MS MS - Jessica Stacks, 28, missing from boat on Tallahatchie River, 1 Jan 2021

[Gigi3]

I do agree with you here. Those details are very important. I hope we can agree that finding the boots of a MP that were "cut off" along with a coat, gloves etc is extremely fishy. I also would like to know what condition the boots and the other belongings were found in. Were her things in a little pile or heap all together or were they scattered around? If the latter, how far apart were they scattered? Were they dirty? Torn? Was anything else cut?

I'm the one who mentioned the boots that most Mississippi girls have. Rain boots or Hunter boots went through a hugely popular phase here for everything from outdoor concerts/music festivals to just knocking around outdoors. You are correct in pointing out that we do not know exactly what type boots we are talking about here and that is an important detail before we get too far with that. I definitely am picturing a very common type of boot for mucking around outdoors and that might not be at all what she was wearing.

I will say this though, the purse is another interesting piece of interest. I am finding it really hard to believe that she took off out of that boat on her own without that purse.

Is it possible she had a knife on her? Sure. But here is where I struggle with the scenario of her having a knife in a pocket or on a belt: If she were truly out there to hunt and was properly outfitted with proper gear with pockets and/or a knife on a belt, I just cannot wrap my brain around her taking her purse on that boat. I can picture one or the other but not both. They are incongruent in my mind based on what I know. I could be wrong, but in my mind (JMO) she was either experienced enough to have the proper gear in which case she would have known better than to take her purse with her or, Lord forbid give her phone up to anyone OR she was not inexperienced enough not to realize that taking her purse on that boat was a bad idea. Even if she just happened to grab a knife that was on the boat, I just can't picture her leaving her purse behind; certainly not willingly, anyway. If it was important enough to take on the boat, it was important enough to take when she left the boat. Again, JMO.

Finally, the last thing that makes my hinky meter go on red alert is that this guy did not call her phone that he says he left with the person that they had planned on picking them up. He called his son instead. He either abandoned the original plan (why?) or it never was a plan but a story concocted to cover something up. (what?) Then on top of this, he waits until 10pm that evening to report her missing. Things that make you go hmmmm.

Great post- very thought provoking. The story is so strange, IMO.

The only way I could see “cutting off” boots would be to cut them away from attached wader bibs. I still can’t make that make any sense. The temperatures across the south have been too cold to be without proper clothing, especially foot wear. In that environment, why get rid of your boots? I’m stumped (if I believe the story, which I don’t)
MOO

 

[MimosaMornings]

So you’d need a decent knife to cut off a muck boot. A thin plastic boot would be easier to cut.

And if you’re in the predicament of being stuck in the mud that bad and your boot is so tight you can’t pull your foot out - are you going to calmly bend down to saw at your boot with the blade facing your leg? I’ve been stuck several times in the mud and when I went to walk forward my foot came out leaving my boot stuck.
Something about the boot story is off.
JMO

 

[Bridger]

Good comments on this thread. Just want to add that at one time in my life I carried around two bags. One was my purse and the other was a small tote for when I had some extra time in, say, carpool line or at an appointment. The tote contained reading material, snacks, cards, crossword puzzles, that sort of thing. My husband would probably have referred to the second bag as my purse, even though it really wasn’t. Perhaps something like that is what remained in the boat. I can imagine many women saying something like, “Ok. I’ll go with you, but I’m taking my knitting so I’ll have something to do in the boat.” Not saying that’s what happened, just that it would explain a “purse” being left behind.

 

[daytime obsession]

I do agree with you here. Those details are very important. I hope we can agree that finding the boots of a MP that were "cut off" along with a coat, gloves etc is extremely fishy. I also would like to know what condition the boots and the other belongings were found in. Were her things in a little pile or heap all together or were they scattered around? If the latter, how far apart were they scattered? Were they dirty? Torn? Was anything else cut?

I'm the one who mentioned the boots that most Mississippi girls have. Rain boots or Hunter boots went through a hugely popular phase here for everything from outdoor concerts/music festivals to just knocking around outdoors. You are correct in pointing out that we do not know exactly what type boots we are talking about here and that is an important detail before we get too far with that. I definitely am picturing a very common type of boot for mucking around outdoors and that might not be at all what she was wearing.

