On the evening of April 15th, 1988, 17-year-old Randy Leach attended a local party in Linwood, Kansas. No one remembered seeing him leave that night, but by 2 a.m. he was gone and would never be seen again.
Some of the partygoers noted that he’d started acting strangely at one point and was stumbling around, as if drunk, though he hadn’t been seen drinking much (or at all, depending the source). When asked by a friend what was wrong, Randy—who seemed a bit alarmed by his own condition—said he had no idea.
A series of bizarre rumors centering around claims of a satanic cult would begin to circulate in the wake of his disappearance, alleging that this group had abducted and murdered the missing high school student.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) would become involved as well, but the absence of physical evidence kept the case at a standstill.
However, Randy’s parents continued to look for him and did all they could to raise awareness for his case.
Decades later, the question remains: What happened to Randy Leach?
Randy Wayne Leach
An only child, Randy Wayne Leach was born on July 25th, 1970, to parents Harold and Alberta. Randy was kind, intelligent, and mechanically inclined. He enjoyed taking machines (like lawn mowers) apart and putting them back together.
He grew up in Linwood, Kansas, and was said to love animals and living on his family’s farm.
“He was such a good child,” said Alberta. “Even though he was an only child, he wasn’t selfish or spoiled. He was always kind to everyone he met.”
Randy, who was just months away from graduation, was considering attending trade school in the fall. He planned to mow lawns all summer to make extra money. He was also working on restoring a 1966 Mustang that had been an early graduation present from his parents.
“He loved that car,” remembered Alberta. “He was so excited to have it restored. But he never got to see what it looked like all finished. He never got to drive it.”
Randy’s Disappearance
On April 15th, 1988, he left his residence around 6:30 p.m., driving his mother’s 1985 Dodge sedan. He had a few things he wanted to do before heading to the bonfire party, which was to take place at the rural home of his friend Annie.
(Side note: Sources vary on where this party was held. The Charley Project states that it was at a site five miles away from Annie’s house, while other sources claim it was at her house.)
Randy was accompanied by a friend named Steve. It’s unclear how they knew each other, as Steve was in his 30s. They went to Stout’s Convenience Store, where Randy bought soft drinks, candy, and gasoline. From there, they went to De Soto, so he could work on his Mustang for a while.
By the time Randy arrived at the party, it was between 9:30 and 10 p.m., and he was alone. Why Steve was no longer with him is unknown. Perhaps he wasn’t interested in going to the party or hadn’t been invited. However, his name will come up again later.
Depending on the source, there were anywhere from 70 to 150 people in attendance.
Randy wasn’t known to be a drug user and was reportedly only a light drinker, having a beer or two once in a while. It’s unclear if he did drugs or drank much while there—although there was allegedly an abundance of both alcohol and drugs at the party—as no one spotted him doing either.
However, at some point, partygoers began to notice that something seemed off with him, stating that he was struggling to walk and appeared to be drunk.
One of Randy’s friends asked him what was wrong, to which Randy responded that he didn’t know. Some have theorized that he might have unknowingly consumed a drink that had been drugged. Though, while still a plausible theory, it hasn’t been verified.
In fact, much of what occurred after this remains a mystery. It can’t even be said with certainty when Randy departed or with whom (if anyone). The party ended around 2 a.m. and witnesses stated that he was no longer there by this time.
Some sources mention that he’d been planning to get a ride home with a friend, but that this friend took someone else home first and by the time they returned, Randy was already gone.Subscribe
Randy’s Parents Look for Him
Around 6 a.m., Alberta and Harold woke up. Alberta went into Randy’s bedroom to check on him, but discovered that he wasn’t there. His curfew was 12:30 a.m., a rule which he typically abided by. His parents started making phone calls, hoping that one of his friends might know where he was, but no one did.
Oddly, Randy’s parents saw Steve drive by very slowly that morning, as if he was trying to see what was happening at the Leach house, but the reason for this remains a mystery as he didn’t stop by or ever explain himself. Had he already known that Randy was missing? And if so, how?
They, along with Randy’s uncle, went over to the property where the party was held. Annie was reportedly standing in the driveway crying, but the cause of her distress is unknown. They spoke to Annie’s mother, who said she didn’t know where Randy was and offered them a beer.
Interestingly, the residence had already been cleaned up, to the point that it wasn’t obvious a party had even taken place there.
Additionally, they were unable to find Alberta’s Dodge—the vehicle he’d been driving. Deeply concerned, Harold and Alberta reported him missing.
A Runaway?
Initially—and predictably—law enforcement’s first assumption was that Randy Leach had simply run off and that he’d come back when he was ready.
