A Topeka couple moved to Mississippi a month ago. The movers still haven’t shown up.

Almost everything Craig and Linda Wright owned was packed into the 26-foot U-Haul trailer that left June 21 from their North Topeka storage unit, ostensibly en route to their new home in Ocean Springs, Miss.

A man who identified himself as "Jean St. Felix," the owner of "JM Moving Company," left driving the trailer after accepting an upfront payment of $3,500 from the Wrights, who have lived in Topeka for almost all the 50 years they've been married, they said.

St. Felix and an employee, who identified himself as Anthony Matthews, promised to take the trailer and its contents to the couple's new home in Ocean Springs, the Wrights said.

But 27 days later, the couple still doesn't have their possessions.

'We've been scammed'

After the U-Haul trailer left, Linda Wright said she consistently touched base with St. Felix every third day to get a progress report.

"He'd always have a job that came up that was on his way to ours and so he was always delayed," she wrote Sunday on Facebook. "Excuse after excuse! One time he texted that I was texting and calling too much."

Finally, St. Felix promised at 6 p.m. last Friday to bring the trailer and its contents the next day to the Wrights' home in Ocean Springs, where they have lived since July 6, Linda Wright said.

But he never showed up, she said.

Linda Wright has finally come to accept that "we've been scammed," she told The Capital-Journal on Sunday.

Meanwhile, she said, she's learned that two men paid $100 on June 21 for one day's use and 20 miles' rental of the trailer that was brought to their house from a Topeka U-Haul business.

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The trailer was left four days later behind a competing Topeka U-Haul business, after having accumulated more than 1,500 miles, she said.

Those belongings hold a lifetime of memories for Linda Wright.

"There's some very, very, beloved priceless things in there that I'm sure these guys do not want, but we'd really like to have them back," she said.

Couple ended up helping load trailer while St. Felix cooled off

The Wrights say they have reported the theft to the Topeka Police Department and are using social media to try to gather information about the movers and get the word out about what happened.

The couple are the parents of Dana Wright, a former WIBW-TV news reporter and anchor who is now a talk radio co-host for Kansas City, Mo.-based KMBZ-FM Radio, and Austin Wright, who appeared in 2008 on NBC-TV's "Last Comic Standing" and is now president, CEO and co-founder of a drone-related Topeka business.

The Wrights had sold their Topeka home in March.

Linda Wright said she learned online under "Topeka movers" about Miami-based JM Moving Co., which she said has legitimately moved property for other customers.

"We did all the due diligence that one does when entrusting a stranger with your things," she wrote Sunday on Facebook.

The company wasn't on the Better Business Bureau's list of "unsavory characters" and received some good online reviews, Linda Wright said.

"We even tried contacting a couple of the reviewers but couldn't find them on Facebook or they didn't respond to our (personal message)," she wrote.

"We asked him all the pertinent questions ... bonded, insured, costs, signed what appeared to be a valid contract, he had a USDOT number, etc.," she wrote. "It just all seemed on the up and up."

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St. Felix then seemed "very nice" when JM Moving showed up to pick up the Wrights' possessions on June 21, Linda Wright said.

When she asked why he was in a U-Haul truck rather than a moving van, "he said in order to do our job, he flew back from his previous move and let his other guy bring the van back," she wrote. "He said he does it all the time in order to have back-to-back jobs line up."

National Weather Service records show Topeka temperatures topped out the day of the move at 100 degrees.

St. Felix became overheated that day, and Linda Wright became afraid he was going to get heat stroke, she said.

The Wrights said they got water, Gatorade Thirst Quencher and pills for his stomach to aid St. Felix, who then laid in the shade beside a tree while the Wrights and Linda Wright's sister, Jeanna Puett, worked with Matthews to load the trailer.

The four loaded between 60 and 80 boxes of items, Linda Wright said.

St. Felix then drove away in the trailer, with Matthews in the passenger's seat, Craig Wright said.

'My husband says he wouldn't be that nice'

Dana Wright posted a message Saturday evening on Facebook asking for information about St. Felix or his company.

She encouraged those who own storage units in Topeka and the Greater Kansas City area to share her post with others.

That post had been shared more than 200 times as of Sunday.

"Everything is gone," Linda Wright wrote. "Photos, videos, family heirlooms, my copyright works, our computers, personal documents, anything from drawers, cabinets, closets, things from every room of our house and the garage ... are gone."

The main thing Linda Wright wants is her keepsakes and mementos, she told The Capital-Journal on Sunday.

"If he would give me that stuff, I would hug him and stay 'Thank you,'" she said. "My husband says he wouldn't be that nice."

Tim Hrenchir can be reached at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Moving company hasn’t shown up with U-Haul of Topekans’ belongings