Hope Dims in Futile Search For Missing Ponca City Man
Don Hayden
Published: Sun, November 15, 1981 12:00 AM
Much like relatives of other missing persons, a Ponca City man says the "not knowing" is almost unbearable since his 40-year-old son disappeared June 19.
Ronald Terry Curby was last reported seen on that date as he left a party here and headed back to his Bartlesville home. His auto was found, undisturbed, parked alongside U.S. 75 about two miles south of the Washington-Tulsa County line.
Did Curby, like hundreds do each year, just disappear perhaps to establish a new identity? Or did he meet with foul play?
Curby's father, James O. Curby, a retired Ponca City businessman, said he has heard nothing from his son since the date of his disappearance.
"Some people who were at that party my son went to underwent a polygraph test, but nothing came of it," he said.
Tulsa County sheriff deputies have combed a 10-square-mile area near where the car was found and have interviewed numerous people hoping to find a lead to the man's whereabouts.
Art Lee, chief criminal deputy for the Tulsa office, said the investigation has "pretty well run aground."
Curby, manager of marketing at Applied Automation Inc., a Phillips Petroleum Co. subsidiary, was described as an "extremely reliable man."
Phillips spokesman Bill Adams said Curby had worked for the firm about 20 years.
"He never would have missed a scheduled meeting without notifying someone," Adams said.
Curby is described as 6 feet, 155 pounds with blue eyes and brown hair. A bachelor, he walks with a limp due to a childhood bout with polio.
His sister, Mrs. Karen Deshong of Chickasha, said someone might notice her brother because of his difficulty walking, especially up stairways.
"He wore a brace on his right leg for years but lately had taken to wearing it only to work," Mrs. Deshong said.
"Someone might notice him going up a stairway because he would have to use his hands to lift his right leg," she said.
Hopes rose in the case about a week after the disappearance when a truck driver who regularly travels between Tulsa and Bartlesville remembered seeing Curby's auto between 2:30 and 2:45 a.m. on June 19.
Authorities said the trucker apparently didn't place any significance on the sighting until his wife told him of reading of Curby's disappearance. The trucker, whose identity was never revealed, told deputies he recalled seeing what later was identified as Curby's auto and another car parked behind it.
He said he noticed two men getting into the rear car. Although the truck driver agreed to be placed under hypnosis, he added little to his story while in a trance.
"We're glad he tried but it didn't do us much good," Lee said.
The car was discovered about 5:30 a.m. by another Applied Automation employee.
Mrs. Deshong praised efforts by deputies saying, "they told me the case would never be considered closed until my brother is found."
Pleas by authorities to anyone who had his citizens band radio on in the area that night apparently fell on deaf ears as none contacted the sheriff's office.
"We've exhausted every avenue, checked every lead and we're nowhere.
"I suppose it is still possible the guy ran off, but I would have thought with his description passed around, someone, somewhere would have seen him," Lee said.
He said most investigations are begun on the assumption that foul play may be involved and that Curby's case is no exception.
"What it boils down to," he said, "is we're waiting for a sighting or the finding of a body."
