In the summer of 2009, in Castalia, North Carolina, a 40-year-old man named Roger Wade Ayscue vanished, leaving behind a deepening mystery. He was last seen on July 7, 2009, at his home on Collie Road, near the Franklin County line. His family and friends, who knew him by the nickname 'Kojak,' grew concerned when weeks turned into months with no word from him. It was uncharacteristic for him to be out of touch for so long.
The Franklin County Sheriff's Office officially received a missing person report on August 28, 2009, nearly two months after he was last seen. The report indicated that Ayscue had been in an argument with his roommate concerning weapons before he disappeared. In the initial stages of the investigation, a Silver Alert was issued for Ayscue, and search efforts were undertaken by law enforcement and dozens of volunteers, but to no avail. The Silver Alert eventually expired after 90 days, a standard procedure, but his case remained an active missing person investigation.
Roger was a white male with brown hair and hazel eyes, standing at approximately 5'6' and weighing between 150 and 160 pounds. He had several distinctive tattoos that his family hoped would aid in his identification. These included the name 'Kojack' in numbers, a scorpion on his neck, the cartoon character Garfield on his left leg, and the words 'Shannon Devil TB.' He also had an unknown scar on his chest and another unspecified tattoo on his left arm. Despite these identifying features and a $5,000 reward offered by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office for information regarding his whereabouts, years passed without any significant leads. His disappearance left his loved ones in a painful state of limbo, desperate for answers that seemed just out of reach.
A disturbing and complex layer was added to Roger's case years later, intertwined with his own family's dark history. His sister, Kimberly Hancock, became a person of interest in a separate cold case. In October 2019, the remains of Deborah Deans, who had been missing since 2004, were discovered buried in a shallow grave behind a residence associated with Hancock. Hancock was subsequently charged with first-degree murder in Deans' death. This was not Hancock's first encounter with the law; she had previously been charged with manslaughter in the 1989 death of her father, for which she served less than a year in prison. In September 2022, Hancock entered an Alford plea to charges related to Deans' death. While authorities have not officially named Hancock as a suspect in her brother's disappearance, the circumstances have led to speculation. There are theories that Roger may have had knowledge about Deborah Deans' death and that his disappearance was a result of what he knew. To date, the case of Roger Wade Ayscue remains an unsolved missing person case, a haunting story of a man who disappeared after an argument, leaving behind a family and a community still searching for the truth.Last Seen: Jul 7, 2009
