Flashback Friday: Randall Dean Leach

This week’s Flashback Friday case is Randall Dean Leach, a twenty-year-old who disappeared from Idaho Falls, Idaho on November 6, 1980. He was planning to hitchhike from Sheboygan, Wisconsin to Bend, Oregon, his first-ever really long hitchhike odyssey. He stopped at a farm in Idaho Falls, stayed for a couple of days and did some work there, then left. He apparently never arrived in Bend.

It’s possible he changed his mind and decided not to go to Bend — Leach’s family described him as a bit of a wanderer and a free-thinker — but I highly doubt that he’s still alive. It seems like if he was able to contact his family, he would have at some point in the past 36 and a half years.

Given the hitchhiking element, he could be anywhere in the country. I wonder if he’s a John Doe somewhere.

More pictures

I’ve added a bunch of pictures to casefiles, courtesy of Newspapers.com. I LOVE that archive so much.

1. Thomas Dean Gibson
2. Eulace King
3. Richard William Miller Jr.
4. Jeanna Dale North
5. Karen Reinert
6. Michael Reinert
7. Irene Silverman
8. Brenwanda C. Smith
9. Ke’Shaun Bryant Vanderhorst
10. Timothy Antonio Washington Jr.

Orville’s home!

They finally finished the virus scan today and I was able to take the computer home. Everything’s working just fine now and I’ve posted all the updates that I was going to post on the 27th.

In the meantime, having nothing to do, I had been plugging name after name into Newspapers.com, and whenever I found something I could use I would email the PDF of the article to myself. So I’ve got plenty to play with now.

I found one article that mentioned an MP getting shot. This was a few years before his disappearance. Am I right in thinking that any prior gunshot wound ought to get mentioned in the distinguishing characteristics?