A month after Wichita man disappeared, community still wonders, searches
In the gentle glow of candlelight, strangers stood alongside friends and family of Ian Shelton, a Wichita man who disappeared from Lake Afton a month ago, and put out a prayer.
Many had never met before Saturday night, despite having walked the same ground in search of the missing man. Yet they shared the same hope for his return.
“Tonight, we light candles not because we have answers, but because we refuse to stop holding space for him,” Jessica Simons, a friend of Shelton’s, said. “Each flame is a reminder that Ian is loved, Ian is missed and he matters.”
Shelton was last seen early on Dec. 3 at Lake Afton, the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s office said. The law enforcement agency conducted a large-scale search around the lake and the southwest part of the county, but the search was suspended after a week.
More than 50 people gathered Saturday night behind Oak Park’s Fresh Air Baby Camp to share memories of Shelton and strategize how to bring him home.
“The first opportunity that he had to be at a telephone, he would have called his mother,” Shelton’s uncle Michael Pendergraft said. “He wouldn’t have waited two days, three days, 10 days, a month. He’s not trying to do this for attention. He’s not held up somewhere. He’s his mother’s boy, and he would have contacted her and got back to her.”
Shelton became his mother’s caretaker after she was diagnosed with terminal, inoperable metastatic lung cancer in 2022. She said she had come to terms with her own death years ago, but couldn’t have prepared for this kind of tragedy.
“We were told I was going to die a long time ago, and then I didn’t die,” Shelton’s mother Stacy said. “ … I mean, you think of suffering and mourning and going through the stages of grief, and then you do it again.
“And so I’m pretty darn good at this, the hurting part, and living just right here right now, because I don’t got anything else.”
In addition to being a loving son, friends and family said Shelton is an avid fisherman and skateboarder. He loves music, caring for reptiles and his cat, Iris, and his daughter.
“If you knew Ian personally, you knew he is a free spirit, down-to-earth, open hearted and the kind of person who would give you the shirt off his own back,” Simons said.
While disheartened by his disappearance, Shelton’s loved ones — as well as strangers who have dedicated time to searching the Lake Afton area — have not lost hope that Shelton will come home, one way or the other.
“Let these lights be a path for Ian to find his way home, or for us to find Ian and bring him back,” Ian’s aunt, Kristy Kruse, said during prayer.
Through it all, Shelton’s mother said support from the community has been her saving grace.
“So many people don’t know Ian, you know. And I mean, he’s not three, he’s not 13 — he’s a 30-year-old man,” Stacy said. “I feel like so many of you just kind of related to it as a mother, that that could be my child, too. And I feel like your child is my child, because I would hate for this to happen to anybody.”
Valerie Engel, who helped care for her own mother when she was diagnosed with cancer, said Ian Shelton’s disappearance resonated with her. Since he’s gone missing, she’s volunteered to help manage a Facebook page dedicated to finding Shelton and has been reaching out to local and national media outlets and search groups, alongside coordinating Saturday’s vigil alongside Simons.
Shelton’s friends and loved ones encouraged people to continue the search for him and, if possible, donate to their GoFundMe in order to support volunteers and potentially hire divers as they continue their search. It can be found online at https://shorturl.at/Ozhco.
Individuals interested in joining the search themselves, Engel said, are encouraged to send search suggestions to the moderators of the “Ian Shelton: Missing” Facebook group or members of the Shelton family. The sheriff’s office asked searchers to search only on public property unless they have permission from private property owners to search their land.
