Family Continues Frantic Search For Missing Tattoo Shop Owner And Father Of Three

Friends and family of a missing Oregon father have become increasingly worried about him as the days and weeks march on.

Jesse McFerran, 38, vanished during the wee hours of Oct. 23, his wife Victoria Ward told Dateline NBC.

“He just vanished without a trace,” she said. “I don’t know how a person disappears like this. But we have no updates, no answers, nothing.”

McFerran, who owns the Fancy Rabbit Art Collective tattoo shop in McMinnville — about 35 miles southwest of Portland — and Ward had been taking a break from their marriage in the weeks before his disappearance. During that time, McFerran would often stay with friends around the Portland suburb of Tigard.

That's where he was last seen.

Ward told Dateline that he spent the night of Oct. 22 with friends in Tigard, who discovered that McFerran was gone the next morning. Through cell phone records and conversations with his friends, Ward learned that her husband had met up with a friend in the area at around 4:30 a.m. to get some of his possessions out of their car.

He then left on foot and told the friend not to follow him.

His last used his phone at 5:45 a.m. to send a text message to the mother of his oldest son, according to the Yamhill County News-Register.

“He was in a bad mental state so I’m just worried about what might have happened to him,” Ward told Dateline. “I don’t know that he’s even with us anymore. But if that’s the case then where is he? We should have found him by now.”

McFerran parents three children: a 2-year-old son with Ward, an 8-year-old with a previous partner and Ward's 6-year-old daughter.

Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Christopher Ray told Oxygen.com via email on Tuesday that this missing persons case is being “actively investigated.” 

He said he would release no further information at this time.

“Many of us have a big hole in our hearts right now… and although we have done so much groundwork, it’s been very disheartening to not have any leads that aren’t dead ends,” his wife wrote on a Facebook group she created called “Finding Jesse McFerran.” There, people have been sharing stories of how McFerran affected them and how they’d like to help contribute to any search effort.

“Holidays are here and there is an obvious void to his three children,” his wife stated in the group.

Jesse is 6’4” and weighs 180 lbs. He has brown eyes and was last seen with a shaved head, a nose ring on each nostril and a body full of tattoos. He has a bird tattoo on his left cheek.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office (503) 434-7506 or (503) 434-6500. His case number is 21-3397.