Hayden Mayberry

Hayden Mayberry disappeared after reportedly walking into a patch of woods in Walker County. Search teams, investigators and cadaver dogs looked for him for weeks. More than two months later, his remains were discovered near the same road, and authorities announced a probable suicide while acknowledging that they might not have the complete story.

When Hayden Mayberry disappeared, the people who loved him did not believe he had simply decided to leave.

Hayden was 26 years old and the father of a one-year-old son. Jensen Lefan, the mother of his child, told WBRC that Hayden would not ordinarily allow a day to pass without calling or seeing the boy.

On November 19, 2019, Jensen met Hayden at a small brick church near the Boldo community north of Jasper. The two had argued that day, but they spoke in person.

It was the last time Jensen saw him.

Later that night, Hayden was reportedly at a residence on Pine Drive. The account eventually provided to investigators was that he walked out of the house and entered a nearby wooded area, possibly while waiting for a friend to pick him up.

Hayden never returned.

His telephone stopped producing useful activity. He did not contact his son. He did not contact Jensen or the other people who expected to hear from him.

As the investigation progressed, the Walker County Sheriff’s Office publicly acknowledged that foul play might be involved. Investigators executed search warrants, examined telephone records, searched the area and identified several people they wanted to interview.

Then, on February 1, 2020, more than two months after Hayden disappeared, a couple walking along Pine Drive discovered human remains in a thick patch of woods.

The remains were Hayden’s.

Authorities announced that he appeared to have died by suicide through a “probable hanging.” But the sheriff’s office also made an unusual qualification:

Investigators did not know whether they had the full story. (https://www.wbrc.com)

No homicide charge has been filed in Hayden’s death. Publicly available information reviewed through July 2026 does not show that authorities formally changed the suicide determination.

But the location of his remains, the difficulty finding him, the conflicting information investigators received and the sheriff’s own comments have kept questions surrounding Hayden’s death alive.

A Father Who Stayed in Contact

Hayden Thomas Mayberry lived in Walker County and was closely connected to his young son.

Jensen told reporters that Hayden’s disappearance was immediately inconsistent with his usual behavior. Even when other parts of his life were unstable, his relationship with the boy remained important.

After three days without hearing from Hayden, Jensen believed something was wrong.

She told WVTM that the amount of time without contact made her increasingly fearful. Her public appeals focused not only on Hayden, but on the child waiting for his father.

“His little boy needs him,” she said while authorities were still searching.

Jensen did not claim that Hayden’s life was free of trouble. Public records show that he had encountered the criminal justice system before. Those circumstances, however, did not explain why he would suddenly stop communicating with everyone who knew him.

Whatever Hayden had been dealing with, Jensen did not believe he would voluntarily disappear from his son’s life without a word. (https://www.wbrc.com)

The Final Day

November 19 began with tension between Hayden and Jensen.

According to Jensen’s interview with WVTM, the two argued and later met near a brick church down the road. That meeting became her last confirmed sighting of him.

At some point afterward, Hayden went to a residence on Pine Drive in Boldo.

The house would become central to the investigation because authorities identified it as the last place Hayden was known to have been seen. The residence was associated in public reporting with Rosa Ann Rice.

The account surrounding Hayden’s departure was that he went through the back of the house and walked toward a nearby wooded area. Secrets True Crime later reported that he was expecting his friend Tommy Welch to pick him up.

The podcast’s interviews suggested Hayden may have intended to wait in the woods rather than remain at the house. Public law-enforcement releases did not provide a complete minute-by-minute timeline or independently confirm precisely where Hayden stood while waiting.

What is clear is that Hayden did not meet the people who expected to see him later.

He did not return to the Pine Drive residence.

And no verified public sighting placed him alive anywhere else after November 19. (Secrets True Crime)

Six Days Before the Report

Hayden’s disappearance was formally reported several days after he was last seen.

Public sources differ slightly on the exact date the investigation began. The Walker County Sheriff’s Office told WBRC that Hayden had been missing since November 19 and that its investigation began November 26. A later case chronology compiled by Uncovered places the missing-person report on November 25. (https://www.wbrc.com)

Whether the report came on the 25th or 26th, nearly a week had passed.

That delay mattered.

The last people known to have been around Hayden had more time to forget details, leave the area or communicate with one another. Weather could alter outdoor evidence. Telephone information could become more difficult to interpret without a reliable timeline.

Investigators began interviewing the people connected to the Pine Drive residence and executing search warrants.

They also encountered another problem: they did not believe everyone was telling them the truth.

Searching Boldo

The Walker County Sheriff’s Office searched the area around Hayden’s last-known location.

On December 5, investigators publicly announced plans for a large volunteer search. The sheriff’s office instructed volunteers to meet in Jasper before traveling to the woods behind the residence.

