Tyler Weathersby (31) left his home in Sioux Falls on September 4, 2024 to go for a walk and he has not been seen since. He did not have his phone, keys or wallet with him. Interestingly, Tyler’s wife MonaLisa was jailed in 2018 for shooting her previous husband dead.
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR TYLER AND MONALISA:
As some background, Tyler’s mother Janine Weathersby Harris has spoken to the media about her son.
“He was shy, but he was inquisitive,” Janine told Dateline. “Tyler was very introverted in the beginning. He became extroverted as he got older.”
Janine says Tyler is “one of the most compassionate and loving” of her four children. “He didn’t have a problem expressing how much he loved his family. Tyler always told me, ‘Mama, I love you,’ in his text messages,” she said. “I raised four children that are like that. That’s the common thread in our family — is a whole lot of love and affection.”
“Tyler and Greg were like two peas in a pod, they were so close,” Janine said. Greg is Tyler’s older brother.
“Tyler is a creator,” Greg told Dateline. “He was the one that — that pushed me, that– that shot all my music videos, took all of my — my pictures.” Gregory says Tyler has a knack for marketing. “He made us bigger, you know? Like, he put us on a bigger — on a bigger platform and — and really put us out in front of the people.”
As teenagers, the two brothers got involved in dance. “We started our own performance group,” Greg said. “We got signed to a talent agency in LA.” The brothers eventually branched out from just dancing. “Me and Tyler started doing music together,” he said. “We started a brand called Millions United, started a clothing brand. We got into music, uh, we toured about two — about two or three times.”
But eventually, Tyler told Gregory he wanted to try something else. “He wanted to branch off and do his own thing and I respected it,” Gregory said.
Tyler moved to South Dakota in the mid 2010’s. It was around this time that he met a woman named MonaLisa Perez.
Breaking from Tyler’s story for a moment, MonaLisa also has a big story to tell. In 2017, she fatally shot her first husband, Pedro Ruiz III (22) during a YouTube prank that went wrong.
MonaLisa is a bit of an influencer. She has around 7k followers on instagram, a similar amount on Facebook.
At the time of the shooting, MonaLisa was 19. She and Pedro had a three year old daughter and she was pregnant. She said that Pedro wanted to make a prank YouTube video where she shot at a book that he was holding in front of his chest. They had done other pranks that they posted online – in one, MonaLisa gave Pedro a sandwich filled with hot peppers.
Clearly, their prank went very wrong. The bullet went through the book and into Pedro’s chest. He died before he could be air-lifted for medical treatment.
MonaLisa told police that Pedro thought the prank would work because he had shot through a different book and it had stopped the bullet.
MonaLisa at one point faced up to ten years in prison for Pedro’s death. She ended up pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter. Her sentence was 180 days in jail. As part of the plea agreement, she was allowed to serve her jail time in her home state of South Dakota in 10-day increments. She was banned for life from owning firearms or collecting payments for her story.
Their YouTube has been taken down. Sad.
After Pedro died, Tyler sent MonaLisa a message on social media.
The two became friends and kept talking. MonaLisa said they helped each other get through tough times.
“I was helping him through his darkness,” she said. “And he was helping me. There would be days where we’re like, we just text each other like, ‘Come on, get up, you got this, keep going.’ You know? And as months passed, you know, we obviously developed even more deeper feelings.”
The ended up becoming a couple and became business partners. Their company is called Wake. “We just have always helped each other grow and evolve into the people that we are today,” she said. “We were both into fashion,” she said. “It was a streetwear clothing brand.” They would do pop-up shops and events like fashion shows, at which they would also engage in an issue they both felt strongly about: mental health. “With Wake, it’s all about knowing yourself and loving who you are,” MonaLisa explained.
The business transitioned over the years to become a creative agency. The focus of the company was to help other brands with marketing and PR.
MonaLisa and Tyler got married in 2021 and Tyler became father to MonaLisa’s two children. “He’s an amazing person. He is an amazing husband, father, friend, businessman,” MonaLisa said.
