Randy Leach: Party at the End of the Road // 597

Summary

Going West: True Crime Episode 597: Randy Leach – Party at the End of the Road Hosts: Daphne Woolsoncroft & Heath Merryman
Release Date: April 7, 2026

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Episode Overview

Daphne and Heath revisit the 1988 disappearance of Randy Leach, a 17-year-old from rural Kansas who vanished after a high school graduation party. The case stands as one of Kansas’ most mystifying unsolved mysteries. The hosts methodically break down the events of that night, the initial investigation, enduring theories—including cult rituals and accidental death—and the desperate efforts of Randy’s family to find the truth. This episode is filled with haunting details, deep dives into local rumors, and a thorough examination of why Randy and his mother’s car have never been found.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Randy's Background and the Night of Disappearance (03:28 – 12:04)

• Randy Leach was a responsible and well-liked teen from Linwood, Kansas. Athletic, diligent, and excited about life after graduation, Randy had just received a John Deere tractor and was waiting on a restored 1966 Mustang.
• On April 15, 1988, Randy borrowed his mother’s gray 1985 Dodge 600 to run errands, check on his Mustang at a DeSoto body shop, and attend a graduation party in Bonner Springs.
• He bought a small amount of gas and some snacks at 9:30pm (07:28), before heading to the party at about 10pm.
• According to party hosts and friends, Randy was not known as a partier and reportedly seemed “out of his element” that night. Some observed that he was struggling to walk, yet wasn’t seen consistently holding a drink.

Quote:
“He seemed to be kind of out of his element at the party that night.” – Heath (10:17)

2. Events at the Party & Immediate Aftermath (10:08 – 17:44)

• The party, hosted by classmate Kim Irwin’s parents, drew up to 150 people. Kim’s mother mixed and sold alcoholic drinks to minors (10:08), which both hosts note as highly illegal but not unusual for rural Kansas in the 1980s.
• Accounts suggest Randy was impaired by around 1:30am. His friend, John Burns, offered a ride home, but Randy couldn’t find his keys. When John returned at 2am, both Randy and the car were gone.
• Annie Irwin, party host, last saw him waiting for the bathroom around 2:05am.

3. Discovery of His Disappearance (12:04 – 16:57)

• Randy’s mom, Alberta, woke at 6am to find him and the car missing—a major red flag given his reliable nature.
• Alberta and her police officer brother headed to the Irwins’ house by 7am. They were disturbed by how thoroughly the party site had been cleaned and the Irwin family's seemingly blasé attitude.

Quote:
"[Annie Irwin said] 'Mrs. Leach, can I get you a beer?' No ma’am, I want to know where my son is." – Alberta Leach, as recounted by Daphne (15:47)

4. Initial Police Response & Challenges (16:57 – 23:02)

• Law enforcement asked Alberta to wait over 24 hours to file a report, assuming Randy would return. The formal missing persons case wasn't opened until Sunday, two days after the disappearance.
• Early theories revolved around accidental drunkenness or drug use. Despite rumors of Randy being "stoned," his friends maintained he was not a known drug user.

Quote:
“My idea from the start, Hank, is that he didn’t run away, and we wasted five or six weeks at least... [Lt. Spellman replied], 'My feeling is that there is foul play.'” – Harold Leach & Lt. Hank Spellman (Telephone conversation, recounted at 23:27)

5. Community and Parental Efforts (23:27 – 27:04)

• Randy’s parents raised a reward, distributed thousands of flyers, and led tireless searches. They remained vocal about the sheriff’s office being slow and inattentive.
• Three arrests of party attendees in 1993 yielded no new leads.

6. Enduring Theories & Notable Suspects (33:11 – 48:00)

A. Something Went Wrong at the Party

• Many believe Randy died or was killed at the party; the Irwins soon left town and their house later burned down (33:11).

B. Drugged or Misadventure? (34:04)

• Classmate Leann speculated Randy’s impairment was more akin to having been drugged with GHB than marijuna or alcohol.
• The party had adult attendees from Kansas City who brought harder drugs, e.g., cocaine. Tension between the local teens and out-of-town adults left Randy isolated among strangers late in the night.

C. Party Rumors: Drug Overdose and Cover-Up (40:15)

• Some argued Randy overdosed—possibly unintentionally—and the panic led to his body and car being disposed of, perhaps in a local waterway or over state lines.
• No evidence of either Randy or his mother’s car has been found, despite extensive air, ground, and water searches.

