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E081: Randy Leach
1.4k Plays5 years ago
Just as high school was coming to a close and summer was starting, the city of Linwood, Kansas would never be the same. As parents were steaming graduation gowns and gathering last minute supplies for graduation parties, one family was searching. And no, they weren’t searching the crowd at graduation hoping to snap a picture of their graduate in his gap and gown; they were searching cave systems, fields, anywhere and everywhere for a sign of their son.
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Transcript
Starting a Podcast with Buzzsprout
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Speaker
Sleuth Hounds, have you ever considered creating your own podcast? Have you been inspired by listening to some of your favorites and thought, I'd love to try this out on my own, whether it's a true crime podcast like ours, a motivational podcast, or maybe one filled with tips and strategies for those interested in the same activities you are?
00:00:20
Speaker
When Maggie and I first decided to start our podcast, we knew absolutely nothing about what podcasting would entail. But when we found that the platform Buzzsprout was one for which we didn't need any special equipment, just a computer microphone, some quiet space, and each other, we knew that this was the way to go. It is intuitive to use, fun to play around with, and so helpful in getting analytical data about our number of downloads to track trends,
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and from where our listeners hail. Best yet, Buzzsprout is affordable, even by our teacher salary standards. Buzzsprout will get your podcasts listed on every major podcasting platform. So what are you waiting for? Fulfill that dream of yours and start today.
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Speaker
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00:01:32
Speaker
Now, it's time for the world to hear what you have to say.
Early Teaching Experiences in Kentucky
00:01:38
Speaker
As May draws to a close and schools are let out for summer, I think back on the years that have passed since I entered the world of education. I began my teaching career as a substitute teacher back home in Eastern Kentucky. And let me tell you, nothing prepares you for that. You walk into a room and the kids know you're there for maybe a day or two max.
00:01:57
Speaker
It takes a lot to keep them from bouncing off the walls. My full-time teaching career started when I moved to central Kentucky. I was in a master's program to become a certified teacher, assembled upon a job that would later be one of my biggest blessings. I began my first full-time job teaching in October. I walked into a freshman classroom that had had to substitute the majority of the year, and that class was very trying. I distinctly remember how nervous I was walking into my very own classroom
00:02:27
Speaker
to a face full of my very own students. No amount of schooling or substitute teaching could have prepared me for what I walked into, but we grew together that year. Despite the challenges and the tears, I knew I was in the right place at the right time, and I knew that teaching was for me. This May, the first group of students that were officially all mine walk across the stage as high school graduates, and I can't believe it.
00:02:54
Speaker
I see them all as little freshmen with big hearts and big dreams, sitting in desk chairs and laughing with me. Now I see pictures from previous coworkers, and it's like I'm looking at many adults. What was once a twinkle in their eye is now becoming a reality. Their hard work is paying off. Will all of them go to college? No. But does that make them any less successful? No. I'm proud that this class has learned the value of perseverance and hard work.
00:03:22
Speaker
I'm proud that I got to play a tiny role in all of their lives. They truly helped shape mine and I hope that they can say the same thing about me.
Introduction to Randy Leach Case
00:03:32
Speaker
Just as high school was coming to a close and summer was starting, the city of Linwood, Kansas would never be the same. As parents were steaming graduation gowns and gathering last minute supplies for graduation parties, one family was searching. And though they weren't searching the crowd at graduation, hoping to snap a picture of their graduate and his cap and gown, they were searching cave systems, fields, anywhere and everywhere for a son of their son. The years have passed and still this family is left searching.
00:04:02
Speaker
Will they ever be able to lay their son to rest? This is the story of Randy Leach.
Podcast's Mission and Listener Engagement
00:04:42
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the case will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:05:03
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, and to follow us on Instagram at Coffee Cases podcast and on TikTok at Coffee and Cases podcast. Because as these families know, conversation helps to keep their missing family member in the public consciousness, helping to keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:05:31
Speaker
Allison, this time of teaching is always chaos for any teacher. And I feel like this you really identify with. Yes.
Chaotic End of School Year
00:05:39
Speaker
The last May, just cross it out because I'm good for nothing else other than grading in May. Yeah. Like I know in high school, you know, you all are doing AP tests.
00:05:54
Speaker
K prep, final exams, and we're doing K prep and then we're doing, I mean, the kids in middle school, they're just bouncing off the walls. There's graduations, dances, banquets. That's an exciting time. The graduations and the dances and the banquets. Yeah. Those are fun. And in the field days, I was telling Allison before we started recording today,
00:06:19
Speaker
was our last day of school. And we played teacher-student kickball, and I've never been so sore in my life. I'm limping. We tied on t-shirts today. We had a good time in seventh grade, but I am tired. There's tired and there's teacher-tired. Yes.
00:06:42
Speaker
And I remember from my years in high school that summer fever was a thing for high school students. And like, I literally come home every day and I look in the mirror and I say, have I looked like this all day? And like, it's like you can taste summer. And soon to be graduate Randy Leach was also the same. His graduating class was just ready for summer break because school wasn't quite over yet back in 1988.
00:07:11
Speaker
But they were already feeling the promise of stress-free days and preparing for their next steps in life and that feeling of excitement and anticipation read Landy senior class to host like an early graduation party on April 15th 1988 Like most seniors Randy was planning on being there and from what I can tell Allison Randy was very much like you and I brandy
00:07:40
Speaker
had never done drugs.
