US navy veteran found dead in apartment after 3 years

DESOTO, Texas (AP) — Doris Stevens’ son, a Navy veteran who travelled the world for work and pleasure, suddenly stopped answering her phone calls in 2016.

Stevens said she spent years trying to find out what happened, appealing to authorities to no avail.

Earlier this month, Stevens received a grim answer when maintenance workers found Ronald Wayne White dead on the floor of his apartment in a Dallas suburb.

The condition of his body indicated White had been dead for an “extended period,” according to the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office, possibly since around the time his mother last heard from him three years ago.

“A part of me is missing and I’m not going to ever see him again,” Stevens told Stars and Stripes last week. “I want answers.”

A spokesman said the medical examiner’s office could not discuss the condition of White’s body or his cause of death until an autopsy has been completed.

Police in DeSoto, where White was found, did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Detective Pete Schulte told Stars and Stripes that White’s third floor, corner apartment was locked from the inside and there was no odour in the hallway or sign of foul play.

White appears to have died soon after moving into the DeSoto Town Center Apartments on a month-to-month lease in November 2016, the detective said.

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