D. Named Suspects & Strange Behavior

• Steve Dougherty: Allegedly drove slowly past the Leach home the morning Randy was discovered missing, possibly to gauge reaction (41:56).
• Dan Flanagan: Randy parked on Flanagan’s land before the party. Rumors swirled that Randy and Dan argued over drugs in Dan's house, with Randy allegedly killed and the car driven to Missouri. In 2018, Flanagan killed his girlfriend, and referenced this being his “first time enraged in 30 years,” eerily close to the anniversary of Randy’s disappearance (47:03).

Quote:
“[Dan Flanagan said] this was the first time he had become enraged in 30 years.” – Daphne (47:03)

E. Occult/Cult Theories (48:02)

• 1990 tip: a witness claimed he saw Randy’s body hung in a cave amid pentagrams and alleged ritual activity; this coincided with the era’s 'Satanic Panic.'
• The tipster passed polygraphs, but was using drugs at the time and left town soon after. No physical evidence supported these claims.

7. Search Efforts and Technological Hurdles (50:09 – 58:53)

• Family, police, and volunteer groups (including divers and pilots) searched rivers, lakes, and fields without locating the car or Randy.
• The Kansas landscape—being flat and lacking deep water due to drought at the time—posed challenges to hiding a car.
• Recent searches using drones, sonar, and ground-penetrating radar have yielded nothing.
• Adventures With Purpose (renowned search/diver group) helped search but backed away in 2021 due to unspecified threats or legal issues with their founder.

8. Where Things Stand Today (57:02 – 58:53)

• Other teams, such as Echo Divers, have searched local waterways; in October 2025, they found a car in Nine Mile Creek (not yet linked to the case).
• Cadaver dogs, ground, air, and underwater search teams have repeatedly come up empty.
• Randy was legally declared dead in 2001, but his mother Alberta continues to seek answers. Community events keep the case alive.
• Officially, the sheriff’s office says the case remains open; Alberta, however, remains skeptical.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “He’s 17, he’s a senior in high school, he’s at a party, he’s probably just out with his friends… This is just not the one. Yeah, I mean, this kid was about to graduate from high school.” – Heath (17:34, 21:08)
• “There are so many searches being done and so many different methods… they’re not finding anything in the air, on the ground, or underwater.” – Daphne (52:37)
• “If he was impaired and he got into his car and started driving, and he got into an accident during the short drive to his home, it probably would have happened sooner rather than later. And they searched the whole area—again, underwater, ground, air… I really do believe that something was done to him.” – Daphne (61:02)
• “Man, it’s just like you’d really love to find that Dodge. You’d really love to find that car. Just to… get something somewhat closer to finding Randy.” – Heath (61:02)

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Important Timestamps

• 03:28 — Randy Leach’s background and the night he vanished
• 07:28 — Timeline details of Randy’s last movements
• 10:08 — Adult host selling alcohol to teens at party
• 12:04 — Alberta discovers Randy missing, immediate family investigation
• 13:38 — Suspicious site cleanup by Irwin family
• 16:57 — Police delay missing persons report, early investigation issues
• 23:27 — Harold confronts police about foul play
• 34:04 — Drugging theory and unusual party dynamics
• 40:15 — Overdose, cover-up, and disposal theories
• 41:56 — Suspect: Steve Dougherty and suspicious behavior
• 44:08 — Suspect: Dan Flanagan’s violent history
• 47:03 — Flanagan’s incriminating “30 years” comment
• 48:02 — Occult/cult theories, satanic panic witness tip
• 50:09 — Search efforts in the years following Randy’s disappearance
• 54:19 — Adventures With Purpose involvement and withdrawal
• 57:02 — Most recent searches and new car found
• 58:53 — Case details, physical description, and contact info

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Case Details & Contact

• Randy Leach: 6 ft 2 in, blue eyes, brown hair. Last seen wearing a blue t-shirt, jeans, white tennis shoes, and driving a gray four-door 1985 Dodge 600 (KS lic# LVJ8721).
• Reward: $5,000
• Contact:
  • Leavenworth Co. Sheriff’s Office: 913-682-5724
  • Kansas Bureau of Investigation: 1-800-KS-CRIME

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Tone & Host Reflections

• The hosts maintain an empathetic yet inquisitive tone, openly weighing the believability of various theories and highlighting inconsistencies or unusual behavior from key parties.
• Both express frustration at law enforcement’s early handling and admiration for Alberta and Harold Leach’s relentless advocacy.
• There’s a clear undercurrent of sadness, skepticism, and respect for unresolved loss.

