The call came on a Friday afternoon, and Tracy Coleman still remembers the fear in her foster sister’s voice. Elsie Wigington wasn’t one to panic, but that day she was terrified, convinced her husband was going to kill her. They had grown close while aging out of the foster care system together, and Tracy had never heard her like this. Elsie made plans to flee Virginia and head north to Maryland, but she never showed up.
On June 25th, 2023, Elsie’s adult daughter, Sativa, called her mother’s phone asking for a recipe. Elsie replied by text, but something felt off. That was the last time Sativa ever heard from her mother. “I just assumed that was because she was working,” Sativa later told reporters.
A couple of hours later, Elsie’s job called asking if Sativa had heard from her. Neither had. The following day, June 26th, Fred Wigington Jr. filed a missing person’s report with the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office.
He claimed he last saw his wife at their home on Pendleton Drive, wearing pajamas and packing. She left behind her cell phone and her beloved dog. A woman who feared her husband would kill her had vanished. The police should have taken it seriously.
They didn’t. Sativa recalled, “I talked to the police. They are supposed to be the people that you go to, and they didn’t really do anything. ”
The Amherst County Sheriff’s Office considered Elsie a voluntary missing person.
Because she was over 18, they reasoned, she could choose to disappear. That a frightened woman went missing after confessing her terror meant nothing to them. Her case went cold, and the administration moved on. It wasn’t until the new year, when the sheriff’s office changed leadership, that anything shifted.
In May of 2024, the Aware Foundation of Virginia joined the search. They released a missing person’s poster describing Elsie as 5’4”, 185 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Her case was featured in Dateline NBC’s series *Missing in America*, and Sativa spoke to ABC 13. “They should have looked into it.
They should have searched her property just to make sure she wasn’t there somewhere,” Sativa said. When asked if she thought the police were doing more, she admitted, “One of the officers told me he’d had something similar happen and she showed up. The other lady showed up around the holidays. I assumed that was what was going to happen.
And then she didn’t show up around the holidays. ”
Asked what message she had for her mother, Sativa broke down. “I just want to know that she’s safe. If she’s safe and she doesn’t want to come back, that’s fine.
I just want to know if she’s safe. ”
Elsie’s family held a press conference, praising the new administration for finally pushing the case forward. Her stepsister, Victoria Seal, made a promise: “We will be your voice, Elsie, and we will be the voice for other women in your situation as well. ”
With the anniversary of her disappearance approaching, the family went door to door with flyers, desperate for answers.
They refused to stop until they found out what happened to her. On July 9th, 2024, law enforcement searched the home on Pendleton Drive that Elsie shared with Fred. The 1. 5-acre property was covered in debris, and authorities brought in canines.
Sheriff Jimmy Ayers said he wasn’t optimistic they would find her alive. On August 14th, 2024, investigators discovered human remains on the property. Fred Wigington Jr. was initially charged with concealment of a dead body.
Those charges were later upgraded to second-degree murder, then concealment of a firearm, and finally first-degree murder. He was taken into custody and held without bond. The medical examiner’s office confirmed the remains were those of Elsie May Wigington. Victoria learned that her sister had been found beneath a slab of concrete.
“It was a bittersweet moment,” she admitted. “There’s always that glimmer of hope that she may still be out there, but I think that myself and the family kind of knew that this was going to be the end result. ”
Then, on January 13th, 2025, Sheriff Ayers held another press conference. The investigation had led to a second arrest: Fred’s ex-wife, Patricia.
Patricia had been married to Fred before Elsie. She moved in with Fred the same weekend Elsie was murdered. When Fred was arrested, Patricia was living in Elsie’s house. She later moved to Madison Heights.
The sheriff explained that Patricia had been interviewed three times. On May 23rd, 2024, she told investigators she didn’t know what happened to Elsie and claimed Fred said she was still alive. On July 9th, she claimed Elsie had simply left and that Fred would never hurt her. It wasn’t until August 19th that she finally changed her story.
She admitted she had withheld information, telling investigators that Fred told her he killed Elsie and buried her under the concrete. Patricia was charged with accessory after the fact. She appeared in court on January 16th and was granted a $2,500 bond, ordered to have no contact with Fred. Elsie’s sister, Mary Jordan, was furious.
“To me, that’s not enough for her, injustice-wise. She’s allowed to go back to doing what she was doing before she was arrested with no condolence to my sister whatsoever. She misled police for over a year, lived in the trailer that my sister was buried underneath for over a year, and still would not confess to anything. ”
“Just the fact of knowing that she moved in 24 hours after my sister was murdered and lived there for a whole entire year.
How could somebody that was married to the murderer and still think she’s married to him not say more to the police? I think she’s just as guilty as Fred. ”
On May 2nd, 2025, Fred Wigington Jr. was found guilty by unanimous decision of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
The jury deliberated for just over an hour. Elsie’s family stayed in the courtroom as the verdict was read, biting back tears. They told reporters they were relieved that Elsie had finally gotten the justice she deserved. Fred’s mother was also in the courtroom, showing little emotion.
Fred later entered an Alford plea regarding the concealment of Elsie’s body. On July 30th, 2025, he was sentenced to life in prison plus three years. Tracy Coleman reflected on the loss: “When you consider all the losses, my niece and nephew lost their mom. My foster sister, Victoria, and I lost our sister.
Fred’s mom lost her son. Nobody walks away from this unscathed. ”
Patricia appeared in court for a preliminary hearing in late 2025. Her defense claimed she didn’t believe Fred when he said he killed Elsie, thinking he was just trying to scare her.
But the prosecution argued she lied numerous times, delaying the investigation. The judge sided with the prosecution and certified her charges to circuit court. As of December 2025, she had not yet gone to trial. In the wake of Elsie’s death, Tracy and Sativa started a GoFundMe to cover her final expenses.
Her remains were cremated and laid to rest in a mausoleum in a graveyard that holds her grandmother and her mother. There is zero excuse for family violence. And there is zero excuse for how local law enforcement handled Elsie’s case.
