Man receives creepy text message hours before disappearing from Fort Bend County
FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas - In this FOX 26 edition of "The Missing," we bring you the story of a father who regrets the last words he said to his son before he vanished.
"I should've handled that a whole different way," said Leperry Williams Sr.
In November 2019, 28-year-old Leperry Williams Junior called his father Leperry Sr. The phone call was so concerning, his father drove three hours from where he was working to sit down and talk with his son. That's when Leperry Jr. showed him a creepy text message that someone sent to him, it was a picture of his grandmother's home, where he also lived.
"He told me I need to get my mother out of Houston; he was like 'I got some people mad at me'," Leperry Sr. explained.
Leperry Sr. grew frustrated that his son wouldn't tell him what was going on, and in his frustration, he told his son, he didn't want him staying in his grandmother's house.
"I was like what's going on with you? And he kind of didn't want to tell me. He said somebody sent me a photo of this house, and they know where I'm at. I asked him who, and he still didn't want to tell me," said Leperry Sr.
Leperry Jr. angrily walked away from his grandmother's home near Ridge Creek Drive and South Post Oak Road in Fort Bend County. He and his father texted a bit after the altercation, and he told his dad that his phone was dying and that he was going to find a charger, but he was never seen or heard from again.
His father spent the next several months texting and calling, thinking that his son was mad and would eventually get over it.
In March 2020, after four months had passed, Leperry Sr. knew something was wrong, and he filed a missing person's report.
Leperry Sr. says his son was an introvert, he never partied, and didn't have many friends. However, he started working at a local restaurant about a year before his disappearance and he started hanging out with some of his co-workers and staying out late. His father says he thinks his son got wrapped up with some bad people.
In February 2021, a detective contacted Leperry Sr. and asked for dental records after a body matching his son's description washed up in Galveston. Then the 2021 ice storm hit, and he waited weeks to hear back. The body found in Galveston was not Leperry Jr.
As the months flew by, Leperry Sr. was starting to lose hope, that is until May 2022 when a letter came to his mother's home addressed to Leperry Jr. It was from an apartment complex in Tampa, Florida, the letter was an effort to collect rent that was never paid.
"The rent was from 2021, so I'm thinking okay two years, so he's alive. I didn't even think about him owing money. I was just thinking we got some type of lead finally," Leperry Sr. said.
Detectives went to check it out, they told him the apartment looked as though squatters had been living there. But after four years, there's still been no real leads on what became of Leperry Jr. His father says his search, and his restless nights, won't end until he has that answer.
"I can't enjoy my life until I know what's going on with him," he said.
Leperry Sr. is offering a $5,000 reward out of his own pocket for anyone who helps bring his son home.
If you know anything about the disappearance of Leperry Williams Jr. contact Houston police at (713) 884-3131 or Houston Crime Stoppers at (713) 222-TIPS.
You can click here for a look at an official record of Long-term missing persons throughout the state of Texas.