anyone heard from him.
The remains of Ronald Wayne White, 54, were in the DeSoto Town Center apartment in the Dallas suburbs “for an extended period of time, up to when he was last known alive three years ago,” according to the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office. White retired from the U.S. Navy as a chief petty officer in 2004 and had worked as a defense contractor since that time.
White’s absence was first noticed by his mother, Doris Stevens, 70, who said that even though her son traveled often, it was unusual for them to go months without speaking to one another. After she was unable to reach him on his birthday in April 2017, Stevens contacted the Dallas police and police in nearby Glenn Heights, where Wayne once owned a home, but claimed authorities would not permit her to file a missing person’s report for her son.
“They asked how old my son was, and I told them, and they said, ‘You can’t make a missing person report for a grown-up,'” Stevens said of her efforts.
White had planned to travel to the Philippines, where he had recently purchased a home after staying in the United States to vote in the 2016 presidential election. He was the father of adult children and had been divorced for 20 years at the time of his death. Stevens was unaware that her son had the apartment where he was eventually discovered or she said she would have attempted to gain access.
Stevens, who lives in Shreveport, Louisiana and is dependent on a limited income, claims that she also tried to get family to help pool money to hire a private investigator but was not successful. A statement from the DeSoto Town Center said Wayne’s body went undiscovered for so long because he had set up his bills to be auto-paid, and a disruption in normal behavior was not detected. His remains were discovered by maintenance staff responding to an automated request for service.
“Our maintenance personnel discovered his body when they identified and responded to a service issue at his apartment,” a statement from DeSoto said. “We are cooperating with the police as they investigate this incident.”
Stevens said she does not believe that her son died of natural causes and vowed to continue searching for answers in his death. When she was informed that he had been dead for such a long time, she said, “I lost control of my body.” The cause of death was not determined, and toxicology screenings could take up to three months to complete.
“It’s just something weighing heavy on my heart,” Stevens said of the circumstances surrounding her son’s death. “You’re not supposed to bury your children.”