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Summary Takeaway

This episode stands out for its detailed reconstruction of a haunting rural mystery. With sensitive yet thorough analysis, Going West underscores both the deep strangeness and profound pain surrounding the Randy Leach case—and the dogged hope that even decades later, the truth can still come to light.

Transcript

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[Heath]

What is going on? True crime fans? I'm your host, Heath.

[Daphne]

And I'm your host, Daphne.

[Heath]

And you're listening to Going West.

[Daphne]

Hello, everybody. Big shout out to Addison, Nicole, Maddie and Megan, who all recommended today's case. This is another one of those really suspicious young men disappearances, like men disappearing from their cars, which we've covered so many of for some reason.

[Heath]

Yeah, there are an abundance of those cases for some reason, but this one has a lot of very wild and kind of out there and very strange

[Daphne]

theories, but some of them feel like, yeah, I could actually see that happening. Like, this case takes so many turns that as we're going through it in the beginning, it might seem kind of cut and dry, but as we really get through the weeds, I think you guys are going to be really, really suspicious. Of what likely happened here. Well, that's me trying not to spoil it as always.

[Heath]

Yeah, that's like the most broad or most vague way we could put it honestly. But.

[Daphne]

But we must.

[Heath]

Yes. So without further ado, this is episode 597 of Going West. So let's get into it.

[Daphne]

In April of 1988, a 17 year old left a graduation party in rural Kansas and was believed to have driven away in his mom's car. But neither he or the car were ever seen again. Leading to numerous disturbing theories regarding what happened to him. From never leaving the street he was last seen on to being sacrificed by a local cult. Which is why his disappearance remains one of Kansas most baffling mysteries. This is the disappearance of Randy Leach. Randall Dean Leach, better known as Randy, was born on July 25th, 1970 to Alberta and Harold Leach and grew up in the tiny farming town of Lynnwood, Kansas, where as of the 1990 census, which is around when this story takes place, just 409 people lived there. So Randy's graduating class contained only 33 people. Randy was known for being a respectful and responsible teen and with his height and build because he was kind of a big boy.

[Heath]

Yeah, he was, he was pretty tall for his age.

[Daphne]

Pretty like pretty built, you know, built out. So he was a natural born athlete. So he loved playing basketball and running track for Linwood High School. He was also a very strong student though, and he had college aspirations. So according to his parents, he was very hopeful and excited about the future. In the spring of 1988, 17 year old Randy would be graduating high school and he had recently started dating a new girlfriend. Alongside his dad, Harold, Randy operated a lawn mowing and lawnmower repair business. Which is really adorable that they're doing this together.

[Heath]

It's so fucking Kansas. I swear it is.

[Daphne]

And it's so nice that they got to spend time together and worked together and this was something they were both, you know, they loved doing it as I'm going to get into in a second. So the day before his parents last saw him, Harold actually gifted his son a new John Deere lawn tractor. Which was a very, very exciting gift

[Heath]

for Randy, you know what a riding lawnmower. Amazing.

[Daphne]

Yeah, big deal, you know, don't have to push it around. Much more convenient. This is a great piece of machinery. And actually in addition to the lawnmower, his parents had given him a red 1966 Ford Mustang as a graduation gift. That is a pretty sweet car.

[Heath]

That's a sweet car.

[Daphne]

My mom had that Exact car. And she still talks about it to this day.

[Heath]

My mom did too, actually. Really?

[Daphne]

Yeah, love. So, of course he was so excited about this car, he couldn't wait to drive it. But it was still being restored at a local body shop. So, you know, it was a graduation gift. So they're like, it's being restored but this car is gonna be yours. So very, very fun for him.

[Heath]

Yeah. But for the time being, he didn't have a car of his own.

[Daphne]

Right. So he borrowed his mom's quite frequently. Which is why on the Evening of Friday, April 15, 1988, Randy was heading out for the evening to check on his car and also to catch up with some friends. First, Randy took a shower and said bye to his parents, who noted that he seemed to be in a particularly good mood. You know, this is a good time for Randy. Harold even offered Randy $20 to pick up wax for their new lawnmower. And Randy said that he planned on stopping by Kmart to do just that. So around 6:45pm an hour before sunset, he left the house. And that would be the last time his parents would ever see their son.