Investigators had already executed search warrants at the house and interviewed its occupants. The sheriff’s office said foul play had not been ruled out, although authorities did not believe Hayden had been abducted and held for ransom. (https://www.wbrc.com)

Searchers faced the difficulties common to wooded parts of Walker County.

Thick vegetation can conceal a person only a short distance from a road. Uneven land, briars, leaves and fallen timber can make a small area difficult to inspect completely. Search dogs can miss a location because of wind, moisture, scent conditions or the route handlers choose.

According to the publicly available chronology compiled by Uncovered, cadaver dogs searched near Hayden’s residence on December 4 but did not search the precise patch of woods where he had reportedly been seen entering.

Nothing conclusively connected to Hayden was found during the initial searches. (Uncovered)

As the weeks passed, investigators became increasingly concerned that the answer might lie with the people who had seen or communicated with Hayden during his final hours.

Foul Play Was Considered

While Hayden remained missing, the sheriff’s office did not treat the case as a simple voluntary disappearance.

WBRC reported that investigators believed foul play could be involved. The office reviewed cellphone records, conducted searches and sought information from people connected to Hayden’s last-known movements. (https://www.wbrc.com)

In January 2020, Investigator Carl Carpenter again appealed for information. Carpenter said he believed people had knowledge that could move Hayden’s case forward.

The sheriff’s office was not publicly accusing a specific person of killing Hayden. At that point, investigators did not know whether he was alive.

But their statements made clear that they did not believe the people around Hayden had provided every relevant detail. (wvtm13.com)

A False-Statement Arrest

On December 26, 2019, the sheriff’s office announced that Rosa Ann Rice had been arrested.

Authorities said Rice gave false statements when questioned about Hayden’s disappearance. According to the department, the misleading information wasted time and resources during the search.

Rice was charged with obstruction of governmental operations.

That arrest did not mean she had harmed Hayden. She was not publicly charged with kidnapping, murder or concealing a body. The announced accusation involved what she told investigators.

Her residence was nevertheless important because law enforcement described it as the last place Hayden was known to have been seen.

The sheriff’s office issued a blunt statement after the arrest, warning that investigators would not tolerate being misled during a missing-person investigation. (wvtm13.com)

The arrest raised an obvious question that has never been fully answered publicly:

What information had Rice provided, and why did investigators believe it was false?

Three People of Interest

The same day Rice’s arrest was announced, the Walker County Sheriff’s Office asked the public to help locate three people it called persons of interest:

• Justin “J.W.” Stone
• Charity Tessener
• Tommy Welch

The term person of interest does not mean a person is a suspect, much less guilty of a crime. It can refer to a witness, someone with relevant knowledge or a person investigators have been unable to interview.

Stone was soon located and questioned. Authorities continued seeking Tessener and Welch at that time.

Public reporting did not disclose what Stone told investigators. It also did not identify evidence showing that any of the three had physically harmed Hayden.

Secrets True Crime later interviewed Welch and Tessener for its four-part examination of the case. Welch discussed plans to pick Hayden up on the night he disappeared, while Tessener described why investigators had wanted to speak with her.

The interviews added context to the relationships and movements surrounding Hayden’s final night, but they did not establish that any interviewed person caused his death. (Secrets True Crime)

No one identified in the 2019 public notices has been publicly charged with causing Hayden’s death.

A Scam Targeting the Family

The uncertainty surrounding Hayden’s disappearance also attracted people with no genuine information.

During the search, the sheriff’s office warned that someone had attempted to extort Hayden’s relatives by sending messages connected to the missing-person case.

Investigators described it as a scam targeting a vulnerable family rather than evidence that Hayden had actually been kidnapped for money.

The incident placed another burden on people already trying to determine whether Hayden was alive.

Each false claim required attention. Each misleading message threatened to send the family and investigators in the wrong direction.

It also demonstrated why law enforcement was cautious about rumors and demands that appeared after Hayden’s disappearance. (wvtm13.com)

The Telephone Records

Investigators examined Hayden’s cellphone records while attempting to reconstruct his final movements.

According to Uncovered’s summary of the sheriff’s December 5 briefing, AT&T records showed no activity on Hayden’s phone during the 48 hours before the missing-person report was filed.

That would mean the device had already gone silent several days after Hayden was last seen but before authorities formally opened the investigation. (Uncovered)

The public record does not answer several related questions:

• Where did the phone last connect to a tower?
• Was it switched off, damaged or allowed to lose power?
• Was the device recovered with Hayden?
• Did investigators determine who last called or messaged him?
• Did application or social-media records reveal activity not reflected in ordinary call logs?

No publicly released digital timeline comparable to the one available in Jessica Hamby’s case has emerged.

The absence of phone activity established that Hayden had stopped communicating.

