There is little more tragic an incident than suicide.
Unfortunately, something as terrible as that situation becomes a news story of note when the victim has appeared on the court docket in a big way in the past.
Hence the story of Travis Ferguson, of Jasper County.
Appearing on the lead page of the Disclosure Heartland section of the current issue (July-August 2014), here’s the recap of the events that caused Ferguson to make the front page of the paper two years ago…and the sad ending of his life, in the article for your evening Read the Lead, Jasper County bad boy commits suicide:
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Travis Ferguson
JASPER CO.—A man whose terrorization of his girlfriends and ex that escalated to charges of arson being filed against him two years ago committed suicide in July.
Travis Lee Ferguson, 33, of Willow Hill, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head shortly before 3:30 p.m. Thursday, July 10, 2014, at a location in rural Willow Hill.
Authorities have been very reserved about the situation of Ferguson’s death, only advising that the rural location was in the Embarrass River Bottoms south of Willow Hill, and that the report of Ferguson’s body being found came in at 3:22 p.m. that day.
Authorities did not report who found Ferguson, nor the circumstances under which he was found (whether it was a farmer checking fields in the area, a sportsman out fishing in the river, or a family member looking for Ferguson at his last known whereabouts.)
They also did not elaborate on how long it was believed Ferguson had been deceased before he was found, nor whether whoever found his body might’ve actually been with him at the time of the fatal gunshot wound and was subsequently the person who called it in.
Ferguson became the subject of intense public scrutiny after a series of actions he took involving his ex-wife, as well as an ex-girlfriend, occurring across the…
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To read the rest of this article, click the headline link above the excerpt if you have an online membership to the e-Edition; or, if you don’t, simply click this link here to get started. If you’d rather have a paper in your hands, though, you can always visit one of our many vendors across southern Illinois, including in Jasper County Newton Marathon, Bottle Junction, and MVP, and in Ste. Marie, The Gas Station; and in neighboring Crawford County, Mach 1 Marathon in Robinson and Maxwell House in Flat Rock. Hurry…there’s only ONE WEEK to go on this issue, and it’s moving fast!