Cop accused of killing ex’s boyfriend and sinking body in TN river pleads guilty

An on-duty police officer kidnapped his ex’s boyfriend, killed him and sank his body in a Tennessee river with cinder blocks, investigators said.

Patric Ferguson, 33, now has pleaded guilty to federal charges in the 2021 fatal shooting of 30-year-old Robert Howard. His attorney declined to comment to McClatchy News.

Howard’s girlfriend reported him missing on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the Memphis Police Department. She tracked his phone down and found it, but he wasn’t there, police said.

Investigators immediately identified Ferguson as a suspect and arrested him on charges including murder and kidnapping, before Howard’s body was found.

His body was eventually recovered from the Wolf River, according to officers.

Ferguson was previously romantically involved with Howard’s girlfriend, WREG reported. Howard’s mom told WMC that Howard and his girlfriend broke up and later got back together, but in the interim, she began seeing Ferguson.

Investigators said they learned that Ferguson, while on duty with the Memphis Police Department, kidnapped Howard outside a home on Jan. 5 and forced him into the back of his patrol car.

The officer drove Howard to a location about half a mile away and fatally shot him, McClatchy News reported in 2024.

Ferguson’s accused accomplice, Joshua Rogers, then picked up Ferguson, loaded Howard’s body in his car and drove home, according to court documents.

The two men came up with a plan to conceal the death and went to a home improvement store, where they’re accused of buying chains, padlocks and cinder blocks, prosecutors wrote in an indictment.

They used the items to weigh down Howard’s body, then they dumped it in the river, according to the indictment.

Ferguson and Rogers drove to Mississippi to sell Rogers’ car at a scrap metal yard, then Ferguson drove them back to Tennessee in his personal vehicle, prosecutors said.

Ferguson has now pleaded guilty to deprivation of rights under the color of law, kidnapping, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm, and tampering with evidence, according to court documents.

“No one is above the law. Knowing that a Memphis Police Officer, someone who took an oath to protect and serve, made the decision to commit this horrific crime is devastating,” former Memphis police director Michael Rallings said at the time of the arrests. “His actions were not that of a law enforcement officer and should not reflect on fellow officers.”

In May, Rogers pleaded guilty to helping to destroy evidence and is expected to be sentenced in October, prosecutors said. Ferguson is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 13.

This story was originally published August 11, 2025 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Cop accused of killing ex’s boyfriend and sinking body in TN river pleads guilty."