I will say this though, the purse is another interesting piece of interest. I am finding it really hard to believe that she took off out of that boat on her own without that purse.

Is it possible she had a knife on her? Sure. But here is where I struggle with the scenario of her having a knife in a pocket or on a belt: If she were truly out there to hunt and was properly outfitted with proper gear with pockets and/or a knife on a belt, I just cannot wrap my brain around her taking her purse on that boat. I can picture one or the other but not both. They are incongruent in my mind based on what I know. I could be wrong, but in my mind (JMO) she was either experienced enough to have the proper gear in which case she would have known better than to take her purse with her or, Lord forbid give her phone up to anyone OR she was not inexperienced enough not to realize that taking her purse on that boat was a bad idea. Even if she just happened to grab a knife that was on the boat, I just can't picture her leaving her purse behind; certainly not willingly, anyway. If it was important enough to take on the boat, it was important enough to take when she left the boat. Again, JMO.

Finally, the last thing that makes my hinky meter go on red alert is that this guy did not call her phone that he says he left with the person that they had planned on picking them up. He called his son instead. He either abandoned the original plan (why?) or it never was a plan but a story concocted to cover something up. (what?) Then on top of this, he waits until 10pm that evening to report her missing. Things that make you go hmmmm.

These are my exact thoughts as well.....Quite a few things don't sit well with me in this one, but I can't get past these two things AT ALL.

 

[Blue Ridge]

Good comments on this thread. Just want to add that at one time in my life I carried around two bags. One was my purse and the other was a small tote for when I had some extra time in, say, carpool line or at an appointment. The tote contained reading material, snacks, cards, crossword puzzles, that sort of thing. My husband would probably have referred to the second bag as my purse, even though it really wasn’t. Perhaps something like that is what remained in the boat. I can imagine many women saying something like, “Ok. I’ll go with you, but I’m taking my knitting so I’ll have something to do in the boat.” Not saying that’s what happened, just that it would explain a “purse” being left behind.

I hear you! I take my crochet bag everywhere if I'm going to be sitting for any length of time.

Hoping for news of progress in this case soon. What has happened to you, Jessica?! Surely LE is busy behind the scenes...MOO

 

[ElementalLaura]

Good comments on this thread. Just want to add that at one time in my life I carried around two bags. One was my purse and the other was a small tote for when I had some extra time in, say, carpool line or at an appointment. The tote contained reading material, snacks, cards, crossword puzzles, that sort of thing. My husband would probably have referred to the second bag as my purse, even though it really wasn’t. Perhaps something like that is what remained in the boat. I can imagine many women saying something like, “Ok. I’ll go with you, but I’m taking my knitting so I’ll have something to do in the boat.” Not saying that’s what happened, just that it would explain a “purse” being left behind.

Good thought! If they were in a jon boat, you’d assume if you’ve been in one before that it’s going to take on a bit of water from paddling (since there’s no motor), fishing, hunting, and water just getting splashed into the boat. For a multi-hour trip, you’d assume a cooler or some refreshments. If anyone had to go to the bathroom off-boat, that would involve tracking more water and mud into the boat.

Since she seems to have been familiar with these sorts of trips, I doubt she would have brought anything nicer (like crocheting etc) with her due to possibility of it getting mucked up. MOO. It is interesting the purse was still there. I wonder if they brought a cooler or any snacks. MOO.

 

[carterkatt]

I do agree with you here. Those details are very important. I hope we can agree that finding the boots of a MP that were "cut off" along with a coat, gloves etc is extremely fishy. I also would like to know what condition the boots and the other belongings were found in. Were her things in a little pile or heap all together or were they scattered around? If the latter, how far apart were they scattered? Were they dirty? Torn? Was anything else cut?

I'm the one who mentioned the boots that most Mississippi girls have. Rain boots or Hunter boots went through a hugely popular phase here for everything from outdoor concerts/music festivals to just knocking around outdoors. You are correct in pointing out that we do not know exactly what type boots we are talking about here and that is an important detail before we get too far with that. I definitely am picturing a very common type of boot for mucking around outdoors and that might not be at all what she was wearing.

I will say this though, the purse is another interesting piece of interest. I am finding it really hard to believe that she took off out of that boat on her own without that purse.