It did not establish why.

Winter Passes Without an Answer

December passed.

Then January.

The sheriff’s office continued requesting tips. Hayden’s family continued waiting.

By then, investigators had searched the area, used dogs, examined records, served warrants and questioned several people.

Hayden remained missing.

The longer the search continued, the more difficult it became to understand how someone could vanish from a relatively confined area without being seen.

The account remained that Hayden had entered a patch of woods near Pine Drive.

If that account was true, where had he gone afterward?

Had someone picked him up?

Had he walked out somewhere else?

Had search teams missed him?

Or had someone returned him to the area later?

Those questions would become much more urgent in February.

The Discovery on Pine Drive

On Saturday, February 1, 2020, a couple walking along Pine Drive discovered human remains in a thick wooded area.

Secrets True Crime and Uncovered reported that the body was less than 100 feet from the road and in the same small section of woods Hayden was said to have entered on the night he disappeared.

The discovery location was therefore not miles away in an unfamiliar part of the county.

It was near the place at the center of the investigation from the beginning. (Uncovered)

The condition of the remains initially prevented an immediate visual identification. Clothing, shoes and a hat reportedly appeared consistent with what Hayden had been wearing.

On February 3, the Walker County Sheriff’s Office announced that dental records and tattoos had confirmed the identity.

The search for Hayden was over.

The investigation into how he died was not necessarily finished. (wvtm13.com)

“Probable Hanging”

The sheriff’s office announced that Hayden appeared to have died by suicide through a probable hanging.

Local news outlets reported that determination prominently.

But WBRC included another statement from investigators that prevented the announcement from sounding entirely conclusive:

Deputies said they did not know whether they had the full story. (https://www.wbrc.com)

That qualification matters.

A death can be self-inflicted while other people still possess important information. Someone may have witnessed the person’s emotional condition, supplied drugs, helped conceal the death or lied about the timeline.

It is also possible for investigators to announce a preliminary apparent manner of death while continuing to examine circumstances that seem inconsistent.

The public language used in Hayden’s case reflected that uncertainty.

Authorities said probable suicide.

They did not say every question had been answered.

The Belt

Secrets True Crime reported an unusual detail about the recovery scene.

According to information the podcast said emerged after the official news conference, Hayden was found on the ground with a women’s-style belt still around his neck. The belt was described as decorative or covered with “bling.”

Uncovered later included the same detail in its case summary. (Uncovered)

No publicly available Walker County news release reviewed for this article provides a complete official description of the belt.

That means several important facts cannot be independently established from public records:

• Who owned the belt
• Whether it came from the Pine Drive residence
• Whether Hayden had previously possessed or worn it
• Where and how it had been attached
• Whether the belt failed, was cut or became detached through decomposition
• Whether the physical evidence conclusively demonstrated hanging
• Whether any usable fingerprints, fibers or DNA were recovered

The fact that the item was reportedly a women’s belt may sound suspicious, but it does not prove another person placed it around Hayden’s neck.

People use whatever items are available during acts of self-harm. Conversely, an unusual ligature could become meaningful if investigators could connect it to someone else or show that the scene was staged.

The public evidence does not settle that question.

Was Hayden There During the Searches?

The location of Hayden’s remains created one of the most persistent controversies.

How could his body remain so close to Pine Drive for more than two months?

Had searchers passed nearby without seeing him?

Did cadaver dogs fail to detect him?

Or was his body moved into the woods after an earlier search?

Secrets True Crime examined these possibilities in its episode Pine Drive. The podcast emphasized that Hayden was found near where he had reportedly entered the woods and questioned whether the area had been adequately searched. (Secrets True Crime)

The publicly available information does not prove Hayden was moved.

Wooded terrain can conceal remains at surprisingly short distances. A body lying below road level or behind dense vegetation may not be visible even from nearby. Search teams can fail to cover every section or may believe another team already inspected it.

Cadaver-dog performance depends on conditions and where the animals are directed. If the exact patch was not searched, their failure to alert elsewhere would establish very little.

On the other hand, if reliable records showed that the precise recovery site had been thoroughly searched earlier, that would raise a much more serious question about whether Hayden was there at the time.

No public search map or official after-action report has been released to answer it.

A Death Without a Publicly Complete Explanation

The sheriff’s office had openly suspected possible foul play while Hayden was missing.

It had named people of interest.

It had arrested a woman for providing false information.

It had executed warrants and appealed repeatedly for people to tell the truth.

After Hayden was found, authorities announced probable suicide but simultaneously said they might not know the complete story.

Those facts do not necessarily contradict one another.

Investigators may have suspected foul play because people were lying, because Hayden’s disappearance was unusual or because they had not yet located him. The discovery of physical evidence may then have persuaded them that he died by suicide.

