Inside a little red folder, Latoshia Holmes thumbs around each piece.
Filled with phone records, court documents and photographs, the papers inside document the last moments of her brother, Tony Epps’, life.
Tony was last seen on March 21, 2007. He left his home to meet up with a friend but was never heard from again. His car was found in the parking lot of the Greenmill Restaurant at Kellogg and Rock Road in Wichita. His cell phone was found inside the vehicle, but there was no sign of Tony.
Latoshia has made it her mission, along with the rest of her family, to find out what happened to her brother, who would 50 years old today.
“I can’t let go of things like this because I know if it were me, he never…he would never give up,” she said. “If it were me, so, you know, that’s why I still push, and I still ask questions. I still make phone calls. I still Google every single day. See if anything else comes up or somebody feels guilty or somebody says something.”
THE MURDER TRIAL
For the longest time, Latoshia said she was always under the impression that her brother was a missing person, but that changed in spring 2009. A man was accused of owing Tony $18,000 in a drug debt and killing him.
The prosecution said a man called Wichita police after Epps disappeared and said the suspect had wanted to store a sport utility vehicle in his garage, and the man suspected the vehicle was stolen, the Associated Press reported in April 2009. “Police later found the SUV in Oklahoma City, and a small amount of Epps’ blood was found in both the SUV and the garage,” the report continued. DNA put Tony and the suspect together the day he vanished. The suspect’s ex-girlfriend said that he told her “I did it” when talking about Epps, but he didn’t elaborate as to what he exactly meant. A jury found the suspect not guilty of first-degree murder.
It was jarring to learn of the details of her brother’s life. Latoshia said she never knew Tony was involved with anything bad. He was a good man who saw his sons, who were 11 and 8, every day, she said. The boys were left in the dark.
“It just hurts every day,” said Tony Epps, Jr. “I just want closure. Closure for me and my little brother, and my whole family. That’s all that we want. My aunts. My uncles. My grandma. We just want closure.”
Growing up without a dad has weighed heavily on the younger Tony and his younger brother.
“Every once in a while I do cry, thinking about it, but it’s hard,” he said. “I don’t have nobody to go, to go see him at a gravesite or anything. I always wonder if he’s really still out there. I just want just peace, Justice to be served, or just find his remains so we can put him to rest.”
A CLOSED CASE
When the trial ended in 2009, the missing persons case of Tony Epps, Sr., ended. Wichita Police said unless new evidence emerges, it remains inactive. Latoshia has not given up, but she feels like the system did. While she’s grateful for the work of investigators and advocates, she hopes someone will come forward with any tip to help revive the case. She believes multiple people may be involved in her brother’s disappearance, considering the activity he’s accused of being associated with and the fact that he was such a big man.
“I guarantee you a 300 pound man does not die at the hands of one person or by one person without anyone knowing, or there’s so many people that I’m sure now what happened — so many — and we just don’t,” she said.
“I’m beyond vengeance,” Latoshia continued. “I’m beyond, you know, wanting somebody to get payback for it. Just let us have him. Just tell us where he is. So we can lay him down and then we can rest easy…to know, ok, he’s gone. This is fine. Lay him down and let these children be able to grieve somewhere they can take flowers.”
TONY EPPS
Missing from: Wichita, Kan.
Missing since: March 21, 2007
Age then: 36
Height: 5’8’’
Weight: 315 pounds
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Anyone with information about the disappearance and suspected death of Tony Epps is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (316) 267-2111.