FBI joins search for SC mother Alexis Ware, missing for more than a month

The FBI has joined the investigation into the disappearance of a Greenville mother of two who was last seen Jan. 30.

Alexis Ware’s family has been pleading with federal investigators to work with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, the lead agency because Anderson County was the last place Ware was seen.

T.J. Patterson, the father of Ware’s youngest child, has said he met her around 7:30 p.m. Jan. 30 at the 7-Eleven on Highway 29 north in Anderson County.

He took the children and expected they all were going to his mother’s house, but at a red light, Ware went around him and sped off.

Kevin Wheeler, spokesman for the FBI Columbia field office, on Thursday confirmed FBI involvement in the case and added, “I cannot go into details about the investigative techniques being used by investigators.”

Ware’s mother, Alberta Gray, has said she believed her daughter was kidnapped.

“She was too nice,” Gray said. “I feel she misjudged this person.”

Gray said her daughter told her someone in a black truck was outside her Greenville apartment on the day she disappeared, and Ware’s daughter told her grandmother she had seen the truck as well.

Ware’s phone recorded her location 30 miles away in Abbeville at 8:15 p.m. Jan. 30 and highway cameras picked up her car that same night going into Augusta, Georgia, and returning to South Carolina, Gray said.

The next Wednesday, Feb. 2, her red Honda was found covered in mud on a rural road in McCormick County, 70 miles from where Patterson last saw her.

After the property owner saw information about a missing red Honda on television, he called authorities to say he had seen a similar car.

Grays said her daughter’s cellphone and purse were inside the car.

Gray said investigators have told her they were able to get fingerprints from the car, but they have not told whether the print belonged to Ware or someone else.

Capt. Steve Reeves of the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation or the FBI joining the case.

Anderson County, along with multiple other agencies, have searched the 222 acres near where Ware’s car was found but turned up nothing. The car was taken to Anderson County and processed, and the lead investigator has phone records to peruse.

Gray said she believes important information as to her daughter’s whereabouts is in her phone.

Various searches by family and friends have been conducted in recent weeks.

Justin Hunt, a moderator with the South Carolina Black Activist Coalition, said earlier this week important information was recovered in searches last weekend, but he would not say specifically what.

Searches were conducted at Ware’s apartment complex in Greenville and in Abbeville and Anderson.

Hunt said last week the group believes they know why Ware disappeared and who was involved.