For their part, his parents never believed that he ran away, stating that he wouldn’t have abandoned his Mustang or the rest of his belongings. Furthermore, he had no history of running away.
It wouldn’t be until five weeks later that the police carried out a search of the property where the party took place. It’s unclear if they used tracking dogs or not, but they found no trace of the missing high school student.
They also searched ditches, as well as the land surrounding local roads, but found no clues, nor any sign that a vehicle had veered off the road anywhere.
Is Randy in the Water?
As Randy Leach vanished along with the Dodge he’d been driving, one of the earliest theories was that he’d accidentally driven into a body of water. With this in mind, divers searched all of the nearby bodies of water: Stranger Creek, Kansas River, and Perry Lake. It was noted that the bridge over Stranger Creek had no guardrails.
Over the course of these repeated searches, two submerged vehicles would be located, but neither one was the Dodge they were looking for.
In another bizarre twist, in March 1989, Steve made a disturbing discovery on the banks of the Kansas River—a severed human foot. He went to authorities with this information. DNA analysis would ultimately determine that the foot did not belong to Randy Leach, however.
(Side note: If they ever did learn the identity of the person to whom it belonged, that information hasn’t been disclosed to the public.)
Rumors of a Satanic Cult
One of Randy’s classmates came forward to investigators claiming that another student had confessed to his murder. According to him, the student said that he was part of a satanic cult and that Randy had been killed by them.
The unnamed student, who denied any involvement in Randy’s disappearance or that he was part of a cult, was interrogated and given multiple polygraph exams, all of which he passed.
They were unable to find anything linking him to the case, so he was never charged. Additionally, the classmate who had implicated him later admitted that he’d fabricated the story.
This wouldn’t be the final time that authorities would hear allegations of this nature, though.
In a separate incident, a man went to law enforcement in nearby Edwardsville, telling them a harrowing story about how he’d been abducted by a satanic cult and held captive in a cave for weeks while the cult members did drugs. He said he witnessed a dead man hanging inside the cave, an individual he thought might be the missing Randy Leach.
Authorities in Linville were notified of these claims. A search of the cave was conducted but no sign of anything described by this man was discovered. He eventually retracted his story, explaining that he was high on drugs at the time. Investigators concluded that he’d likely hallucinated these events, as nothing was found to support them.
Other Developments
The Leach family hired a private investigator, but nothing substantial came from this.
They were approached by a man named Terry, who claimed to be a researcher working with Unsolved Mysteries. After months of research and interviewing locals, he said that it was his conclusion that a satanic cult had murdered their son. That same year, in 1993, three men were taken into custody on suspicion of abducting and killing Randy.
However, they were quickly released due to a lack of evidence. Little has ever been revealed about why investigators suspected these individuals of foul play; they only noted that a new investigator was perhaps a bit “overzealous” in charging them. Some have speculated that Terry’s claims played a role in the arrests, though.
It was also discovered that “Terry” (which apparently wasn’t his real name) had deceived the family and wasn’t actually affiliated with Unsolved Mysteries at all.
Nothing more was said about this revelation either, but it appears that the information he supposedly uncovered was ultimately disregarded in the belief that he’d likely made it up (or was merely repeating local rumors), just as he’d lied about his identity and job.
Heartbroken by his loss and determined to find answers, Randy’s parents continued to distribute missing persons flyers and attempted to keep his case in the public eye. Harold periodically drove along the backroads, looking for his son in ditches, but never found anything.
“He had a really bright future,” said Alberta. “But somehow it ended that night. And we still don’t know why.”
In another sad turn of events, Randy’s German shepherd Crackers went missing four months after his disappearance and has never been found.
The residence where the party was held burned down a year after Randy vanished. This was determined to be an act of arson, but the culprit was never caught.
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Current State of the Investigation
Randy Leach’s case remains open and unsolved.
“It’s the ones you don’t solve that haunt you,” said KBI Special Agent Timothy Dennis.
Dennis still believes that Randy, perhaps under the influence of drugs or alcohol, ended up in a body of water by accident. In recent years, dive teams—including Adventures with Purpose—have continued to look for Randy, but to no avail.
It’s unclear if Steve was ever looked at as a person of interest, but he has since passed away. It has been alleged that he was part of a satanic cult himself, but this has never been verified, just as the existence of such a group in Linville was never confirmed.
“We’ll never give up hope,” said Harold Leach. “I can go every day and night still looking. Hope has to be there. Until we find out something, we’ll never stop looking.”
Sadly, Harold passed away in 2021, never having learned the fate of his only child. However, Alberta is still alive and hopeful for a resolution in her son’s case.
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Randy Leach, you are encouraged to contact the Leavenworth County Sheriff’s Office at 913-682-5724.