Randy Leach

Case background and investigation

Randy Wayne Leach, born July 25, 1970, was a 17-year-old high school senior living with his parents, Harold and Alberta Leach, in Linwood, a small town in Leavenworth County, Kansas. On the evening of April 15, 1988, he left home at about 6:30 p.m., driving his mother's gray four-door 1985 Dodge 600 sedan with Kansas license plate LVJ8721, and after several stops arrived between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. at a classmate's pre-graduation party at a family farm in a rural area several miles east of Linwood. Estimates of the crowd ranged from roughly 70 to 150 or more guests, and witnesses later described considerable alcohol and drug use at the gathering.

Witnesses reported that Leach appeared intoxicated during the party, though according to the Charley Project his actual consumption was never clearly established. He was last seen at the party between about 1:30 and 2:15 a.m. on April 16, 1988. According to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, investigators never located anyone who saw Leach or the Dodge leave the party. He was carrying an estimated 50 to 60 dollars in cash. Neither Leach nor the vehicle has ever been found, despite decades of searches that his family said included cornfields, the Kansas River, cadaver dog teams, sonar, and ground-penetrating radar.

The investigation, led by the Leavenworth County Sheriff's Office with KBI assistance, produced theories over the years ranging from an accidental crash or submersion to drug-related foul play, along with rumors — never substantiated — that a satanic cult active in the area was involved. The house where the party was held later burned down. In early 1993, three men were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Leach, but they were released without charge several days later; investigators acknowledged the men were not involved, and reporting has attributed the arrests to false information supplied to authorities. No one has ever been charged in the case.

Leach was declared legally dead in 2001, and in 2002 authorities reclassified the case from a missing person investigation to a homicide even though no body or vehicle had been recovered. His parents spent decades pressing for answers and sued Leavenworth County in an effort to obtain the case file under the Kansas Open Records Act, but a judge denied the request in 2018. Harold Leach died on January 28, 2021, without learning what happened to his son; Alberta Leach has continued to seek answers, telling KSHB in 2024, "I just want to bring Randy home."

The case remains open with the Leavenworth County Sheriff's Office, which has confirmed an investigator is still assigned. A $5,000 Kansas Governor's Reward is offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible, and in 2021 supporters organized through a Facebook group raised an additional $25,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of Leach's remains. In 2024, two retired Kansas City-area detectives volunteered to review the case, though they were not granted access to the official investigative files. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Leavenworth County Sheriff's Office or the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIME.