No One Home

Although he is one of Mississippi's leading businessmen and wealthiest citizens, Robert Hearin has moved quietly through his 71 years. The reclusive executive has amassed a fortune worth $200 million in oil and gas development as well as banking and insurance. To neighbors in the elegant Jackson suburb of Woodland Hills, "Big Bob" and his wife Annie were distant figures. But five weeks ago, Annie Hearin, 72, disappeared, the victim of a bizarre revenge.

The tale begins on July 26, when Annie Hearin gave a brunch at home for her bridge club. Sometime between 3 p.m., when the maid left, and 4:30 p.m., when Robert returned home, Annie vanished. Police later discovered blood on the front door and an unusual ransom note near by.

The crude, ungrammatical, typewritten letter listed twelve people allegedly wronged by School Pictures, Inc., a minor holding in Hearin's diversified empire. The company develops and prints class photos, employing contractors to handle payments between the photographers and the main office.

The note demanded that Hearin "put these people back in the shape they was in before they got mixed up with" School Pictures. Although no amounts were specified, the twelve named in the letter are former franchisees who were sued by Hearin for nonpayment of bills. "Like any businessman, I have made decisions which may appear to others as unfeeling, but those appearances are not true," Hearin said at a press conference. "Moreover, those decisions were mine, not my wife's, and she had nothing to do with them."

More than two weeks passed without further word. Then on Aug. 15 Hearin received a handwritten letter with an Atlanta postmark. In it Annie implored her husband to pay the ransom. Hearin wrote twelve checks for a total of $1 million, equal to the amount of the court judgments against those named on the list.

Despite the ransom payment, there has been no further word from Annie. The FBI continues to be baffled by the case. And the quiet millionaire continues his agonizing vigil.