Thousands join search for missing Texas pastor 5 days after he left home

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Monday, August 07, 2023

A massive search continued Monday for 47-year-old Texas Pastor Phillip Loveday five days after he left his home for his secular job at Kinder Morgan but never showed up and he hasn’t contacted his family since.

Loveday, who is senior pastor at Faith Christian Center in Freer, Texas, left home for work at about 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 2, the Corpus Christi Police Department said in a statement on Facebook. His wife, Meléa Loveday, told police that she became concerned after “she received a phone call that he did not show up for work or church.”

Loveday’s family told KRIS 6 that he appeared to have forgotten his phone at home the day he went missing but they initially didn’t think anything of it because he would always find a way to contact them during the day. This time, however, he did not.

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"He would definitely always just answer back, so that was, right off the bat, very suspicious. It was just, ‘Oh why didn’t he answer?’ That never ever happens,’” Loveday's oldest daughter, Kayleigh Purnell, told the news outlet.

The pastor is described as about 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighs some 200 pounds and has blonde hair and blue eyes.

He was also driving a white 2016 Ford F-250 displaying either Texas license plate numbers HTN9773 or PPN1389. Police urged tipsters to call Corpus Christi Police Department at (361) 886-2840 or (361) 886-2600 with any information that can help them find Loveday.

The church also established a Facebook page called Finding Phillip Loveday, which had more than 8,000 followers as of Monday morning, and everyone is being encouraged to participate in the ongoing search for Loveday.

“We are continuing to search and encourage you to as well! Thanks to everyone who has offered to check their own properties. If there’s an area we have covered, please continue to search there anyway. We are hopeful that tomorrow will lead to more answers.

Please continue to pray for Phillip’s return and for his family,” the group administrator said in a message on Sunday night.

Purnell believes her father may have had some kind of accident and gotten “stuck somewhere.”

"I don’t think that he just disappeared. I’m kind of assuming that he had an accident, maybe rolled over into the brush,” she said. “It’s hot in South Texas, and Texas in general, and he’s outside working, so maybe he just got stuck somewhere or hurt somewhere and can’t get help."

Members of Faith Christian Center Church told KRIS 6 that Loveday was expected to preach at the church last Wednesday and when he didn't show up, they prayed for his health and safety.

"He was the one who kept us going. When we were hurting, he was hurting as well,” church member Emily Massey said. “He was our shepherd, and now we’re a flock missing our shepherd.”

Travis Pace, public information officer with the CCPD, also told KRIS 6 that even though the pastor is missing, they have seen no signs so far that indicate “foul play.”

"I’m not seeing anything that might indicate foul play,” he said. “But then again there’s a lot of territory between here and his work site so it’s hard to tell."