DESOTO, Texas – A 51-year-old Navy veteran was found dead on the kitchen floor in his apartment last week, approximately 3 years after his mother first tried to report him missing, according to WFAA.
Ronald Wayne White traveled the world as a defense contractor and frequently called home to talk to his mother, Doris Stevens.
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Stevens said she got worried when the calls stopped coming and became suspicious when she couldn’t reach him on his birthday in April 2017.
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Stevens told WFAA that she was unable to hire a private investigator due to lack of money and that several police departments told her she couldn’t pursue a missing person case due to her son being an extensive traveler.
White was finally discovered at the DeSoto Town Center Apartments after the complex started an investigation into units that were rented but not using water, WFAA reported.
"My biggest question is how in the world could my son have been dead in that apartment and nobody knows anything?"
Posted by WFAA on Wednesday, November 20, 2019
White had a month-to-month lease that was paid using automatic withdrawal from an account funded by the veteran’s retirement account with the Navy, DeSoto police said.
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His Ford F-150 had been collecting dust in a public parking garage nearby and despite multiple advertising leaflets under the windshield wipers, the vehicle was never reported as suspicious.
WFAA searched records and discovered that of all the addresses listed for White, the DeSoto apartment wasn’t one of them.
White was single and his adult children also didn’t know about the apartment.
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Detective Pete Schulte with the DeSoto Police Department told WFAA a neighbor who lived below White complained two years ago about liquid seeping through her ceiling but maintenance never followed up after the issue stopped and White’s apartment was never checked.
No foul play is suspected in White’s death. KSAT has reached out to DeSoto Police Department for more information.