Beggs Family Searching For Answers After Loved One Found Dead In Snow

Ashli Sims, News On 6

BEGGS, Oklahoma -- A Beggs family is searching for answers after their brother is found dead in the snow. They say he was last seen Tuesday night and it took nearly 20 hours to find his body.

Melenie and Bobby Grayson can't come to a spot along Highway 16 near Beggs without feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.

"It's been difficult," Bobby said. "Trying to find out what happened, where he was coming from."

The Graysons say the last time anyone saw their older brother, Ronald "Curt" Johns, alive was Tuesday night, when he left a friend's house. He never made it home.

The next day his sister and son found his car abandoned.

"Oh my God! Where's my brother? Ron, his son, was just devastated," Melenie said.

They searched through knee-deep snow, but Curt Johns wasn't found until Wednesday night.

"And I received a phone call telling me, 'I'm sorry for your loss' and I just threw the phone down. I couldn't handle it anymore," Melenie said.

The Grayson family says someone called and reported a man walking along Highway 16. The Okmulgee County 911 operations center will only say they're investigating.

This brother and sister want to know if someone called earlier, what took so long.

"It doesn't take anybody 18 to 20 hours to look for anybody," Bobby said.

The Okmulgee County Sheriff says it didn't take his department 20 hours to act. He says they didn't get called until Wednesday night. And his deputies worked with the fire department to track down Johns' body a short time later.

"I just want to know the truth," Bobby said. "There's a possibility that if a police officer would have came out my brother could be still alive."

Bobby Grayson says his big brother was a huge Sooner fan. So that's how they decided to mark the spot where he died.

"Every time I come home or drive through or in the area. I always drop a hat off. It's something to remember him by," he said.

The roadside memorial gives them some peace, but what they really want are answers.

The temperature was in the teens the night Curt Johns went missing. The medical examiner has not ruled on his cause of death.

2/10/2011 Related Story: Officials Confirm Two Deaths Related To Oklahoma Snow Storm