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RUSK \u2013 Missing 57-year-old David Blount\u2019s brother, Billy Blount, shared a letter on Friday calling for action and stating that the City of Rusk has \u201cfailed his brother, his family, and every resident who expects transparency.\u201d The open letter arrived in the KETK newsroom on Friday afternoon, calling for accountability from those investigating his brother\u2019s Dec. 2 disappearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have watched in disbelief as the City of Rusk turned what should have been a straightforward investigation into a masterclass in stonewalling and self-preservation,\u201d David\u2019s brother Billy said. \u201cThank God for the Cherokee County Sheriff\u2019s Department and the Texas Rangers who stepped up in our family\u2019s time of desperate need.\u201d
\n<\/p>\n
Our news partner KETK shared the letter with the City of Rusk and the Rusk Police Department, who responded with a statement sent directly to our newsroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe City of Rusk and the Rusk Police Department sincerely hope that James David Blount is found safe and that his family, including Billy Blount, finds peace during this difficult time,\u201d the statement from the city said. \u201cThe City would like to clarify the current status of this matter. The Blount case remains an open missing person investigation and is actively being handled by the Cherokee County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Texas Rangers. While the Rusk Police Department is no longer the lead investigating agency and has transferred its records and involvement to those agencies, the investigation itself remains ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Billy read the response and shared his thoughts about how leaders are sidestepping the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a classic dodge, just like they\u2019ve been doing, they keep saying they handed the lead over, but they\u2019ve not produced one document saying that the leads have been handed over to anybody,\u201d Billy said. \u201cThey need to answer for what they\u2019ve not done on the case when they had it. They\u2019ve had it for almost five months now and we\u2019ve got zero response from the city in this whole deal. I mean, we\u2019ve learned nothing in five months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blount was last seen near his residence on Dec. 2. Four days later, his vehicle was discovered on Highway 84 near the Neches River.<\/p>\n
Cherokee County Sheriff\u2019s Office deputies have since searched David\u2019s house, the woods behind it and the area near the river several times, but no answers have been found.<\/p>\n
Anyone with information about Blount\u2019s disappearance may be elligble to receive a $25,000 reward and is asked to contact the sheriff\u2019s office at 903-683-2271.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSK \u2013 Missing 57-year-old David Blount\u2019s brother, Billy Blount, shared a letter on Friday calling for action and stating that the City of Rusk has \u201cfailed his brother, his family, and every resident who expects transparency.\u201d The open letter arrived in the KETK newsroom on Friday afternoon, calling for accountability from those investigating his brother\u2019s … Continue reading Officials respond to family\u2019s questions<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1498766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/04\/2026-04-18_151241-1-198x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1498390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 10:19:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/04\/2026-04-18_151241-1-198x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1498390"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1499384,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498390\/revisions\/1499384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1498766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1498390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1498390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1498390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}