The holidays are meant to be a happy time filled with friends and family, but they can also bring up memories of loved ones lost.
For those who know and love Bruce Evans, this time of year means recalling the last moments they spent with their beloved brother, son and boyfriend—and wondering if he’s still alive.
Evans was last seen leaving his Tucson home on Dec. 21, 2010, as he and a co-worker drove to Phoenix to conduct some business for the southside gun shop where Evans worked. He was supposed to be home that night.
When he didn’t return, relatives filed a missing-person report with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
Foul play is suspected, but no one has been arrested in connection with Evans’ disappearance, according to sheriff’s detectives.
Though he is still officially considered missing, Evans’ family members aren’t hopeful.
“We think he’s dead,” said Evans’ sister, Jennifer Barris, last week. “He wouldn’t just leave. He always told us that he couldn’t leave again. He couldn’t leave Mom again.”
Barris, mother Rose Westmoreland and others commemorated the anniversary of Evans’ disappearance by releasing red, heart-shaped “I Love You” balloons into the sky. Included with the balloons were the ashes of burned letters from friends and family members, Barris said—letters filled with “everything we never got to say to him.”
“He was an awesome big brother,” Barris said. “We miss him so much.”
A native Tucsonan, Evans—who would have turned 38 last August—returned to Southern Arizona two years ago after living and working for several years in Arkansas, where he helped design and build handguns. The opportunity to come back to Tucson popped up in the fall of 2009, when Evans’ then-wife, Monica, heard an acquaintance was looking for help opening a gun shop.
“Of course, he was all for that,” Barris said. “He was looking for a reason to come back home.”
But not long after Evans returned to Tucson, bad things started to happen.
In April 2010, he was arrested in Michigan when found in possession of a load of marijuana, Barris said. He was transporting the drugs for a co-worker associated with the gun shop, she said. It was the same co-worker Evans was supposed to drive to Phoenix with on the day he disappeared, according to Barris.
The Tucson Weekly is not identifying Evans’ co-workers, or the gun shop, because authorities have not identified any suspects in the case.
Kurt Dabb, a homicide detective with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, who is investigating Evans’ disappearance, declined to name anyone interviewed beyond immediate family members, citing concerns about compromising the case. He did confirm that some form of criminal activity likely led to Evans’ disappearance.
Barris said she and her family “were clueless” about Evans’ arrest prior to his disappearance. Though she has no proof, Barris said she believes her brother felt compelled to commit crimes on behalf of a co-worker, because that person helped Evans get the job that enabled him to return to Tucson.
“I think he was trapped, honestly,” Barris said. “All his eggs were in one basket. I think he was trying to get out of all this, and that’s why something happened to him.”
Dabb said his gut tells him Evans is the victim of a homicide. “When things don’t add up … you get a pretty good indication of foul play,” Dabb said. But for the time being, he will continue to treat it as a missing-person case.
“This is still active,” Dabb said. “We’re still trying to track down as many leads as we can. We haven’t gotten much help from the public.”
Several local media outlets ran brief items when Evans disappeared last year, but there has been little public attention given to the case since. A handful of websites devoted to missing persons have posted information about Evans. Last January, his girlfriend, Brandy Miller, created a “Bruce Evans Missing” Facebook page that has about 66 subscribers.
The most recent post on the page’s wall is from Evans’ mother, Rose Westmoreland, on the anniversary of his disappearance. It says the balloons and letters released that day were “sent … to heaven to let you know how much we love and miss you.”
Westmoreland declined to comment for this story, and attempts to contact Miller were unsuccessful.
This article appears in Dec 29, 2011 – Jan 4, 2012.
I am Brandy Miller Bruce’s Evans girlfriend at the time of his disappearance. The police did little to nothing about Bruce’s disappearance,as a matter of face asked me to get the information. The day Bruce vanished the police told me to go to his bosses house for answers.
A few officers demanded I stay out of it and keep my mouth shut about what happened yet I decided not tosoon after. I found out the police let his boss: the person responsible, the person whom picked him up from our home, the person who tricked him into working for him using his passion of firearms and coming home to family as a lore to tap him, was able to spend his Christmas in Mexico. He was a suspect in a missing person case yet they let him leave the country.
The deceive says until a body is found no one will be prosecuted. So Bruce’s family and I get to suffer daily. Missing Bruce and knowing justice will never be granted for a man who was loved by all.
It has been almost five years of hell without the love of my life and still nothing has been done. About four months ago, his trusted boss showed up at my work. The police told me “when he feels he has gotten away with the crime,he will find you and question you too see what you know.” They were right and she enough that’s what he did. I played cool like nothing ever happened. After a lengthy conversation about what has been going on in his life, I brought up Bruce and asked what happened that day. He looked dead into my eyes and said ” I don’t know what happened. We had an argument and I dropped him off at the shop and assumed he was having you pick him up.” Then I brought up the birthday party for Bruce’s 37th birthday at his house to stay on the topic of Bruce. I guess that made him mad because he then started after I asked if he was alive and if not just let me know where he was left. Not for the police who have laws to help the criminals, and did very little with this case, but for me so I could maybe have some proof he was really gone. His exact words to me where ” When people go missing around me they don’t ever come back nso get over it.” At that moment I had my first realization that he may never really be coming back. I pray daily that wherever he may be that he is alright and one day he will be back with the family who loves and misses him.
Tomorrow is another birthday without the man of honor attending. No grave to visit, no ashes to hold of spread just a empty feeling and lots of hope flushed away by yet another day going by without answers or help in this case. It is midnight and officially Bruce’s birthday.