Ind. Couple Vanishes After Anniversary Celebration

Jan. 15, 2009— -- Police says they have no leads on the fate of an Indiana couple who disappeared without a trace nearly a week ago after celebrating their 14th anniversary.

The families of Arthur "Shonteau" Joshua, 39, and his wife Latavia, 35, are frantic, saying the East Chicago, Ind., couple would never have abandoned their jobs and teenage children.

"This is a nightmare," said Charlene McFerson, Shonteau Joshua's mother. "Things like this don't happen in East Chicago."

East Chicago police are asking for the city of Gary, Ind., where the Joshuas were last seen, and local businesses to turn over surveillance tapes from the night of Jan. 9 and the early morning hours of Jan. 10, hoping to get clues as to what may have happened to them.

East Chicago Police Sgt. Juan Beltran told ABCNews.com that the Joshuas celebrated their anniversary at a Gary lounge called Beer Belly's, leaving between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. before stopping at an ATM to take out money.

They were driving a hunter green 2001 Dodge Durango with an "In God We Trust" specialty Indiana license plate, number IZ542.

After leaving the lounge, Latavia Joshua then placed two phone calls -- one to 15-year-old daughter Paris, and another to a co-worker requesting a wake-up call to make sure she was at work by 6 a.m.

That's the last anyone heard from them. Family members reported them missing after Latavia Joshua failed to show up for work as a nurse assistant at Community Hospital in Munster, Ind. "That's very unusual for her according to her supervisor and her work record," Beltran said.

Police are looking into whether the Joshua's, who were high school sweathearts, may have had an accident or whether they met with foul play.

"We don't know for sure," he said

The couple may have been headed to El Norteno, a Mexican restaurant also in Gary.

"According to the family, they usually go to that spot after going out partying," Beltran said.

But in the week they've been gone, police have not been able to speak with the night manager who was on duty at El Norteno that day, nor have they been able to collect area surveillance videos.

Desperate for Answers

McFerson said family and friends have been canvassing a wide search area in the last week, even sending out fliers to others as far away as Atlanta and Wisconsin.

Shonteau Joshua's brother, DeAundre Joshua, has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the couple's discovery. And the family has organized a prayer vigil and search to begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Tabernacle Baptist Church.

"My worst fear is that they're on the side of the road, frozen," she said. Temperatures in the area have fallen below zero in recent days.

McFerson said East Chicago used to be a quiet area where most people knew each other. But in the last few years, she said, the city has seen a steady stream of new residents come over after Chicago, less than 10 miles away, began shuttering some of its low-income housing.

That fuels another fear, she said, that her son and daughter-in-law have "been abducted by some young punks."

The Joshuas' children, Paris and 17-year-old Shonteau Jr., are staying with an aunt and an uncle. They've been going to school, McFerson said, so they don't have to sit at home agonizing over the what-ifs.

McFerson said the couple met in high school and have been "joined at the hip" ever since.

"They are fun, outgoing," she said. "They meet no strangers."

Shonteau Joshua has coached children's basketball in the past, she said, and the couple both helped distribute turkeys and hams this past holiday season. McFerson said she worries that their willingness to talk to and help strangers may have gotten them into trouble.

Dawn Tall is the human resources manager at Pollution Control Industries in East Chicago where Shonteau Joshua has worked since 1996, most recently as a supervisor in the receiving department.

"He's very down-to-earth," she said. "Never misses work."

Tall said investigators have been to the company to question his co-workers, but they, too, don't know where he could be.

"I'm very concerned that it's not going to end well," she said. "But he's not the type that would just leave."