A Cody woman, who was traveling from Alabama back to Park County in October of 2024 with her ex-boyfriend and their two children, is still missing.
But according to court records, her ex, Adam Aviles, Jr., may be charged with her murder as the active investigation into the disappearance of Katie Ferguson, 34, continues.
Over the past four months, investigators have been trying to determine what happened to Cody resident Katie Ferguson, who went missing on a cross country trip with her ex-boyfriend.
Authorities have been investigating whether the 34-year-old was killed by her ex, Adam Aviles Jr. — and court records indicate their efforts may be coming to a head.
Aviles has been held in federal custody since November on a count of being a felon in possession of ammunition; it relates to a fully loaded and bloody magazine found in his SUV. However, his court-appointed defense attorney has said Aviles could face more serious charges. According to court records, law enforcement responded to a call concerning an abandoned vehicle just south of Cody. Police found the Durango had dried blood and smelled of cleaning supplies. They impounded the vehicle as evidence, identified the vehicle as belong to Aviles, Jr. and found a fully-loaded magazine on the passenger seat. He was arrested on November 4th.
Days earlier, Aviles, Jr., allegedly contacted Katie’s family saying she left the him and their children in Little Rock, Arkansas, and never returned nor contacted him about her whereabouts. He told officers a contradictory story saying that Katie wasn’t missing, she was just avoiding her family.
In a March 5th court filing, Assistant Federal Public Defender David Weiss stated, that Aviles, Jr., “is a suspect in a homicide case” and, in reference to Katie’s disappearance, there is a “homicide investigation is underway in an unnamed state,” according to the Powell Tribune.
Just days later, on Nov. 4, the Park County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of an abandoned vehicle in Oregon Basin south of Cody. Deputies found Aviles’ Dodge Durango with a large amount of dried blood and cleaning supplies inside; they also discovered what looked like bullets and an apparent bullet hole in the passenger door that seemed to have come from a shot fired inside the SUV.
Aviles has pleaded not guilty to the federal ammo charge. His trial is set for April 1st in Cheyenne, but Weiss has asked for a continuance citing that the he needs more time to review the evidence gathered by prosecutors and to hire consultants for a trial “and/or mitigation purposes.”
With no opposition from prosecutors, the judge who is presiding of the case, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson, has pushed the trial back to June 24th. Whether that date will be needed remains to be seen. If homicide charges are filed elsewhere, “there is a good chance the United States would relinquish custody of Mr. Aviles to that jurisdiction,” Weiss has stated.