The couple had their own child, a daughter, together in March 2024.
Janine spoke about what Tyler was into at the time he disappeared.
“Tyler exercises every single day,” she said. “He’s very much into clean eating, intermittent fasting, things like that.”
MonaLisa said that he struggled with depression and mental health. He used to take daily walks, sometimes multiple times per day to “revamp and rejuvenate” and he would often use them to meditate and clear his mind.
In the days leading up to his disappearance, Tyler’s mother had come to stay. She arrived on August 26 and planned to stay until September 4.
On September 3, Tyler and his mother argued. “Everything about Tyler was good up until the 3rd,” Janine told Dateline. That’s when she and Tyler got into an argument. “It was out of character for him,” she said. “We’ve never had an argument; we’ve never exchanged words.”
Tyler seemed to be so mad that he drove his mother to the airport that night – Tuesday September 3, even though her flight was not until the next day. Janine called Gregory to tell him what had happened. Gregory booked Janine into a hotel for the night and he tried to call Tyler to find out what was going on.
Gregory said “Tyler didn’t sound right. It didn’t sound like Tyler was Tyler and, um, how he normally talks. It was like he was speaking in circles and wouldn’t really explain what happened.”
MonaLisa agrees that his behavior on that day was off. “The stuff he was saying was extremely not like him,” she said. “It was really, really odd.”
She said that Tyler was so upset after he dropped his mother to the airport that he barely got any sleep that night.
When MonaLisa woke up on September 4, Tyler had already gone for his walk. She was about to leave to take the kids to school when he got home.
“We all go out in the garage, including Ty. And we get the kids in the car. We give him a kiss. We all say, ‘Love you, bye,’” MonaLisa recalled. “And then he goes on his second walk while we’re driving out of the driveway.”
Tyler was not back when MonaLisa returned but she said that was not unusual. “Sometimes he’s out meditating, and he’s gone for an hour and a half, two hours,” she said.
By 10.30am, MonaLisa started to worry, especially as Tyler did not have his phone with him.
“That’s when I called my mom, I called my sister. I started –. I got in the car, I searched around the neighborhood, I went to his meditation spot,” she said. “I was freaking out at this point.”
She apparently filed a police report that afternoon. She did not inform Tyler’s family that he was missing at that point. They have made posts about this on social media.
Sam Clemens from the Sioux Falls PD has confirmed that MonaLisa made the report that day.
“We were called in the afternoon, maybe around 4:30 p.m.,” he said. “He had left home that morning about 7:45.”
“There wasn’t any indication that there’s anything wrong or any problems. He just left,” Clemens said. “He was wearing a white t-shirt, black shorts.” In addition to his phone, Tyler also did not have his wallet or keys with him. “He left all that stuff behind.”
Officials began to check the surrounding areas for any footage of Tyler. “We were able to find security footage, both in the neighborhood and then a nearby business that shows him walking,” Clemens said. “It’s not like he was being forced or compelled to go anywhere, he was just walking on his own.”
“The officers checked the area. They were, you know, looking basically different places where he could go or potentially could go,” Clemens said. “Our goal is just to find him, make sure he’s OK.”
MonaLisa did call Gregory on September 5 to inform him of the situation. Gregory then called Janine.
Around two weeks after Tyler vanished, MonaLisa made this post on Facebook:
Sioux Falls Police Department Lt. Aaron Nyberg spoke to News Nation in October about the search for Tyler.
“We’re coordinating drone searches in some of the last areas that the individual was seen, either by us on camera somewhere or been reported to us,” he said.
MonaLisa also spoke to News Nation. “It’s been extremely difficult, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of breakdowns, trying to hold it together for our children,” she said. “This is out of character for him.”
Gregory told the media outlet “The public has been amazing. They’ve sent me a lot of different proof, a lot of behind-the-scenes things. They’ve been supporting the search groups, handing out missing person fliers, sending me video footage that they may have found of Tyler. Different screenshots and proofs and different documentation that may lead to hopefully finding Tyler soon.”
