MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After police say a North Memphis woman was raped and strangled, her community now has something else to worry about. The victim’s special needs brother that she cared for is missing.
Both Elaine Hugo and her brother Carl spent a lot of time at the convenience store where Hugo worked, but no one has seen him since Friday, before his sister’s untimely death.
Friends describe Carl Wilbanks as timid, but sweet.
They say he’s a man who panhandles to get by in world that’s tough for him.
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“He’s special needs pretty much. But he got around. He had a basket he’d push,” Crown Supermarket customer Collette Rivers said.
“He doesn’t read. He’ll recognize a Coca Cola because of the logo or coloring,” Pastor Kenneth Murphy said.
As a result, his sister helped take care of him.
Roberta Elaine Hugo helped him have food and a place to sleep.
“Carl’s been here and Elaine’s been here for 20 years or more. Where one’s at, the other is too,” the victim’s friend, D. Whiteley said.
Friends say he was due in court Friday for a panhandling ticket.
Normally his sister would go with him, but this time she didn’t.
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He caught the bus for Downtown and never came back.
“He hasn’t been seen,” Pastor Murphy said.
Since then, it’s been tragedy.
Police say his sister was raped and murdered by Jimmy Lewis, a homeless man who goes by “cowboy”.
Family and friends haven’t filed a missing person’s report, because they say he wanders a lot.
They’ll often find him in a mental health care facility, or he’ll make his way home.
“I hope to goodness they haven’t told him. He should be around family when he finds out, because that’s going to hurt him a lot,” Pastor Murphy said.
Family members say they just hope nothing bad happens, like with Elaine.
They say they’ve already had enough pain this week.