Randy Leach's Character and Last Sightings
00:07:42
Speaker
If he drank at a party, it would have been like two beers. Like it was never enough to get drunk. He was reliable. And when he told his parents that he would be home at midnight, they didn't worry because Randy had never broken curfew. Oh yeah, that's totally like us. We're all followers. They were so used to Randy being home when he was supposed to be that they actually went on to bed after Randy
00:08:09
Speaker
left like confident that he would be at home the next morning like in the kitchen ready for breakfast just like every other morning. Randy's mom gave him permission to drive her car that night and it was a 1985 Dodge sedan and like just told him to have fun because she knew she could trust him. Randy's first stop was something I wouldn't have really like expected but after researching him it just seemed like a very normal like a totally Randy thing.
00:08:39
Speaker
Okay. In an article called Last Not Out the Mysterious Disappearance of Randy Leach, author Jen Baxter explains in detail the happenings of like the day of the graduation party. Okay. So he leaves home and she says, quote, Randy's first off that night was at a local convenience store where he purchased some candy and soda and then he put gas in his mother's car, which I think is horrible. Well that was nice.
00:09:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's so cute. Like that reminds me of my mom. She's literally never pumped gas a day in her life. His next step that he took was like he got back in the car and all that and he drove to a small town about 10 minutes away from Linwood. And he was actually restoring a 1969 Mustang in a garage there. It was really cool. Yeah.
00:09:36
Speaker
So I wonder if this was like a graduation present or maybe it was just something he'd always been working on. I don't think it was a graduation present because I'll talk about like what his parents got him for graduation a little bit on, but I do think it was like a project that both he and his dad were like invested in. They were doing it together. That's cool.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah, and this was obviously like his pride and joy, like he couldn't wait for the restoration to be finished. He had intended on painting it like a bright candy apple red. Yeah, it's gotta be. Yeah, if you're driving a Mustang, it has to be bright red. And he actually spent a couple hours working on the car and then made his way to the party. So the party was like his third stop of the day. Okay.
00:10:29
Speaker
Once randy arrives at the party um things actually start to get like a little muddled and weird um very reminiscent of like back home for us allison So there's a tick tock video sleuth hounds about a word that is so hard for southern people to pronounce and I tell you I watched that and I said the word and I cry I mean like I was crying I was laughing so hard And I tell you this because i'm getting ready to say this word
00:10:59
Speaker
The party was being held in a very rural area. I was like, I was like, rural, rural, rural, rural, rural. It was in a rural area.
00:11:23
Speaker
Okay. Anyways, so it was in a isolated area, a five mile drive from Andy's house. Okay. And this is all according to an article by Andrea Cavalier. So this is, so he goes farther away to work on the Mustang. Then he comes back closer to home for the party. Exactly. Okay.
00:11:49
Speaker
Um, and so this town, like I grew up in a small town, but this town is like. Tiny. And I know we've talked about tiny towns before, but like there's a difference between small towns and tiny towns. And this is a tiny town. Like back in 1988, Linwood only had around 340 people that lived in it. So like 10 families, basically.
00:12:14
Speaker
And even today, there's only like 480 people that live there. Yeah, that is tiny. So I feel like the whole town could be considered like out in the country if your town is that small. But I did read that the party was in like an isolated area. So it makes me think that it's not like in a subdivision that's in the middle of nowhere, but maybe a farm that's kind of out in the middle of nowhere.
00:12:41
Speaker
Um, and like I said, I don't know the exact location of the party. There was actually, um, a really cool website that I found like after I had written the episode and it was like three pages into like beyond where I went in the Google search. And it had like a really cool kind of almost interactive map that showed like his way home and things like that. Um, which was really neat, but we do know that Randy, um, per the Charlie project.
00:13:11
Speaker
arrived at the party between 930 and 10 o'clock PM. So he hadn't even, like he didn't even intend to stay at the party that long. Because remember he said he was going to be home by midnight. Right. So he was thinking, I'll just go a couple of hours and then go home. Yeah.
00:13:25
Speaker
I mean, he arrived in that same gray 1985 Dodge sedan with a Kansas license plate number LVJ8721, and he had about $50 to $60 in cash. Which I feel like is a decent amount in the 80s. It's a decent amount now. I feel like if I have $2 in my wallet, I'm like, woo, I can buy a pump today.
00:13:50
Speaker
So despite the fact that Linwood was a Connie community, this pre-graduation party was like literally anything but small. From nearly every article that I've read, it seemed to be that most people guesstimated. There were about 150 people in attendance at this party. But that would mean that like half the town is at this party.
00:14:20
Speaker
So I'm guessing it wasn't maybe, maybe it wasn't just, because I would think in a town of 350, you might have like 10 seniors. Right. Like how many people could you possibly have in a graduating class? So maybe they just had like other people there, like other people who were in high school and lower grades, other people who had just recently graduated. Like people from like, you know, a bigger city nearby type of thing.
00:14:50
Speaker
But like 300, or not 300, but 150 people, I mean, actually 340 people, that's fewer than the amount of kids that go to my school. So like for a party to have 150 people, that's a pretty big party in my opinion.
00:15:04
Speaker
So like me, Randy did not jump straight into this crowd of people when he first arrived. He actually kind of like stepped back and searched the crowd until he found some friends and then he went into the party. And like I can totally remember in like high school or college, like I would call my friend and I'd be like, hey, I'm almost to the movies. And she'd be like, okay, I'm waiting in my course so I don't have to walk in alone. Yeah.