Tyler’s birthday was in early October.
This is a case where there has been a lot of online discussion and interference. Online chatter has speculated that Tyler was on a 40 day spiritual fast and that he may have been hallucinating at the time he vanished.
Sioux Falls Police Chief Jon Thum asked the public to be respectful as they interacted and spoke about the case.
“This is a very real case,” PC Thum said. “Tyler has friends, family and loved ones who care about him deeply. For some of the public, this has become internet sleuthing, or real crime drama or entertainment.”
Gregory has spoken about the online interference in the case. “You got people hiding behind computer screens, they think they know everything,” he said. “People are so quick to judge and point fingers.”
Gregory has set up a GFM which has raised around 10k and he has received some criticism for that. He set up the fund to hire a PI and after he did so, he said some people turned around and questioned how the funds were being used. “I’m past being hurt. I’m angry,” he said. Legal Eye Investigations, LLC, told Dateline they have been retained by Tyler’s family and are “fully committed to pursuing every lead in the search for Tyler.” According to the P.I., they have distributed missing posters, conducted searches in the area, reviewed footage from the neighbors, and interviewed multiple people connected to the case.
PIO Clemens spoke to Dateline in late October and gave some more thoughts about the case. “He was heading towards an interstate, that was the direction,” PIO Clemens said. “Obviously, we don’t know if he actually made it there or if he turned off and went a different — different route.” The last security footage they found of Tyler showed him about a mile from his neighborhood in northeast Sioux Falls.
“After that, we haven’t had any luck finding where he went or which direction he went,” Clemens said.
“We’ve used a drone a couple of times in some different areas,” Clemens said of the police department’s search efforts, but they don’t have a good idea of where, additionally, to search. “We just haven’t received any– anything that leads us to know that he’s in — or was in — a particular area.” Authorities have also conducted interviews with those in Tyler’s immediate circle. “We’ve talked with them extensively,” Clemens said, but none of the information provided in those interviews has led to Tyler.
PIO Clemens said that in late October, there was nothing to indicate foul play in Tyler’s case. “There’s nothing pointing to that,” Clemens said. “We’ve asked for tips or information from the public and we’ve been able to follow up on those and essentially eliminate any of those that have come in,” he explained. “So we don’t have any reason at this point to believe there was anything criminal that happened.”
The family have spoken about their thoughts on what happened to Tyler.
“I don’t know if my brother is still out there, I don’t know if my brother is alive,” Gregory said. “I just — I want to know that my brother is OK.”
Janine said. “I feel in my heart — because I can feel my four children,” she said. “I don’t feel my son is here.” If Tyler is out there somewhere though, Janine said she’d like to make sure he gets the help he may need. “Trauma is serious, and this has been traumatic from day one. He may need some help.” Janine does not believe Tyler would harm himself.
MonaLisa, also does not believe Tyler would hurt himself. “I really think he’s alive and he’s just not in his right state of mind,” she said. While the past few weeks have been rough for her family, MonaLisa says she is grateful for the community of Sioux Falls. “We’ve done searches, we’ve done dogs,” she said. “The community has [come] together in Sioux Falls, like — like, so many people.”
Tyler is described as having a “slim build” at about 6’ tall and 160 lbs. He has dark brown eyes and his head was shaved at the time of his disappearance. MonaLisa believes he would have his hair back and a beard, by now. Tyler has a tattoo of a crown with a halo above it on his right wrist. He would be 32 years old today.
SOURCE LIST
https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/missing-in-america/tyler-weathersby-missing-sioux-falls-rcna176891
https://deadline.com/2024/10/zelig-williams-family-expands-search-area-broadway-dancer-missing-1236120934/
https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2024/09/19/sioux-falls-police-ask-public-info-tyler-weathersby
https://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/tyler-weathersby
https://www.gofundme.com/f/find-tyler-blake-legal-assistance