Is it possible she had a knife on her? Sure. But here is where I struggle with the scenario of her having a knife in a pocket or on a belt: If she were truly out there to hunt and was properly outfitted with proper gear with pockets and/or a knife on a belt, I just cannot wrap my brain around her taking her purse on that boat. I can picture one or the other but not both. They are incongruent in my mind based on what I know. I could be wrong, but in my mind (JMO) she was either experienced enough to have the proper gear in which case she would have known better than to take her purse with her or, Lord forbid give her phone up to anyone OR she was not inexperienced enough not to realize that taking her purse on that boat was a bad idea. Even if she just happened to grab a knife that was on the boat, I just can't picture her leaving her purse behind; certainly not willingly, anyway. If it was important enough to take on the boat, it was important enough to take when she left the boat. Again, JMO.

Finally, the last thing that makes my hinky meter go on red alert is that this guy did not call her phone that he says he left with the person that they had planned on picking them up. He called his son instead. He either abandoned the original plan (why?) or it never was a plan but a story concocted to cover something up. (what?) Then on top of this, he waits until 10pm that evening to report her missing. Things that make you go hmmmm.

Thanks, Quill... (sorry I didn't give you credit for the "every Mississippi girl has boots" comment! ...) I agree w/ you also on the purse. From conversation on here.. most women/girls would not carry a purse on a boat. Wonder if she was ever ON the boat? Might "someone" have pretended she was on the boat and thought.. hey... I'll take her purse and put it on the boat, because that'll "prove" to everyone that she WAS on the boat, because a woman is never without her purse!!!

 

[Quill]

Thanks, Quill... (sorry I didn't give you credit for the "every Mississippi girl has boots" comment! ...) I agree w/ you also on the purse. From conversation on here.. most women/girls would not carry a purse on a boat. Wonder if she was ever ON the boat? Might "someone" have pretended she was on the boat and thought.. hey... I'll take her purse and put it on the boat, because that'll "prove" to everyone that she WAS on the boat, because a woman is never without her purse!!!

Oh gosh, no credit needed! I just mentioned it as kind of a "disclosure" statement.

I *really* do wonder if she was ever on that boat and I am thinking exactly what you are thinking about that purse.

 

[lonetraveler]

So you’d need a decent knife to cut off a muck boot. A thin plastic boot would be easier to cut.

And if you’re in the predicament of being stuck in the mud that bad and your boot is so tight you can’t pull your foot out - are you going to calmly bend down to saw at your boot with the blade facing your leg? I’ve been stuck several times in the mud and when I went to walk forward my foot came out leaving my boot stuck.
Something about the boot story is off.
JMO

Yep, I agree. The one and only time I went to get oysters I got stuck in the oyster mud and ended up having to pull my foot out of the boot and just leave the boot buried in the mud.

 

[azure]

Great post- very thought provoking. The story is so strange, IMO.

The only way I could see “cutting off” boots would be to cut them away from attached wader bibs. I still can’t make that make any sense. The temperatures across the south have been too cold to be without proper clothing, especially foot wear. In that environment, why get rid of your boots? I’m stumped (if I believe the story, which I don’t)
MOO

I think your theory makes more sense than the boots being cut off of her. I truly can't see any point for her or a possible perp to cut them off, if stuck in mud you could step out of them (if you can get into them, I think you can step out), and if you've got a body to discard, you just leave the boots on it.

 

[Gigi3]

I think your theory makes more sense than the boots being cut off of her. I truly can't see any point for her or a possible perp to cut them off, if stuck in mud you could step out of them (if you can get into them, I think you can step out), and if you've got a body to discard, you just leave the boots on it.

That’s exactly what I was thinking! I can only visualize cutting off boots attached to something like a neoprene wader set(we have some for duck hunting), but then, when I try to imagine that scenario- it still doesn’t make much sense?


I guess, like so many other posters, the story just doesn’t add up. Of course, we don’t actually know the WHOLE story, so there’s that!
MOO

 

[Ms. Fletcher]

A couple thoughts I wanted to throw out there if one were trying to reconcile pieces of the story that don't seem to add up.
As I saw someone bring up, but it kind of got buried in the thread, she may have had shoes under the boots. Getting them on with shoes on may have been easier than getting them off. This may explain cutting them. Especially if she stepped/fell in too deep water and decided walking with water filled boots was no bueno.