00:15:35
Speaker
So I too would have been like standing on the outskirts until I found somebody that I knew. Right. And as I mentioned earlier in the episode, Randy did not drink more than like a few beers and he definitely did not do drugs. He was described as a model student. He was a student athlete and he took that role very seriously. So he knew he was a role model to like younger kids in the community and he was not going to do anything that would like
00:16:02
Speaker
jeopardize how they viewed him and how they thought of him. Good for him. I know. Hitting gas in his mom's car, being a good role model. Yeah, he sounds just like an all American boy, like that's how I picture him. Yep.
00:16:17
Speaker
So even though several reports stated that there were copious amounts of both drugs and beer at the party, Randy was not tempted by any of it that we know of and that kind of comes into play later on. Okay. So I know that we've talked on the show a lot about like how
00:16:39
Speaker
Like the reliability or the, like how reliable are your memories because your brain can trick you and all that. And that if it's like something strange, it'll stick with you. Like the show that we did where the guy had like the ferret on his shoulder. And what I'm about to tell you, Alison and sleuth hounds would be one of those unforgettable moments for those that knew Randy best. Okay.
00:17:05
Speaker
So again, this is probably like the fourth time that I have said that Randy did not drink enough to get drunk and he did not do drugs. So when his friends saw him stumbling about as if he were highly intoxicated, they were honestly dumbfounded.
00:17:23
Speaker
So in a news article that the title kind of like peeps to what we're going to talk about later on called beyond satanic panic. Oh gosh. Oh gosh. Wow. Just wait. Agent has theory on 30 year mystery of missing Kansas team in the author states quote Randy Spren Steven
00:17:43
Speaker
was at the party that night and immediately noticed that Randy, who rarely drank, was either drunk or high, an observation that at least one other witness would later recall to police. Steven went on to say in that article, quote, I was completely sober. He was completely not, end quote. Gosh, yeah. So that is something that would have stood out. Could they, I mean, could somebody have slipped something in one of those two drinks?
00:18:11
Speaker
So I didn't read if they were like getting beer out of like a keg and they would have had to open like kind of cups or if it were like if it was beer can. But what's weird and I think I talk about it later on is that like no one like really saw him like drinking. There were like maybe a few people that were like yeah I think he had a beer in his hand and that's why they think
00:18:41
Speaker
You know, they say maybe he had about two beers, but there was nobody that was like, I was for sure with him when he was drinking a beer. Yeah. Nobody's like, yeah, he was chugging it. They were, you know, right. Right. I mean, like I said, they do speculate he had maybe two or three, but he was six foot three inches and built like a linebacker.
Randy's Disappearance and Parental Concern
00:19:02
Speaker
So it's not like if
00:19:04
Speaker
A five foot, 110 pound girl had two or three beers. It's not going to have the same effect on him. Like, he wouldn't be stumbling around, like completely inebriated. He would still be able to like, you know, hold his own, I guess. Yeah.
00:19:21
Speaker
There are, you know, in the coughing cases, like episodes we've covered, or cases we've covered. Or repertoire. Yes. We have talked a little bit about underage drinking, drug use, you know, what was the one that we did where the girl compared to the salad with the devil's lettuce. Oh, Carlene Goussé. Yeah.
00:19:44
Speaker
And we know that there are a lot of peer pressure going on behind the scenes. Sometimes teens lack the proper guidance at home. So we get that things happen. Many teens and many adults do risk driving under the influence instead of calling someone to come pick them up. And actually around like 1 a.m. So again, Brandy has gone past the curfew when he originally called his mom.
00:20:13
Speaker
He was actually ready to go home and according to that same Baxter article detectives were able to determine that Randy was last seen at the party around like 1 30 a.m. There was one person who said that he was there at 2 but that like they've just kind of assumed it was around 1 30. However, no one actually saw him leave the party. The host of the party told police that all of those in attendance left the property by 2 15 a.m.
00:20:44
Speaker
Hmm. So last person likely saw him at 130. Everybody's gone by 215, but nobody actually sees Randy leave. Yes. And it gets weirder.
00:21:03
Speaker
So I don't know about you, Alison, but clearly I was always the choice for the designated driver in college. My friends knew that they could always depend on me to get them from point A to point B when they were too drunk to be behind the wheel because that's just never been like, honestly, I'm just too scared to even like get drunk to like, you know, drink like that. And I think beer smells like horse urine. So why would I want to drink it?
00:21:33
Speaker
No offense to all the beer drinkers out there. Thankfully, one of Brandy's friends who'd been acting as like an unofficial designated driver, saw Randy staggering around and got him back to sit down in his mother's Dodge. And he was like, listen, I have a carload of people. Like there's no room for you, but let me take them home. Hang out here. I will take you home. And then in the morning you can come back and get your mom's cart because you don't need to be driving like this.
00:22:02
Speaker
Oh, that's a good friend. I know. And so like, this is kind of what I'm talking about. Like, I feel like this whole town is like isolated because he leaves and then is back by 2am to pick up Randy. And this is like, so this is him within 30 minutes. But both Randy and the Dodge are gone. So he just assumed Randy decided to drive himself home.
