Branson Perry

On April 11, 2001, Branson Kayne Perry, a 20-year-old man, vanished from the tiny town of Skidmore, Missouri—population roughly 300 and already infamous as the town where bully Ken McElroy had been shot to death in broad daylight in 1981. Branson had been doing chores at his father's house when he told a friend he was going to put a pair of jumper cables away. He walked out the back door and was never seen again.

Branson's disappearance was particularly alarming because it occurred in a town where everyone knew everyone, and yet no one reported seeing anything unusual. His father Bob Perry had died under suspicious circumstances—Bob had been found dead of an apparent drug overdose just months before, and Branson had been helping clean up his father's house. Some investigators speculated that Branson may have discovered something related to his father's death that put him in danger.

The investigation led to a suspect named Jack Wayne Rogers, a registered sex offender and convicted murderer who lived in the area. In 2004, Rogers told two people that he had killed Branson, and he was charged with Branson's kidnapping. However, the charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence when Rogers recanted his statements and no body or physical evidence was found. Rogers was later convicted of unrelated child pornography charges and died in prison in 2008.

Despite searches of numerous properties in the Skidmore area, including excavation of Rogers' farm, Branson Perry's remains have never been found. The case highlighted the dark undercurrents beneath the quiet surface of small-town America and drew parallels to the McElroy murder that had taken place in the same community two decades earlier.