But the reasoning behind that conclusion has not been fully explained in publicly accessible reporting.

The public has not been shown:

• A complete scene reconstruction
• The final autopsy findings
• Toxicology results
• An estimated time of death
• A definitive explanation of the ligature
• A map showing the original search areas
• Hayden’s final cellphone location
• The substance of the false statements that resulted in Rice’s arrest
• Why investigators believed they might not have the full story

Without those details, the official determination and the lingering suspicion continue to exist side by side.

The People Publicly Identified in the Investigation

It is important not to transform Hayden’s case into an accusation against the people whose names appeared during the search.

Rosa Rice was arrested for allegedly making false statements, not for causing Hayden’s death.

Justin Stone, Charity Tessener and Tommy Welch were publicly called persons of interest because investigators wanted to speak with them. That designation did not establish guilt.

Secrets True Crime interviewed people associated with the case and explored inconsistencies in their accounts. Those interviews can identify questions and possible leads, but they do not replace forensic evidence or a criminal trial.

Publicly available reporting does not show that any of those individuals were charged with murder, manslaughter, abuse of a corpse or evidence tampering in connection with Hayden.

An article about unresolved questions must not silently turn witnesses into convicted offenders.

What Can Be Established

The publicly available evidence supports several central facts.

Hayden Mayberry was last seen on November 19, 2019, in the Boldo area of Walker County.

He had been staying at or visiting a residence on Pine Drive.

The account provided to investigators said he walked into nearby woods.

He stopped communicating with his family, including the mother of his young son.

The sheriff’s office began an investigation approximately six or seven days later.

Investigators considered the possibility of foul play, executed search warrants and searched the area.

Rosa Rice was arrested after authorities accused her of providing false statements.

Three people were publicly identified as persons of interest for interview purposes.

Hayden’s remains were discovered on February 1, 2020, in thick woods along Pine Drive.

Authorities identified him through dental records and tattoos.

The sheriff’s office announced probable suicide by hanging.

Investigators also said they did not know whether they had the full story.

No one has been publicly charged with causing his death. (https://www.wbrc.com)

What Cannot Be Established Publicly

The available record does not conclusively show:

• Precisely why Hayden entered the woods
• Whether he was actually waiting for someone
• Who last saw him alive
• What happened to his telephone
• Whether someone met him after he left the house
• When Hayden died
• Whether his remains were present during the earlier searches
• Whether the reported belt belonged to Hayden or someone else
• Why Rice allegedly provided false information
• Whether the people of interest supplied consistent accounts
• What evidence caused investigators to favor suicide
• What information led deputies to say they might not have the complete story
• Whether the case remains open in any active investigative sense

A review of publicly searchable reporting through July 2026 found no later announcement of an arrest or formal reclassification.

The Questions That Remain

What happened after Hayden walked out of the Pine Drive house?

Did Tommy Welch ever arrive to pick him up?

Did Hayden meet anyone else?

Why did investigators initially believe foul play might have occurred?

What statements sent the investigation in the wrong direction?

Why was Hayden not found during the earlier searches?

Was the exact recovery location ever searched with dogs or volunteers?

Was he hanging when first discovered, or had he fallen before the remains were located?

Who owned the belt reportedly found around his neck?

What did the medical examiner find?

Did toxicology reveal drugs, alcohol or medication that may have contributed to Hayden’s death?

When did he die?

And what part of the story did Walker County investigators believe they might still be missing?

How Alabama Unsolved Classifies Hayden’s Case

Hayden should not be described as the victim of an officially recognized unsolved homicide.

The publicly announced determination was probable suicide by hanging.

His case belongs in a more precise category:

Disputed or incompletely explained death: officially described as probable suicide, with investigators acknowledging that they might not possess the full story.

That classification does not declare that Hayden was murdered.

It recognizes that the official announcement itself left room for unresolved circumstances.

Hayden’s Son Deserved an Answer

While Hayden was missing, Jensen made a simple appeal.

She asked people to come forward, not only for her and not only for Hayden, but for their child.

The boy deserved to know what happened to his father, whether the answer was good or bad.

The discovery in the woods answered part of that question.

Hayden was not alive somewhere avoiding his family. He had died within the same small area that investigators had been examining since the beginning.

But the public explanation stopped with two words:

Probable hanging.

For Hayden’s family, those words may describe the physical mechanism of his death without explaining the events that led to it.

Someone may know why Hayden left the house.

Someone may know whether he was alone.

Someone knows why investigators were given false information.

And someone may understand why a young father who rarely went a day without contacting his son was found more than two months later, less than a short walk from Pine Drive.

Anyone with firsthand information about Hayden’s final hours or the circumstances of his death can contact the Walker County Sheriff’s Office at 205-302-6464. (https://www.wbrc.com)