Simon Powell

• Missing Since 06/01/2016
• Missing From Waynesboro, Georgia
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Male
• Race Black
• Age 63 years old
• Height and Weight 6'3 - 6'8, 195 - 210 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A navy blue Dickies shirt and matching pants or coveralls, work boots or sandals, and a watch.
• Medical Conditions Powell has diabetes and requires daily medication.
• Associated Vehicle(s) White 2012 Ford F-350 pickup truck (accounted for)
• Distinguishing Characteristics African-American male. Graying black hair, brown eyes. Powell's head was shaved at the time of his disappearance, and he had a mustache.

Details of Disappearance

Powell was last seen in the 6300 block of River Road Waynesboro, Georgia at 7:00 p.m. on June 1, 2016. He was sitting in his yard talking on his phone when suddenly the line went dead. He has never been heard from again.

In the early morning hours of June 2, his white 2012 Ford F-350 pickup truck was found abandoned and burned on Wilson Road, several miles from his home. There was no sign of him at the scene and no indication of human remains in the ruins of the vehicle.

In July 2022, authorities arrested Stacey Lynn Welch and charged her with murder, armed robbery and kidnapping in Powell's case. Later that month, Mitchell Lanell Lambert was arrested and charged with the same offenses. Photos of Lambert and Welch are posted with this case summary. Two other people, Crystal Simmons and Randall Johnson, were questioned in the case but never charged.

Welch had allegedly told an acquaintance that Lambert, who was her boyfriend at the time, had killed Powell. When the police heard about this and questioned Welch, she said Lambert and two Hispanic men had forced Powell to pull his car over to the side of the road, forced him to go to a hunting cabin called the Sugar Shack, decapitated him with a machete and dumped his remains in a nearby pond.

However, cadaver-sniffing dogs checked one pond and found nothing, and material recovered from a second pond could not be proven to be human remains. There was a machete at the Sugar Shack, but it wasn't bloodstained, although a pair of scissors there was found to be bloodstained. Welch changed her story multiple times, at one point claiming Powell was suffocated in a bag, and her attorney later said she was under the influence of heroin when she was being questioned.

Lambert admitted to having met Powell and having visited his home but denied killing him. The two Hispanic men Welch implicated have not been identified. Lambert was released from jail on bond awaiting trial for the murder; Welch was released on her own recognizance and is also awaiting trial.

Powell's family stated they don't believe he would have left his tree-cutting business and all the other things in his life behind. He was well-known and respected in his local community. His body has not been found, but foul play is suspected in his case due to the circumstances involved.