Branson Perry

Case background and investigation

Branson Kayne Perry, born in February 1981, was 20 years old and living in Skidmore, a small town in Nodaway County, Missouri, in the spring of 2001. According to Wikipedia's account of the case, his father, Bob Perry, had been in the hospital and was due home, and Branson had asked a friend to help him clean the house. At about 3 p.m. on April 11, 2001, he went outside, saying he was taking a set of jumper cables to a shed. He did not come back inside.

Wikipedia reports that he was not reported missing until April 17, after a relative found the house unlocked and empty. Police did not find the jumper cables during an initial search of the property, but they later turned up just inside the shed door about two weeks afterward. His father died in 2004.

Investigators looked at Jack Wayne Rogers, a former Presbyterian minister arrested in 2003 in an unrelated case. Rogers was convicted in 2004 of assault, performing illegal surgery and child pornography offenses and was sentenced to prison. According to CBS News, authorities searched his home for anything connected to Perry, but Rogers denied involvement and was never charged in connection with the disappearance. Wikipedia lists his earliest release date as 2028.

In June 2009, following a tip, investigators excavated a site near Quitman, north of Skidmore, without finding remains. In August 2022 the St. Joseph News-Press reported that Nodaway County authorities had identified a suspect but said they needed more evidence before making an arrest; an investigator noted how difficult a homicide case is without the victim's remains. That suspect has not been publicly named.

In May 2024, according to news reports summarized on Wikipedia, the Nodaway County Sheriff's Office, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the FBI searched a property with a well near Quitman after another tip; the sheriff's office later said no new evidence was found. On the 25th anniversary in April 2026, KQ2 reported that Perry's younger brother, Phillip, was offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to a conviction and the recovery of Branson's remains. The case remains open.