Person of Interest in Staged Hanging, Disappearance of Grape Creek Woman Jailed on Drug Charges

ABILENE, TX-- A person of interest in the disappearance of a Grape Creek woman in 1993 and a staged hanging in Abilene was arrested on drug charges in Taylor County on Monday.

Ricky Don Henderson, 57, of Levelland, was arrested for possession of tetrahdryocannaboil (THC) on Monday and booked into the Taylor County Jail, KTXS reports.

Henderson has not been formally charged, but is a person of interest in the staged hanging of 20-year-old Levelland resident Jeannie Quinn and disappearance of Grape Creek native Stephanie Meeks Henderson in 1993.

Quinn was found in an Abilene field with a wire around her neck. The medical examiner called the position she was found in "a staged hanging" position. She was ruled to have died by asphyxiation.

Stephanie Meeks Henderson was married to Ricky Don Henderson prior to her disappearance in 1993.

On a phone call from Henderson to her grandmother in San Angelo, the Grape Creek native said they had an argument and that she was leaving.

Her grandmother then drove to Levelland only to find her granddaughter gone. Henderson told his grandmother-in-law that Stephanie had left with some girl friends from Hobbs, New Mexico.

Stephanie was not reported missing for weeks because her family thought she was in New Mexico. She had left all of her belongings at their residence in Levelland.

Her grandmother received a letter in the mail addressed by Stephanie. Yet, it was postmarked from Lubbock instead of Hobbs, leading to suspicion.

Investigators then interviewed the women who were said to have picked up Stephanie. All of them denied picking her up.

A DNA test of the saliva from the envelope and Stephanie's hair proved the envelope was sealed by a man in 2004.

There is no word on what Henderson's bond is for the new drug charge.