16 year old missing from volleyball game | The tragic death of Cheryl Fergeson

[Music] When a teenager disappears at a high school volleyball game, everyone is desperate to find out just where she went. When she is finally located, a cascade of injustice follows that would sicken the entire town. This is the fatal breakdown of Cheryl Ferguson’s tragic death. Cheryl was rushing to get out of the house on this Saturday morning because she didn’t want to be late. It was her first day acting as the girls volleyball team manager, and they were headed out for a scrimmage over an hour away. Cheryl went to Belleville High School and would be spending the day at Conro High School, just north of Houston, Texas. It was just 2 weeks after her 16th birthday, and she was ready to start her junior year of high school in August of 1980. As soon as they got off the bus, she dropped her things in the gym at 9:15 and headed down the hall to the bathroom before the game got started. A few janitors were hanging around and pointed her to the nearest bathroom. As Cheryl went up the stairs to the landing, one of the janitors started talking to her and showing the way. As she reached the door, an overwhelming sense of dread hit her when she felt a tight grip on the back of her arm. By 9:30, Cheryl’s coach and friends were getting concerned. She hadn’t returned to the gym, and the game was about to start. Several girls walked around looking for her, but they found nothing. The game lasted an hour, and there was still no sign of Cheryl. It was nearly 11:00 when the coach organized a search of the school along with parents and several school employees. They called the police and tried to calm the other girls on the team. Just where could Cheryl have gone? Clarence Brley was the janitorial supervisor at Conro High School, working Saturday, August 23rd, a week before the start of the new school year. And there were lots of final tasks to be completed by his team. He didn’t realize there was a game today. So, at 9:15, he went in the gym to open windows and doors to keep it from getting too hot in there. Henry Peas had been polishing the floor of the teachers lounge, and three other men, Sam Martinez, Gary Akerman, and John Cessum, were wrapping up the setup of tables and chairs in the cafeteria. Passing the cafeteria around 9:45, Clarence had an armful of toilet paper when he told the three guys to head over to the vocational building, and he’d come unlock it in just a minute. As he started up the stairs, Gary said that there’s a girl in the bathroom. Clarence let him know that it was no problem since he was headed to the boy’s bathroom. After he dropped off the toilet paper, he went to his office for a quick cigarette while listening to the radio. Really, just to kill some time. Clarence was looking out for his guys since they came in on a Saturday for overtime. His goal was to keep them busy until lunch so they could get paid for a full day. Over in the vocational building, Clarence unlocked the shop for the guys and then headed back to the main building around 10:15. He helped Henry wrap up the polishing and then the two men spent some time in the cafeteria straightening up the tables and chairs that the other janitors had set up earlier. In the vocational building, he told the men they could call it a day around 11:00. The men grabbed their things and headed out to their cars. Henry was giving Clarence a ride home. So, they headed back into the school to the office. They found people all over searching and calling out the name Cheryl. Police were there and the men were informed that a student was missing from the volleyball game. Henry and Clarence helped search for nearly an hour when they discovered something truly horrific. They had opened the door to the loft of the auditorium where props were stored for theater. A quick look behind some plywood exposed a devastating fact. Cheryl Ferguson was dead. Her body was hidden, completely unclothed besides a single sock, and she was not moving. Clarence notified the police and then just sat down in the auditorium. It was unreal. Somehow, a girl had been killed just feet away from them, and they had no idea it was happening. Henry and Clarence went to the police station and gave statements about their day, what they saw, and even gave samples of blood. They were racking their brains to figure out who could have done it. Had they seen anyone suspicious in the halls? They understood that they were considered suspects since they worked in the area and found the body. So, both men took a lie detector test on Monday and passed. It was scary to be under suspicion, but they both wanted it to be solved. For Clarence, the only black man of the five janitors, this was particularly scary because of the frequency he had heard the n-word during the investigation. Just a few days later, he was arrested. Clarence was stunned. It had been a big mistake, and he knew that once they figured out who really did it, he would be released. But that’s not what happened. Clarence Brley spent the next 10 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Gary Arian was not too excited to be working on a Saturday, but he needed the overtime since he had a new baby on the way. He wasn’t really close with any of the guys working, but was glad he had a friend who stopped by to say hello. James Robinson had just left his position as janitor a few weeks before, but had been lurking around off and on. James was someone who he had spent a lot of time with this summer, and they had gotten themselves into some questionable situations over the past few months. James was someone who brought out the worst in him, and he just wasn’t smart enough to stay away. Gary had just finished unstacking chairs in the cafeteria when he saw a blonde teenager walking towards them. She asked where the closest bathroom was located, so he hopped up the staircase to show her the way. He tried to say something funny to get her attention, but she didn’t seem to be entertained. He was overwhelmed with an urge which caused him to keep walking up the steps with her, making small talk while he fought the desire to reach out and grab her. Gary was crowding this young girl when suddenly James came jogging up the staircase to join him. The girl