Disappearance of Charles Arlin Henderson

Charles Arlin Leon Henderson was born on March 16, 1980, in Moscow Mills, Missouri, to Debbie Henderson-Griffith. In a 2025 interview, his mother said he enjoyed swimming and shooting BB guns. On July 25, 1991, at around 5 p.m., Henderson left his home in Fountain N' Lakes, Missouri, on his bicycle and was never seen again. He was 11 years old at the time. He was last known to be wearing a camouflage tee shirt and pants, gray socks, and black tennis shoes. On October 10, 1991, his bicycle was recovered in a bean field approximately five miles north of his home, but no further trace of Henderson was found.

The case has produced several related developments in the years since his disappearance. In 2001, a man named Joshua Spangler, who had been 13 years old at the time Henderson disappeared, confessed to abducting and killing Henderson, claiming he had been forced to do so by two other men. Spangler later admitted the confession was fabricated and was charged with perjury.

Separately, months before Henderson disappeared, his uncle, James McWilliams, reported witnessing a tall, skinny man photographing Henderson outside his school. This man is believed to have been Michael J. Devlin, and multiple relatives of Henderson were shown photographs of a person claiming to know Devlin, with several relatives saying they recognized him. No charges related to Henderson's disappearance have been reported in connection with this individual.

The Henderson family also experienced a separate tragedy years later: on March 10, 2000, Henderson's sister, Joy Henderson-Leonard, was murdered by her husband, Bob Leonard, who then died by suicide. This event is distinct from Charles Henderson's disappearance but is part of the family's documented history as reported in connection with the case.

Henderson's case remains one of two active missing-person cases in Lincoln County, Missouri, the other being that of Bianca Piper, who disappeared from Foley, Missouri, on March 10, 2005, at age 13. As of the most recent reporting, Charles Arlin Henderson's whereabouts remain unknown and no one has been charged in connection with his disappearance.