00:22:27
Speaker
If he did though, that would mean the second, actually the third decision that Randy had made that night, which seems very un-Randy-like. Yeah, to drive drunk. Yep, to drive drunk. To drink period. To drink period and to be out past curfew. Right. So I think that there's something that we are missing
00:22:54
Speaker
And I think the fact that he's at a high school party plays into why we're missing some details that I feel like are kind of important to know. Like people don't want to admit specific things that went on out of fear of punishment? I think so. Okay. So Randy had two possibilities to get home. He could either head north and this is like where that
00:23:21
Speaker
article that I was telling you about and I'll have to look it back up but it like showed on the like showed a map of his possible ways he could go and possibly it was really cool but he could head north to Kansas 32 or he could go south and take what's known as golden road and I read somewhere in my research that
00:23:47
Speaker
The northern route was more direct, so he would have got home quicker, but it was more traveled. The other was slightly longer, but Randy would have been less likely to have a run-in with a police officer. Oh. If he were to be driving under the influence. But to this day, we don't know which route, if any, Randy took. If any? Yes. So I'm guessing he never makes it anywhere. No.
00:24:18
Speaker
No. So when Randy's parents wake up the next morning to a house that did not contain a sleeping Randy, they knew something was wrong. And again, in that same Baxter article, it states, quote, not wanting to overreact. They called a few of Randy's friends first, hoping some might know what happened. No one had seen Randy since the previous night.
00:24:37
Speaker
Harold, Randy's dad, called a few of the local hospitals next, but none of them had admitted Randy as a patient and beginning to panic, Harold called the police and reported Randy missing." I can't imagine the fear you must have when you're calling hospitals. Yeah, like I know I've told the story before, but like the time that
00:25:05
Speaker
Our dog got out of our fence and Anthony, we didn't know and Anthony had gone to let them in and I just went to the backyard because he'd been gone for a while and there was no, there was no dog and no Anthony. And I was like in a panic and I was like running up and down the street.
00:25:22
Speaker
Like I had no idea where they were because he didn't have his phone. And like, that was my next, I was like, he's been kidnapped or something's happened. And like someone saw him get hurt and they've taken him to the hospital. So like, I had, can't imagine that when it's your child. Oh yeah. I can't either.
00:25:43
Speaker
So you will never guess, Allison, the reaction that Harold received when he called the police. Um, let me guess. They were probably like, Oh, he's a teenager. He'll be home later. Yeah. Cause I feel like that's what always happens. Yeah. They were literally like, okay. He's a 17 year old boy who's probably hungover and he doesn't want to go home right now until he sobers up. Hmm.
00:26:10
Speaker
And I mean, I'm not that old except today. When you're about to die playing games. Yeah. And they played the Backstreet Boys and then they played Party in the USA, which was like not that old that came out when I was in college. And one of my kids said, I just love when he plays the classics. And I was like, no, no. The classics. The classics are what my father listened to. Not the classics. That's so funny.
00:26:41
Speaker
but like if I would have gotten drunk in high school heck if I were to be drunk now and like I would not want to go home to my mom because I would feel like I would just have been a total disappointment. So I probably also would have hid somewhere until I saw but remember those closest to him knew that he didn't get drunk police and this like
00:27:06
Speaker
I read a couple of conflicting things. Like one article said that they did go to the home. Then one article said like they went to the property but didn't go inside the home, which is what I am leaning toward. Oh, like to the place where the party was? Yeah, like they were maybe like in the yard, but they didn't actually go like inside the house. Okay. But they, they found nothing because it had already been like spotlessly cleaned.
00:27:34
Speaker
Hmm. That seems weird too. Which I, yeah, I think that's weird. High school people, like they don't clean. No. Like not that quickly after a party has ended and they're probably all hungover. No.
00:27:50
Speaker
I have to pick up candy wrappers off the floor with seniors. Yeah, yeah, literally today I swept a pile of Jolly Rancher wrappers into like the corner of my room so that they could be someone hopefully would see them and make them to the trash can. They didn't, so of course I put them in there at the end of the day. So yeah, I'm with you. If they're drunk and I don't see it being spotlessly clean.
00:28:18
Speaker
And because it was balllessly clean, the police said they found no indication that Randy had been been like a victim of foul play.
Silence from Partygoers
00:28:28
Speaker
Since we have both taught and are teaching preteen slash teenagers, I'm sure that you have heard the saying snitches get stitches. Oh, I hear it all the time.
00:28:41
Speaker
Yeah, the kids would be like, you're a snitch. Snitches get stitches. Yes. And that saying rang true for Randy's friends. Either they truly did not see anything weird beyond the drunk or high Randy, or their lips were sealed shut. Because when police interviewed people at the party, they were reluctant to give any significant details away about the night of the party. See?
00:29:09
Speaker
You'd think there'd at least be somebody they could get to at this party. Oh, if a police officer came to me and he was like, you were at this party, what'd you see? I'd be spilling my guts. I know. I'd be like, please don't take me to jail. Don't ever tell me you've committed a serious crime because I will tell on you.
00:29:31
Speaker
I will snitch so hard on you if the police ask me about it. You're going to be having stitches all over. Yes. So what did they find out? Anything? Well, like a few things. OK. Here's what we found out. We found out that Randy arrived to the party at 10. OK. No one saw Randy take any drugs or drink enough beer to make him drunk.
00:30:00
Speaker
Okay. We knew that. Right. Around 1230, it was reported that Randy appeared to be searching for something and it was reportedly his car keys, but no one can recall if he found them. And then the last thing was that Randy appeared to be drunk. Now we can assume that Randy's car keys were found because Randy's mother's car wasn't at the scene of the party. Right.