Regarding the purse. I wonder if she took her purse more because she needed/wanted to have it with her before and after the trip but didn't feel comfortable leaving it with the person that dropped them off. Her phone would probably have been password protected and would only be useful to that person to answer a call.

Leaving it in the boat could have been as simple as she forgot to grab it when getting out, especially if she was concentrating on getting out quickly or trying not to fall in the water.

 

[Gigi3]

A couple thoughts I wanted to throw out there if one were trying to reconcile pieces of the story that don't seem to add up.
As I saw someone bring up, but it kind of got buried in the thread, she may have had shoes under the boots. Getting them on with shoes on may have been easier than getting them off. This may explain cutting them. Especially if she stepped/fell in too deep water and decided walking with water filled boots was no bueno.

Regarding the purse. I wonder if she took her purse more because she needed/wanted to have it with her before and after the trip but didn't feel comfortable leaving it with the person that dropped them off. Her phone would probably have been password protected and would only be useful to that person to answer a call.

Leaving it in the boat could have been as simple as she forgot to grab it when getting out, especially if she was concentrating on getting out quickly or trying not to fall in the water.

That is a definite possibility, about the shoes and boots, but then I wonder why discard the coat too? I would love to believe this girl just got mad and needed a break away or something, but it sure doesn’t look good at this point! JMO.

 

[lonetraveler]

A couple thoughts I wanted to throw out there if one were trying to reconcile pieces of the story that don't seem to add up.
As I saw someone bring up, but it kind of got buried in the thread, she may have had shoes under the boots. Getting them on with shoes on may have been easier than getting them off. This may explain cutting them. Especially if she stepped/fell in too deep water and decided walking with water filled boots was no bueno.

Regarding the purse. I wonder if she took her purse more because she needed/wanted to have it with her before and after the trip but didn't feel comfortable leaving it with the person that dropped them off. Her phone would probably have been password protected and would only be useful to that person to answer a call.

Leaving it in the boat could have been as simple as she forgot to grab it when getting out, especially if she was concentrating on getting out quickly or trying not to fall in the water.

You are right of course, under normal circumstances. Under these circumstances, I'm bewildered that she just happens to have a pocketknife with her but leaves her phone with another man, leaves her purse and backpack in the boat. IMO, if she was ever in the boat to begin with, she left the boat in an either "fight or flight" mode. If she had actually reached the road, she most likely would have flagged down a car and had them take her to the man who had her phone or she would have had someone let her use their phone to call someone to come pick her up. She most likely would not have voluntarily left her purse and backpack.

 

[MrsWatson]

So much of this just doesn't make sense.

And the boots? Being cut off? What the what??

 

[Catmommy]

As someone else hypothesized, if the boots were forced on a larger foot just to leave footprints to back the story given then it makes sense that they would have to be cut off the person wearing them when they couldn't be slid off normally. Mucking about in muck, I, too, have become trapped by sucking mud. My feet came out of the boots easily and the boots remained upright in the gunk. Boots stuck on a larger foot, a foot they weren't meant for in the first place, could need to be removed by cutting after the prints were laid. I see no other logical answer.

 

[Spider92]

Union County sheriff not giving up search for missing woman Jessica Stacks despite 20 days without results
Sheriff Jimmy (I keep thinking of that song "Jimmy Jimmy" by Ric Ocasek) seems to have turned over every stone looking for Jessica.....kudos to him. I find it odd that none of the stories mention the boots. Finding no body also makes me wonder if she was really ever anywhere near that river. If that turns out to be the case, I'd be pretty annoyed if I was Sherriff Jimmy (or one of his taxpayers).

 

[MimosaMornings]

Vanished New Albany woman has Chickasaw ties

I am going back and reading articles I might have missed, just reread this one.

Recently divorced (a year ago) with three children. Did she drop off her children on New Years Eve to her ex? Her mom? When was she supposed to pick them up?

And why was she still carrying around Christmas presents from her mother in January in a backpack? Why not take them home?

 

[Blue Ridge]

Bumping for Jessica.

 

[Snoop Sister]

Bump