CRENSHAW — Latrice “Shay” Armstead’s sister said her jaw was wired shut when she disappeared, a symptom of an abusive relationship that plagued her and worried her family.
Her disappearance is still a mystery almost 14 years after her loved ones noticed she was gone.
According to investigators, Armstead had recently moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in an effort to escape the abusive relationship while filing for divorce. She left her three children with family members for their safety during the process. She returned to Memphis to retrieve her youngest son but disappeared before she could go back to Missouri.
Family members reported her missing on July 30, 2012, after she failed to check in with her children, which they say she did daily, often multiple times a day. The following day, her vehicle was found burned near Little Simmons Road in Clarksdale.
Originally from Crenshaw, she has not been seen or heard from since.
Armstead, 38, was last seen July 28, 2012, in Memphis, with her estranged husband, Tony Bledsoe. At the time of her disappearance, she was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed about 152 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. She had pierced ears and several distinctive tattoos, including three bears on her left shoulder blade, a rosary around her left arm, a blue rose on her right arm, a panther on her leg and a heart on her left breast. Her jaw was wired shut after it had been broken in an alleged domestic assault.
Her case has since been classified as a cold case, but her family continues to push for answers. In a 2020 report by ABC 24, her sister, Brinda Armstead, described her as generous and deeply devoted to her family.
“Family-oriented — if she had something and you were a friend, it’s as good as yours,” Brinda Armstead told reporter Rebecca Butcher.
Her sister said it quickly became clear something was wrong when Armstead stopped calling.
“She would call quite often to check on her kids,” she said. “When I realized that I hadn’t heard from her … I really knew something was wrong.”
Brinda Armstead has publicly expressed suspicion toward Bledsoe, citing a history of alleged domestic abuse uncovered during the investigation. Authorities have said Armstead was last seen with him in Memphis.
“No one else around her that we know has motive,” she said in the ABC 24 report. “Everyone that the police wanted to question … came in without any fear or anything except for him.”
Investigators have never announced any arrests in the case.
Anyone with information about Latrice Armstead’s disappearance is urged to contact the Coahoma County Sheriff’s Department at 662-624-3085. Anonymous tips can also be submitted to Memphis CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH.
For Armstead’s family, the years without answers have been painful — but they have not given up hope.
“Given her personality and how she was,” her sister said, “people just don’t disappear.”
