MISSING IN MISSISSIPPI: Jeffrey Hegwood, Forrest County

There are so many strange things surrounding the disappearance of 23-year-old Jeffrey Hegwood that it’s hard to even come up with a theory of what happened to him.

Hegwood was last seen in Hattiesburg on March 2, 1980. He was supposed to pick up a date at 9:00 p.m. that evening. Investigators found that he went to the bank and then bought flowers and wine for his date, but the young bar owner never arrived.

His roommates told police that they came home that evening and the front door of their apartment was open. Hegwood was nowhere to be found, though his wallet and the wine were reported to be at the apartment.

When he disappeared, Hegwood was 23 years old. He was 5’10, 158 pounds with dark brown hair and a mustache. He had a diagonal scar on his inner left eyebrow and he wore eyeglasses or contact lenses. He was last seen wearing a brown V-neck sweater and tan pants, and was known to wear a turquoise ring and gold Bulova Acutron watch with green safety cross and “Robert E. Bell” engraved on the back.

That night, a vehicle matching Hegwood’s was involved in a hit-and-run accident. Hegwood’s car would later be found abandoned on Short Katie Street in downtown Hattiesburg with a muddy handprint on it. It’s not clear after all these years if there was damage to the vehicle or if it could be definitively tied to the hit-and-run. It’s also not clear if Hegwood is believed to be the driver.

Things became more cloudy when Hegwood’s 25-year-old half-brother, Barry Earl Rubenstein, whom he had never met, was killed in a police shootout in Ontario, Canada, six months later. He was carrying Hegwood’s license at the time of his death. He was driving a van that had been purchased in Mississippi, with a license plate that had been stolen at the Jackson Airport.

Police called Hegwood’s mother at that time, who admitted she had a child out of wedlock that had been put up for adoption. She said Rubenstein had called her and asked her to pick him up at the airport on August 15 of that year and he stayed with her overnight before leaving.

Reports say authorities do not believe Rubenstein is responsible for Hegwood’s disappearance, but do believe that he somehow stole the ID while he was staying with his mother.

Hegwood was set to graduate from college in two weeks from when he went missing. If you know anything about this case, please call the University of Southern Mississippi Police Department’s Cold Case Unit at (601)266-4946.