00:30:31
Speaker
But to this day the car has never been found. So we don't know where Randy is or the car. Right. We don't know where Randy is and we don't know where the car is at. And police like they think hey it's probably going to be a little bit easier for us to locate a stolen car than locate a missing person. So they do like put out information about the car but they get like
00:30:59
Speaker
basically no leads on locating the car. And just because Randy's mom's car wasn't there doesn't mean that Randy was the one that drove it away. Yeah, that's true. He could have misplaced his keys. Somebody else found them. Yeah. And then they either drove him or took it. Yeah, they could have forced him into the car. They could have stolen the car. Like I don't think it necessarily means that he took the car.
00:31:28
Speaker
And even if you just found the car, doesn't mean you'd necessarily find Randy if somebody stole the car. Exactly. Police though, are like 100% sure that Randy ran away from home. Like that's what they say, that he's a runaway, which I loathe. Yeah. Especially if he has a Mustang that he's been tirelessly working on just to get it to the point where he can drive it.
00:31:58
Speaker
Okay. That's exactly what I said because one, like, and his family obviously is like, that's bull crap. Like that's not what happened. So one, Randy's an only child. So he was extremely close to his parents and he came from a loving and happy home. So we would have never disappointed them or scared them in that way. Yeah. I mean, like you're talking about a kid that didn't ever miss curfew. Like I don't think he would run away from home.
00:32:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's a big jump to not even be late for curfew to disappear. Yeah. And Randy, like while he did not have plans to attend college or trade school at the time of graduation, he did have plans on starting a small lawn care business. And his parents had already purchased him a super nice lawnmower as a graduation gift to start his business up.
00:32:52
Speaker
Oh, so that's what you were saying about a graduation gift. And let me tell you, nice lawnmowers are thousands of dollars. And people that mow lawns make bank. Oh, yeah. And like you said, Randy was also restoring that old Mustang and he had big plans for that car. So I feel like people who have like long term plans aren't just gonna up and run away from home. Agreed.
00:33:20
Speaker
Harold and Alberta who was his mom and because this is the first time we've mentioned her by name I'm help held fast to the theory that Randy was a victim of foul play But like who would want to hurt Randy? You're very like literally no one disliked him none of the party goers reported seeing Randy fight with the single soul at the party that
00:33:44
Speaker
Um, exchange like foul words with the single soul at the party. This is 1988. So we didn't have Snapchat. So he wasn't posting on a Snapchat story about people. So like everyone liked this kid, right? And the Baxter article that I've referenced a couple of times. Um, she says there would later be tension between Randy's family and law enforcement due to the way the investigation was initially handled.
00:34:13
Speaker
They believed that Randy was a runaway police believed that Randy was a runaway. And because of that, they never searched like the inside of the house where the party was held and it burned to the ground shortly after Randy's disappearance. Oh no. Which is fishing. Super suspicious.
00:34:38
Speaker
So the parents are convinced that Randy fell victim to foul play at the party and that the police missed valuable clues because they were so convinced that he was a runaway. And that's happened in, that's happened in a couple of our other cases. Yep. I don't know why. Okay. I get the parents look at their kids with rose colored glasses. I get that.
00:35:08
Speaker
But the parents also know the kids. You know what I mean? And so if these parents are saying, listen, he doesn't drink, he has never been out past curfew. Plus, you know what I just thought of, Maggie? What? If we're in a small town, I guarantee you these police officers know the family.
00:35:34
Speaker
Yeah, you would think that they would be like, wait a minute, this is Randy we're talking about. And like, like you said, I know parents can be like kind of blinded to the things that their kids do. But when you're trying to find your kid, I kind of feel like those like rose color glasses come off and you're like honest with police like, like, okay, yeah, he's come home drunk a couple times, you know, like you're gonna say, right?
00:36:02
Speaker
But like, Randy had never done any of that. To credit the police though, they would later admit that they had been wrong in assuming Randy went missing on his own and they now believe that he was a victim of foul play. Which I mean, okay, kudos to them that take some guts to admit that they were wrong. But it's still frustrating because how many clues could they have had had they not made that assumption?
00:36:33
Speaker
right because the house is burnt down now also it's like 2021 this happened in 1988 so like a lot of time has passed though there are still witnesses that's true and we urge anyone to come forward even with the littlest detail i mean again a hundred well there were 150 people there and randy's won 149 potential people
00:37:02
Speaker
To have seen something and as you can imagine, this town was completely shattered by Randy's disappearance. Like, I mean, nothing like this is supposed to happen in a town of 350 people.
00:37:18
Speaker
Police received like dozens and dozens of tips in the early days but as time has gone on those tips have grown fewer and fewer. What hasn't changed though is the slew of crazy theories people have surrounding what happened to Randy.
Satanic Cult Theory
00:37:33
Speaker
OK I like me some crazy theories.
00:37:36
Speaker
Yeah. So this is your favorite part. The theory. And I want us to discuss each one. But I want like you guys to keep in mind that I'll be giving you some more information. And like it's kind of strange after we discuss the theories to see if that changes your opinion. All right. I'm excited. Let's do it. All right. So we're going to talk about the scariest and most outrageous theory first and like
00:38:08
Speaker
I feel like they go hand in hand. I don't know if like my teacher brain is just so exhausted that when I was reading these articles, I couldn't fully make the connection if I missed something. So this is going to be like theory one and like theory one and a half. Okay.
