COTTON COUNTY, Okla. (KFDX/KJTL) — Authorities are still looking for Grady Bruce Benson, a 69-year-old man from just outside Randlett, Oklahoma, exactly six months since his mysterious disappearance from his family home.
November 9, 2022, was the day Benson disappeared after bringing his son some food and helping him on the family farm the night before, and local authorities are still dumbfounded.
“I mean nobody knows what happened,” Lori Hedges with the Cotton County Sheriff’s Office said shortly after his disappearance in November 2022. “They’ve not seen anything, heard anything. It’s like he woke up or got home and just disappeared in thin air.”
Tuesday, May 9, 2023, marks six months since the last time anyone saw Benson, and his family is still searching for answers.
“This is just unheard of,” Maxine Benson, Bruce Benson’s wife said. “This is something that happens somewhere else. It just doesn’t happen in Cotton County.”
July 14, 2023, will mark 50 years since Bruce and Maxine tied the knot, but the past 181 days, since Bruce vanished seemingly out of thin air, have turned her entire life upside down.
“My whole world has changed,” Maxine Benson said. “It’s nothing the same.”
And for Bruce’s son, Grady, who was the last person to see his dad before he disappeared, it’s been six months that he’s felt lost without his father.
“I just feel like I’m just kind of on hold,” Grady Benson said. “Ya know, don’t know which way to go, which way to turn.”
Local and state authorities, including the Cotton County Sheriff’s Office and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations, have been searching for Bruce since he was first reported missing in November 2022.
“They came back with dogs,” Maxine Benson said.
“They searched for probably a month,” added Grady Benson.
“Yeah, up and down the creek, and to the river,” Maxine Benson said. “Horseback, four-wheelers, drones, airplanes, helicopters… Searching, helping search, and they still continue to search.”
But so far, authorities have found nothing, and the absence of information makes Bruce’s absence from the Benson family home that much harder.
“You just don’t think they’re just gonna be gone like this, ya know, without any answers,” Grady Benson said. “Just the not knowing part has been really tough.”
But according to authorities, that wait may be far from over. Gerald Davidson, OSBI’s Interim Public Information Officer, had no update on Bruce, other than the investigation is ongoing.
But Maxine said despite that, she’s not done looking for her husband.
“Oh no,” Maxine Benson said. “I’ll never give up hope.”
Maxine Benson said she’s thankful that her community hasn’t given up on her husband yet either.
“We appreciate every prayer, everybody searching, and please continue,” Maxine Benson said. “I still look, I’ll never quit looking. He’s somewhere close, I do believe that. I’ll continue to look until the day I die, or until I find him.”
Bruce was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and worn red wing boots with the steel toe showing through. If you have any information that could help authorities, you’re urged to contact the Cotton County Sheriff’s Office at (580) 875-3383, or contact the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations by calling (800) 522-8017 or by emailing tips@osbi.ok.gov.