[Heath]

Well, that night Randy headed out in his mother Alberta's gray 1985 Dodge 600, stopping by his cousin's house. Around 8:30pm he went back out, stopping by the body shop that was restoring his Mustang, which was about 20 minutes east of Lynwood in DeSoto, Kansas. Then at 9:30pm he popped into Stout's, which was a gas station and convenience store, and bought $3 worth of gas plus two bottles of soda and a couple candy bars. And you know, on that $3 of gas, he was planning on driving all the way across the country.

[Daphne]

Right, right.

[Heath]

You know, but yeah, if only not

[Daphne]

even a gallon here in LA.

[Heath]

Exactly. But around 10pm that night, he headed to a bonfire and graduation party that a fellow classmate was holding at her parents rural property in Bonner Springs, which is about 15 minutes northeast of Lynwood and actually just outside of Kansas City. So just outside of a major city, but it is still pretty rural. But later, Randy's parents were surprised to hear that he had gone to this party with his mom Alberta, saying, we don't think he really planned on going to that party. So this specific party took place in farm country just west of downtown Bonner Springs. And it's actually so rural that there's no Google street view available. We are going to post the satellite image so you guys can get a gist of the area. But yeah, that'll let you know, just how rural this area really is. But for those who can't look right now, it's by multiple smaller bodies of water, but also the Kansas river located amongst large sprawling farm properties and like a few other homes. Now, estimations of the amount of attendees have ranged from about 45 people to upwards of 150 people. Fellow Lynwood High School senior Kim Irwin was actually the host of this party. But her parents, and especially her mom, Annie Irwin, had kind of organized this party, having invited many more people than Kim's small high school class. Her mom Annie, had also planned on making some money that night and had mixed up a batch of cocktails which she was selling to the attendees, regardless of the fact that many of them were underage. I definitely went to some high school parties where like the parents were there and they were aware that kids were drinking and probably supplied the alcohol. But this woman's like, I'm gonna see if I can get a little money out of these high school kids.

[Daphne]

I get like byob, but this is straight so weird to me. And also to charge minors to drink alcohol is like illegal.

[Heath]

Yeah, it is.

[Daphne]

That's like really? That's like extra bad.

[Heath]

But we also have to keep in mind that this is 1988 and it's like rural Kansas. So I feel like sometimes the rules kind of didn't apply to those more rural areas and country places. Cause people just kind of did what they wanted to do. But I will say that Randy's friends claim that he was not a big drinker or partier. He seemed to be kind of out of his element at the party that night. But Annie herself recalled that Randy was kind of having trouble walking, despite the fact that she didn't ever recall seeing him with a drink in his hand. Around 1:30am on the morning of Saturday, April 16, a friend of Randy's named John Burns offered to drive Randy home. But Randy had apparently misplaced his car keys, which he obviously wanted to find before leaving this party. So John then headed out to take another party attendee home in the meantime, while Randy's other friend stayed back to help him look for his missing keys. But I will say no one wanted to let him drive home, knowing that he was in no state to be doing so. They just kinda wanted him to find his keys so that he had them. Of course he's gonna need those keys. They wanted John to actually take him home. However, John returned to the party to grab Randy around 2am so only 30 minutes later. But he couldn't find Any sign of Randy or the car he drove to get there. Which obviously told John that Randy had found his keys and then had left in his mom's car that he had been driving that night. Annie last remembers seeing him waiting in line for the bathroom inside the house, but couldn't recall seeing him after about 2:05am at the latest later that morning.

[Daphne]

So about four hours later, around 6am Alberta awoke to find that neither her son nor her car had made it home. She later explained in an interview that after spotting his empty bedroom, she ran to the front of the house and was shocked to find her car missing. So panic set in immediately because he was not supposed to be out all night. Alberta remembered that was something he had never done before. She claimed that he almost always adhered to his curfew. Remember he was super responsible. So she called her brother Richard, who was actually a police officer in nearby Lawrence, Kansas. And Richard came straight over beginning like a makeshift investigation that very morning. By 7am they were heading to the scene of the party where Randy had last been seen. And his uncle Richard later claimed that the Irwin family seemed totally unfazed by the fact that Randy had gone missing after seemingly being intoxicated at their party mere hours earlier and then vanishing along with his mom's car. You know, you would imagine this would be something they would be a little bit more concerned about upon hearing.

[Heath]

Yeah, if a family showed up to my house and were looking for their missing son that they know had last been at this party of mine, I would be very concerned myself. I would be like, okay, let's, let's start looking. But they're like, they just didn't really seem to care at all.