00:38:29
Speaker
So the theory most outrageous theory is that Randy was killed in a satanic cult sacrifice. OK. Yeah. That went extreme. Hence the article title earlier. Yes. Yes. And from what I can tell this rumor
00:38:49
Speaker
it kind of branched from some various different avenues, one of which was apparently based off a comment that was supposedly overheard in the Walmart parking lot because all of us small town people know that everything of importance happens in the Walmart parking lot. So two days into the search for Randy, a classmate would tell a detective that he had overheard
00:39:19
Speaker
Another classmate whose last name is Marble, what a cool last name. Say something that was concerning. So this Marble kid, not that this makes him out to be a satanic sacrificing person, but he liked heavy metal. He dyed his hair black. And so of course was considered the outcast or the outsider in this small town. So easy scapegoat.
00:39:50
Speaker
Yes and this tip accused him of brandishing a knife in the Walmart parking lot and saying this is what we use to sacrifice land to sacrifice Randy end quote. Okay well that would freak me out if I overheard that.
00:40:05
Speaker
yes and i think like okay let's say we heard that at school like obviously we're going to report that to the like a counselor absolutely but i think kids say things for like the shock factor i agree and he's a teen like i mean i'm not i'm not saying he couldn't have done that but i'm saying like he also could be saying it because he's like 17
00:40:31
Speaker
Right. And it's dumb. He wants to say the most outrageous thing for shock value. Yes. And he actually said that the accusation was like he dismissed as fiction. And he says that it was because he was an outcast. And if you know, like if you're from a small town, you know, like being different
00:40:50
Speaker
Sometimes makes you like what you said Allison a scapegoat for anything weird or bad that happens around town Mm-hmm, like like this kid was considered a stoner. He wore holy jeans leather and iron maiden t-shirts and He says and that's beyond satanic panic article quote in the Bible Belt hick town of Linwood, Kansas my preference for music happened to not be in line end quote
00:41:21
Speaker
not long after the classmate's accusation officers confiscated this blew my mind like i just think it's such a sign of like how society has evolved and changed but they confiscated two knives and a dungeons and dragons manual from marble's car because according to this article they believed
00:41:49
Speaker
that the fantasy role-playing game, which is featured on Big Bang Theory, was considered a ploy conceived by Satan to arouse moral turpitude. What? I had never heard that. And I was like, that sounds like something Andy Griffith would say on the Andy Griffith show. But from all I read, nothing really came from these claims. And Marvel was like, never,
00:42:18
Speaker
arrested in connection to the disappearance slash possible murder of Randy. So again, you would think, well, here's the thing. If some kid, that just kind of shows you that it was likely fiction. Because if he said, this is the knife we sacrificed him with, there would be blood like DNA on that knife. Yeah, even if he had just wiped it off. Yeah. I'm sure it was tested.
00:42:47
Speaker
Hopefully so So this is like I guess like theory one and a half. Mm-hmm according to the charlie project in late 1988 a man would tell police that like I feel like the 80s was a very big time for like blaming everything on cults. Mm-hmm
00:43:10
Speaker
But he would later go on to tell police that he had been kidnapped by a cult and that they had held him captive for two weeks in a cave. And he had seen a corpse there that might have been Randy's. Which is completely terrifying to me. Like that's the plot of a scary movie. But the man said that his abductors had threatened to cut off his left arm.
00:43:38
Speaker
and had shown him the corpse of a man hanging in the cave, and he said the corpse was Randy. Obviously, police searched the cave. They found no indications that a crime had been committed there. I feel like if you're slicing and dicing people in a cave, there's going to be something.
00:43:58
Speaker
They, you know, go on to like speculate. And I actually think the dude comes clean and says like, I may or may not have been really high and hallucinating and I hallucinated the entire experience. Oh my goodness. So what breaks my heart though, is I read that even though
00:44:22
Speaker
Like that man has come forward and said like, I was hallucinating. Randy's dad like still searched that cave system for years. Which I think is heartbreaking. And that kind of just like goes to show you like, it's like almost like the false confessions. Like you get, you put so much into it and then it's just like such a big let down.
00:44:52
Speaker
And he never found anything to connect Randy to that cave system. And I read that the cave entrances have since been bulldozed shut. Wow. So the next theory is another that I don't know if I fully believe, but could be possible, is that Randy was part of a drug deal gone bad. Yeah. I don't see Randy doing or dealing drugs. Yeah. Maybe it was like.
00:45:23
Speaker
Like he overheard something he shouldn't have ties, like, you know, in an article called what happened to Randy Leach, some believe the following quote, another rumor is that Randy witnessed the drug deal and was killed because of that either immediately or this kind of creeps me out, sleuth hounds and Allison from dehydration after being tied to a tree. Oh gosh. And quote, and like, I didn't find anywhere where.
00:45:55
Speaker
Like that had been said in another article. Uh-huh. And so I don't know if they just speculate that because apparently like this town is weird, but apparently Oh yeah, it could he could have been taken to a cave. So yeah. Oh, he could have been tied to a tree. Oh.
00:46:21
Speaker
He could, I mean. Yeah. It's like nothing ever happens here. And then like in this article, I'm like, well, in the Walmart parking lot, this kid said that they sacrificed Randy with his wife. And this theory, one of his classmates found a severed foot still in a tennis shoe. What? Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Remind me not to move to this month. Maybe, I don't know, hopefully it's changed since then, if these things are true.
00:46:46
Speaker
So a classmate does find a human foot inside a tennis shoe and that's why some believe maybe he was kind of like cut up. But then they would have been able to compare the shoe.