had stepped to the bathroom door and James grabbed Cheryl’s arm and pushed her into the bathroom. She screamed and pleaded for the men to let her go. Her shouts were loud enough that John Cessum could hear her frantic call. He saw the men on the stairway with her, but couldn’t believe something was actually going on. He turned back to the cafeteria and hoped to see them all head down the stairs any second. What Gary and James did over the next 20 minutes was unspeakable. Gary left the bathroom calmly, then joined Jon and Sam in the cafeteria, just waiting for Clarence to give them their next assignment. Gary was rattled and starting to realize the gravity of what had just happened. At 9:45, Clarence came down the hall carrying toilet paper for the bathroom. He started toward the stairs, and Gary yelled after him, “There’s a girl in there.” Clarence had planned to go to the boy’s room, so it was fine. Gary followed the guys over to the vocational building to wait for Clarence. He was antsy and disturbed. He had participated in a disgusting crime, and who knows what James was doing now. Suddenly, he feared that Clarence was taking too long because he had found the girl. He started saying to the other guys that Clarence sure was taking a long time in the bathrooms. He was the only person who was alone in the school. The other janitors had basically been altogether. As soon as Clarence brought the keys to get them inside the vocational building, Gary quickly excused himself to go grab a Coke. He checked the bathroom and no one was in there. He went back outside and saw James at the dumpster. He was throwing away a bag of clothes and Gary was crystal clear where they came from. They had a quick discussion, then James took off. Gary joined the men back in the vocational building, knowing he had just committed a truly evil deed. Just a few minutes later, Clarence let them go for the day. John Cessum was his ride home, and Gary told him to forget whatever he saw today, threatened him to stay quiet, and then reminded him that they were together working all day long. Gary got home and was clearly anxious. He wasn’t himself, and his girlfriend could tell something was wrong. He told her and her dad parts of what happened and that he knew that her clothes were in the dumpster behind the school. Those clothes wouldn’t be found until days later. So Gary had information that no one else knew. On Monday, Gary and the other janitors were brought in to give a statement. They all gave generally the same story that they were working altogether in the cafeteria. They saw a girl go to the bathroom and Clarence went up the stairs with toilet paper. John Cessum remembered the threat given by Gary earlier and didn’t mention what he had heard from the girl. A week later, after Clarence had been arrested, they were asked to walk through the school and recount their day. Gary took the lead and reminded everyone where they all were together. He then mentioned that Clarence was alone in the bathroom area while they all waited for a long time out by the vocational building. Technically, this was true, but Cheryl had already been killed by this time. This was the last questioning Gary faced for the next 5 years. Despite tips coming in right away, including from his girlfriend’s dad, he sat back while Clarence was tried and then convicted of murder. Clarence had suffered through trials, illegal rulings, a mistrial, a false conviction, and sitting on death row just days from execution. After years of fighting injustice after injustice, Clarence was finally getting a break. James Robinson’s ex-girlfriend came forward with his confession. He had come home immediately after the crime and told her what he had done. He packed his things and left town. Did he tell you who he killed? He just said that he had killed a girl at the high school and that he hit her well enough that nobody would find her when I was Brenda thought he was just making excuses for why he wouldn’t be sticking around to help her. She was just 16 years old at the time and 6 months pregnant with his child. he had abandoned her. It wasn’t until 6 years later when she heard about Branley’s case on the news. It struck her instantly that James was not kidding and he was in fact the murderer. Her coming forward led to a reinvestigation of the crime by Clarence Branley’s team. They discovered that Gary’s family had also come forward with incriminating information 5 years before. Gary was questioned and admitted that he saw James attack and kill Cheryl. He also saw him discard her clothes. What did you hear from her? She was just taller. Did you see what it was that James was doing to her, which made her call her no when he grabbed her? I seen Robinson come out of the side back at the main building and go up to the dumpster and dump a bag in. Do you know what was in the bag? at the top of it looked like it was closed hanging out of it. Why are you now telling us this? Because I don’t think Claire Bradley was guilty of it. Well, I know for a fact that he was Do you believe that James Robinson killed Cheryl Ferguson at Conro High School on August 23, 1980? [Music] He thought he could place himself as a witness, but it soon became clear that two men were likely involved based on the evidence. He decided to retract his statement, but it was already clear that Clarence had nothing to do with the crime. John Cessum came forward with the truth, that he saw Gary and James grab Cheryl Ferguson. With all of these witnesses admitting the truth, Clarence was granted a new trial in 1987. After several more years of ridiculous motions in court, charges were dropped and he was finally released in 1990. A completely innocent man had lost 10 years of his life. The most sickening part of Cheryl Ferguson’s story is that James Dexter Robinson and Gary Ari were never tried for any crime. The evidence was all purposefully destroyed or lost within the first year after the crime. There is nothing left to test for DNA. They only knew that the blood type of the killer was type A, which matches both Gary and James, but not Clarence. After Clarence’s release from prison, the DA decided not to pursue charges against Gary or James due to lack of evidence. Justice was completely denied to Cheryl and her family.