Disappearance of Randy Sellers

Randy Sellers, born September 6, 1962, disappeared at age 17 in Visalia, Kentucky, on August 16, 1980, two weeks before his 18th birthday. He is described as having had a birthmark on the crown of his head, a scar above his left eye, a surgical scar on his right knee, and a tattoo of a crooked letter "R" on his forearm. In 2019, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released an age-progressed image showing his possible appearance at age 49. Before his disappearance, Sellers had expressed interest in becoming an ironworker, the same profession as his stepfather.

On the night he went missing, Sellers attended a county fair in Visalia, where he consumed alcohol and marijuana to the point that he could not stand. Police took him into custody for intoxication, and two officers decided to drive him home after determining he was a minor. According to the officers, Sellers attacked one of them during the drive and refused to identify his house. The officers stated they dropped him off near a railway overpass close to his home. This is the last confirmed sighting of Sellers. During the subsequent investigation, the two officers gave conflicting accounts regarding the timing, location, and circumstances of the drop-off, as well as Sellers's level of intoxication at the time.

The search for Sellers began the following day, August 17, 1980, when he failed to return home. Investigators initially dragged the nearby Licking River in an effort to locate his body. Approximately a decade later, in the early 1990s, incarcerated serial killer Donald Leroy Evans confessed to killing Sellers as one of several murders he claimed responsibility for. While many of Evans's confessions were regarded as unreliable, his account regarding Sellers was considered potentially credible. Evans said he picked up Sellers, who was hitchhiking on Decoursey Pike near the Sellers family home, drove him to Kincaid Lake State Park, shared beers with him, then shot him in the back of the head and buried him in a shallow grave. Authorities searched the park using a map drawn by Evans but found nothing. A renewed search in 2019, prompted by concerns that the map had been misinterpreted, also produced no evidence.

Investigators have separately examined the possibility that the two police officers who last saw Sellers may bear responsibility for his disappearance. This line of inquiry intensified in the early 2000s after a detective received a tip suggesting Sellers was buried on property connected to one of the officers. Under further questioning, one officer admitted that his colleague had struck Sellers, but then attempted to retract the statement. Discrepancies persisted between the officers' accounts of the sequence of events and the exact location where Sellers was left. No charges have been filed, and Sellers's case remains unresolved. His parents, who presume he is dead, later erected a headstone in his memory.