Odd connections exist between disappearances in Conecuh County, Alabama's Range community

Last week’s story in The Courant about a hunter finding skeletal remains in the Range community has generated a lot of talk in the community. Several people mentioned that the story reminded them of an incident over 20 years ago in which the remains of a missing woman were also found at Range. I, too, somewhat remembered that case, but I couldn’t remember many of the details, so I decided to do a little digging.

During my research on that case, I found a front-page story in the April 8, 1999 edition of The Courant that carried the headline, “Woman’s remains found in Range.” Written by the late Jay Thomas, a former News Editor at The Courant, the story reported that a decomposed body found in Range had been positively identified as that of Betty Lou Dougherty of Asheville, N.C. Dougherty had been missing since January 1998 when she reportedly stopped in Evergreen to ask for directions to the Vanity Fair outlet in Monroeville.

On Mon., April 5, 1999, a logging crew working in an area off the Old Stage Road at Range found Dougherty’s remains and some of her jewelry. Her purse, which contained her identification and credit cards, were also found near her remains. The loggers notified the Conecuh County Sheriff’s Department, which sent her remains to the state forensics lab for an autopsy and positive identification.

More than a year before her remains were found, on Feb. 17, 1998, Dougherty’s red 1997 Pontiac Sunfire car was found abandoned at Range, more than eight miles off the nearest paved road, bogged down in the mud. The car still contained her personal belongings. Relatives told authorities that the 57-year-old woman was last seen on Jan. 21, 1998 while visiting relatives in Alabama.

In March 1998, private investigator Burt Siders and Conecuh County Sheriff Tom Hall teamed up to conduct a search for Dougherty at Range. After several days of an “exhaustive search,” they eventually had to give up. Thirteen months later, loggers found her remains.

To anyone who has been keeping up with it, Dougherty’s case sounds eerily similar to the cases of Brian Estrada and Shari Saunders. Estrada’s car was found abandoned at Range on Oct. 7, 2020, and the remains found last week are believe to be those of Estrada. As with Dougherty, many of Estrada’s personal effects were found in his car, including a gun, his cell phone and a bag of uneaten Waffle House food on the passenger seat.

Saunders’s car was also found abandoned at Range on Aug. 12, 2018, about one week after she was last seen getting gas at Exit 93 in Evergreen. As with Dougherty, Saunders’s car was found stuck in the mud and containing many of her personal effects. To date, over two years later, she remains missing.

Dougherty, Estrada and Saunders were also all from out of state. Dougherty was from North Carolina, and Saunders was from Norfolk, Va. Estrada was from Buford County, Ga.

When it comes to things like this, I don’t believe in coincidences. Something odd is going on when it comes to missing people in our area, especially when you take into account that there are at least three other missing persons cases still ongoing in our area. Some have even speculated that there is a serial killer on the loose.

For those of you unaware, Abram Johnson of Bay Minette has been missing since Feb. 20, 2018 when his car was found abandoned on a powerline cut at Owassa. On June 20, 2020, Earsie Richardson of Nymph disappeared without a trace from a home at Hampden Ridge. On Nov. 28, 2020, 71-year-old Willie Lee Richardson disappeared in neighboring Monroe County and hasn’t been seen since.