ST. LOUIS — For the past 20 years, Theda Person has been dedicated to the same mission. On June 11, 2003, her 9-year-old son, Christian Taylor Ferguson went missing. Believed to be deceased, Christian’s body has never been found. Person (maiden name Theda Wilson) has been ever vigilante, working to bring her son’s murderer to justice, to keep her son’s memory alive and to aid other parents who might face similar abominations.
Earlier this month, Person was in the news for her advocacy work surrounding a new medical alert system she’s dubbed “CTF” after her son’s initials. The public announcement was timed in memory of what Person described as Christian’s 20th “angelversary.” The CTF system will be designed to send out notifications about individuals with special needs or disabilities when they go missing.
“The Amber Alert system is great,” Person explained, “but this is for people with severe life-threatening conditions. It’s imperative that people respond in a timely manner, especially if someone could die within 24 or 48 hours without their medications. (CFT) will notify authorities and the public of individuals with disabilities, on dialysis, or with any other special need. It could be an adult, a senior or a baby.”
In Person’s case, it was her baby.
Christian was born with a rare medical disorder called Citrullinemia. The disorder prevents the body from processing protein and causes toxic substances to build up in the blood. Person said that without Christian’s medication, L-arginine (which helps the body build protein), her son would have died within 24 to 72 hours.
Sixteen years after Christian went missing, the boy’s father, Dawan Ferguson, was arrested and charged by St. Louis County prosecutors with first-degree murder. He was convicted last year and sentenced to life without parole in September for Christian’s presumed death. The body was never found.
Person expressed mixed emotions about the arrest and conviction. “I don’t know how to be in this place,” she told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at the time. Asked about that comment, Person spoke with frustration.
“They finally did what they were supposed to do years ago…period,” she stated.
As far back as 2001, when Ferguson was awarded primary custody of Christian and his younger sister, Person said she tried to warn city officials that her son was in danger.
“I knew if he ever took my children, Christian would not make it,” Person recalled. “I knew my son was fragile and he’d die if I didn’t do everything I could on his behalf.”
Ferguson, Person said, was from a well-connected family. She was never legally married to the boy’s father and was on public assistance when they separated. Ferguson could afford legal representation, she couldn’t. These factors, she’s convinced came into play when Ferguson was awarded custody of Christian and his younger sister.
Person said Missouri protection agencies, social workers, Ferguson’s lawyers and judges involved in the case punished her and treated her like a nuisance for making excessive complaints about Ferguson’s inability to care for Christian.
She was horrified in 2001, when her son, who she said could walk and talk, be “a mischievous child" who called her “momma,” had a stroke and went into a coma. He survived but, Person said, “was never able to walk or talk and was back in diapers.”
Two years later, in 2003, Ferguson called 911 from a pay phone to report a carjacker had driven off with his maroon 1999 Ford Expedition with Christian inside. Officers searched the area with dogs and twice searched Ferguson’s rental home in Pine Lawn but found no sign of the boy.
Person said area hospitals had written Ferguson up multiple times for noncompliance in taking care of Christian’s medical needs. She had made calls asking authorities to intervene on her son’s behalf but got no relief. She still doesn’t understand why Ferguson was not charged years ago.
“The hospitals knew my baby was being deprived of his medications but didn’t do anything about it,” Person stressed. “I called attorneys but if you can’t afford them, they don’t even want to talk to you. Christian’s father knew how to work the system, I didn’t. I realized; I was caught in a net.”
Person wishes sympathetic attorneys were motivated to help her in legal fights she basically waged on her own.
“I never had legal experts to guide me,” Person said. “I didn’t have a Ben Crump (George Floyd Family's lawyer). Everything I know is what I learned from shows like Law & Order or what I learned to Google myself.”
At the time of Ferguson’s arrest, St. Louis County Prosecutor, Wesley Bell said he was determined “to look at cases with a fresh set of eyes.” The evidence in Christian’s case, Bell added, compelled “us to seek justice for Christian...”
If he were alive today, Christian would soon celebrate his 30th birthday. Person has said publicly that her quest to find Christian and other missing children had consumed her life. Since her son’s disappearance, she has held annual walks to publicize missing children and created a nonprofit, “Looking For An Angel,” to report abuse and neglect. Advocating for the new alert system is part of her ongoing passions.
Person has never confronted her son’s father. It’s a wish she still hopes to fulfill one day with a specific purpose in mind.
“They can give me this alert but I’m always going to come up with things in memory of my son,” she confessed. “But the best thing they can give me is him (Ferguson) telling me where he put my son’s body?
“I need that closure.”