00:47:01
Speaker
Yeah, and they actually go on to prove that it is not Randy's foot. I don't know if they found out whose foot that it was. Oh my gosh. But it wasn't Randy's. And this kid named Steve was, this is kind of sketchy to me, the last person to have seen Randy the night that he disappeared. And he actually showed police in 1989 the foot in the tennis shoe on the banks of the Kansas, on the banks of the Kansas River.
00:47:31
Speaker
And Steve said that he found it while he was strolling. Like, is this a park? Or are you just like walking along like a wooded bank of a river? Like, I need some context there. But police searched the area. They found no other remains. And they did, like I said, conclude that the foot was not Randy's. Like, something that,
00:47:57
Speaker
the dad would go on to say is that this Steve kid lived in the back of an old store in Linwood and the part he lived in caught on fire and burned. So just like the house where the party was. Yeah and this Steve was a lot older than Randy and he's actually since passed away.
Stranger Creek Theory
00:48:24
Speaker
Was he at the party?
00:48:26
Speaker
You know, I never found that anywhere. But like, this article said that he was in his 30s at the time Randy disappeared. So like, I would hope you're not at a high school party when you're in your 30s. I would hope not. But there's some weird people. So he may have been the very last theory that we're gonna discuss today. And this to me is the most sensible
00:48:55
Speaker
After I read about it, when I first saw it, I was like, that's dumb. But then after I read about it, it kind of made sense. OK. And this is that Randy drove under the influence and went off the road into stranger Creek, which is a creek that ran like on that golden road. It was a creek that ran like like along that. Was that the one that was would take him longer? But it was less likely to run into a cop.
00:49:23
Speaker
Yes. Okay. And so at first I was like, this is dumb because like back home, the creek that, like I'm thinking about the creek that is near the house that I grew up in, like is rarely deep enough to conceal a vehicle. Like I feel like I could probably stand in the deepest part of it most of the time. Like, I mean, I know there were like a few places that
00:49:52
Speaker
And y'all know, I don't do like late. Right. But they were like in high school, the kid, the, all the, my friends loved to jump off a train bridge into the creek. And I was like, not about that life. That's gross.
00:50:09
Speaker
And then they found out that the farm that was beside of that dumped horse manure into the creek, like right where they would jump into the water. And I was like, y'all been swimming in horse poop. So you're welcome. So like to me, that's why I thought like this can never happen. Cause I was used to the creek back home. But in that Beyond Satanic Panic article, there's actually a retired agent named Timothy Dennis who believes
00:50:37
Speaker
this theory over any of the other ones. He says that 30 years ago there was a single lane bridge on Golden Road so that would have been the road Randy could have possibly been on. Okay. That spanned Stranger Creek and there were no guardrails on their approach to the bridge which has since been demolished. So that's dangerous. You know I
00:51:03
Speaker
Anything, you know, obviously is all about roads and he said that sometimes guardrails are more dangerous than not having guardrails like they have to, they have to determine like if there were to be an accident. Is it basically better for you to go off the road into whatever, or is it better for you to hit this guardrail because sometimes I guess they can be more dangerous. Oh. But I feel like if there's water there, there should be. Yeah, I agree.
00:51:33
Speaker
But I mean, I don't know, I don't know about that kind of thing. But Dennis says, quote, this is the only place that you'll hide a vehicle through the seasons where nobody is going to stumble over it, end quote. And like, as you can guess, many people, like I was, was like, this is like crazy. This is so outlandish. This could never happen. But in that same article, it says that Dennis actually showed them the movie Kansas.
00:52:04
Speaker
I've never seen that. Me either. I was hoping you had, but... No. Sorry. There was a scene apparently in this movie. And now I'm like, why didn't I watch the scene? But anyways, there's a scene in this movie where a vehicle is knocked off Golden Road into that same stranger creek. Oh. And it sinks. Oh. I know. Here's perfect illustration that it could happen.
00:52:34
Speaker
Yes, and based on these observations and information provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dennis, this agent, concluded that the creek would be deep enough through every season, so even summer, to conceal a vehicle. Investigators finally kind of get on board a little bit with this theory. Here's my question though. Okay.
00:53:04
Speaker
Even if it's deep enough to conceal a vehicle through the seasons, I wouldn't think that the current in this creek would be strong enough to like push it on down. I would think it would be easily detected in some way. Okay. So I also thought the same thing and what they found proves both of us wrong. Oh. They,
00:53:33
Speaker
do get like an underwater rescue and recovery team. And the team does a sonar search with like sonar equipment to try to detect a vehicle. And they actually were able to, they did detect a vehicle. Oh, which, which is crazy to me. But sadly it was not Randy's car or the car he was driving.
00:54:00
Speaker
But still, it gives you hope. I feel like if you're the investigator like, hey, I'm not so crazy, this theory is possible. They would do more of these searches and they would go on to find not the one, but actually two vehicles in these searches. But the second vehicle is not Randy's mom's car either. Well, gosh, I mean, okay, they're not solving Randy's case, but I feel like they've gotten a clue and whoever lost a foot,
00:54:31
Speaker
I've gotten clues in two potential, at least automobile accidents with these two vehicles they recovered. And I've read somewhere, and I might be getting a little bit of this confused, but either it was in one of these two vehicles or it was in another vehicle. They actually found human remains of a person that was missing from the 60s or 70s in this car.
00:54:58
Speaker
Oh my, there's a lot that goes on in this small town. Yes.
Search Efforts and Other Discoveries
00:55:03
Speaker
But like, sadly though, this discovery of the second vehicle dimmed the hopes of investigators because
00:55:13
Speaker
The car had been pushed by the current so far away from the bridge that this detective says it's basically like finding Randy is basically like finding a needle in a haystack. If this theory is true, like he could be anywhere. Like he said he could maybe even be to St. Louis, like he could be anywhere now. So the current is that strong to have pushed him. Yep. Hmm.
00:55:43
Speaker
So I told you that I was going to give you guys some oddities and I'm going to present those to you now. Okay. And most of these came from that website that I talked about. I actually went back in and added these because I was like, this is kind of cool. Um, and like one of the parts of the article was called like bizarre events surrounding leech case. So.
00:56:09
Speaker
See if this changes your mind. So one oddity, there are like six. Shortly after Randy's disappearance, which we mentioned, the home or the party was held burned to the ground. So was this an accident? Was it an attempt to cover up something more sinister? Every time I hear that, it takes me back to what's the story that you did about the man that was in the wheelchair? He's so gatty.
00:56:39
Speaker
Yeah, every time I hear about a fire at this scene. That's what I thought I'd do. Yep. Yeah. Audity number two, and this was like, is this a coincidence or is this like something different? Audity number two is that the leeches replaced their dodge that Randy had like been in when he went to the party with a Chrysler that had about 40,000 miles on it.
00:57:08
Speaker
just after buying the car. And I didn't read like how quickly it was replaced, but I'm going to assume that you're going to replace the car pretty quickly because you need it to get from point A to point B. So just after they bought the car, it caught fire and burned too crisp in their backyard. Like spontaneous combustion? Well, an investigator said that the gas line was deteriorated and it ruptured.
00:57:37
Speaker
Materiorated with 40,000 miles on it. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. So you can see why the Leech family believes it was arson. Right. Like that makes no sense. There's a little too much burning going on in this case. Yeah. Yes. Like I don't know anything about cars, but that's weird to me.
00:58:02
Speaker
Audity number three is that Randy's blonde German Shepherd named crackers which such a cute name for a German crackers Went missing about four months after Randy did and the dog that he had he had had him about four years I think was never found hmm never turned it into an animal shelter and
00:58:26
Speaker
Never like I'm assuming he had a caller. There was never any calls made to the telephone number on his caller Nothing Okay number four There are reports that say that strange mail began showing up in the leeches mailbox Hmm, and this is mail like it had almost been leaked
00:58:54
Speaker
from like police files. Oh. And Harold Leach the dad believes that the source of these documents had to have been like a sympathetic officer who was convinced that the investigation was just like a poop shoot. Oh no. Yeah that's what I would think too if I'm getting right information about the case I'd be like who's trying to tell me something.
00:59:23
Speaker
exactly in 19 93 this is auto team number five there was supposedly this like
00:59:33
Speaker
I feel like I could have been in like a wormhole all with auditing number five, but there was supposedly like a research journalist who offered to assist the leeches and spent several months like without pay interviewing these party goers and like other people who might have known stuff about the case, but like he went by like two different aliases. Okay. That's weird.
01:00:02
Speaker
Terry Martin and Lee Harper. So like, I think of Harper Lee, like to kill a mockingbird. Audity number six, and this is super weird to me, is that a Topeka man who actually volunteered to help the leeches search for their son was found shot to death along with his wife. But Topeka police ruled it as a murder suicide. Hmm.
01:00:33
Speaker
So like what the heck happened in this case? Like I feel like I was ready to say like he went into the water and his car is like somewhere in
Perseverance in Finding Randy
01:00:43
Speaker
the water. Right. But then like, like you said, there's too much burning. I was fully prepared to say the same thing as you just did to actually for once think that the most
01:00:59
Speaker
I guess rational possibility was the correct one. But then I don't know. I think the fact that nearly every single person at the party was so tight-lipped. The fact that if he had gone off the road, we're assuming that he was drunk, but how did he get that way?
01:01:24
Speaker
Yeah, the fact that the police show up, not only is no one talking about the party, but it's completely cleaned up. The police never go into the home. The home subsequently burns. Um, one of the people burn. Yeah. The there's, like I said earlier, there's all kinds of places that burn. And now here's someone who
01:01:50
Speaker
potentially has information and he and his wife are also found shot to death? Hmm. Too many unanswered questions. Yeah. I no longer feel the rational going off the road theory is correct. Yeah, I definitely agree with his parents that it could possibly be foul play.
01:02:19
Speaker
With each cap and gown picture that I've seen come across my social media, it breaks my heart more and more for the family of Randy Leach. His life ended just as it was about to begin. While we don't know where he is or what happened to him, we do know that his family still searches for him. Sleuthhounds, my challenge to you this week is to tell someone Randy's story each time a friend posts a picture of a graduate and it comes across your social media.
01:02:47
Speaker
Remember him. Remember the life he lived and the life he could have had. Remember his family and friends. I mentioned in today's episode that finding Randy may be like finding a needle in a haystack, but through perseverance, even the tiniest needle can be found. And I know that if we push hard enough and keep sharing this story, Randy can be found.
01:03:11
Speaker
Again, please like and join us on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and to see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Instagram at Coffee Cases podcast and on TikTok at Coffee and Cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to Coffee and Cases podcast at gmail.com.
01:03:33
Speaker
Please tell your friends about our podcast so that more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to write our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon. Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.