[Daphne]

And it got so much weirder because Richard and Alberta also both reported having seen Kim Irwin, the daughter, the classmate of Randy, crying that morning. And they were also shocked to find that there didn't seem to be any evidence at all that a party had taken place there that night or the night before whatsoever. Like any remnants like trash, cups, cans, bottles had been wholly disposed of already.

[Heath]

Yeah. And you know, this may not seem too concerning on its head. Like obviously some people do clean up after a party, but considering that there was 45 to upwards of 150 people. Yeah, you would imagine that there would be quite a mess and that they would still be clean cleaning up that mess that next morning.

[Daphne]

I think about our last Halloween party where we probably had like 40 to 50 people.

[Heath]

Sure.

[Daphne]

And like before, I mean we started cleaning up before everybody even left and we cleaned almost the entire house before we went to bed because we just wanted to get rid of everything so badly.

[Heath]

Right.

[Daphne]

So I understand that sometimes you're like, I just want my house to be back to normal. But it is kind of weird that they're still. The party ended after two, maybe around three even. And it's 7am and they're all up and awake and they're.

[Heath]

Everything's already been cleaned.

[Daphne]

Every single thing has been cleaned. There's not any. Anything left over, which is a lot of work.

[Heath]

And mind you, this is not just like some kids party where their parents are out of town and they're like, shit, we gotta clean up everything before the parents get home. No, the parents were there at the party.

[Daphne]

Right. You know, so yeah, they're all just. And they're not worried about Randy having gone missing from their house. Well, Alberta later recalled, they had cleaned the whole thing up. And I went to the house, Harold went out to where the bonfire was. They were cleaning up around it. And I asked the woman, I had never met her before. They were just new people in the area. And she said, what can I do for you? And I said, I want to know where Randy Leach is. And she said, well, he was here but he left. Mrs. Leach, can I get you a beer? No, ma'.

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Am.

[Daphne]

I want to know where my son is. And she said, well, somebody took him home or he took somebody else home. We don't know.

[Heath]

Also kind of weird like that you're offering Mrs. Leech a beer at like in the morning. You know, that's what it means. She's looking for her son and they're just like, do you want a beer?

[Daphne]

Everything is just weird. The fact, I mean, again, it's not weird to be cleaning up your party early in the morning. Some people like to keep a clean house, but that there's no evidence that there was a party. Almost everything is cleaned up. They're just outside. They're saying, yeah, I don't know where your son is, but hey, do you want a beer at 7 in the morning? So it doesn't seem like they were lying about having a party. It's not like they're being super suspicious. And they're like, we don't know who your son is. We don't know what you're talking about.

[Heath]

There was no party because obviously there's no way to really cover that up.

[Daphne]

But at the same time, they're alleging that he left by 2am but they're also saying that they hadn't seen him leave. So with so many people there and you're new to the area, you don't really know Randy or his family. How do you remember this? But you're also not worried about him being gone? I don't know, maybe I'm being too critical of this family. But it's a little weird.

[Heath]

I mean it just, it just is suspicious. You obviously have to ask questions when somebody goes missing from this specific party. Of course you're gonna be, you know, investigating it. Well, I will say that Alberta claims that she was either encouraged or forced to wait over 24 hours to file a formal missing persons report for her 17 year old son. With the police most likely just maintaining that it was a misunderstanding and that he would return within the weekend. And we've seen this many times before and it's very frustrating because Alberta knows that something seems off, but from the

[Daphne]

police's POV, they're like, he's 17, he's a senior in high school, he's graduated, he's at a party, he's probably just out with his friends.

[Heath]

And that's the reason why the official missing persons report wasn't filed until Sunday evening, which would for Alberta and Harold, set the tone for years of missed opportunities and inaction. Kim Irwin, again Randy's classmate, later stated in her sworn statement on the police report that she believed that Randy arrived at the party between 10pm and 11pm she noted that he was really messed up. Another of her friends apparently told Kim that Randy was stoned. And Randy himself had told people that he had smoked some real killer weed, which would obviously explain why he was seemingly intoxicated without having been seen with a drink. Now at one point he allegedly told another partygoer that he was going to see the man with the pipe and that he was probably going to get stoned. At one point in the evening, Randy claimed to not be going home, though whether this meant that he didn't want to go home or that he was scared to drive home because he was impaired by that point and may not have been able to drive is unknown. Well, in the first few months following the disappearance, multiple possible sightings of Randy came in, mostly originating from the northeastern part of Kansas, which is where Lynwood is, but none were confirmed. Lt. Hank Spellman of the Leavenworth County Sheriff's Office attested. We've had six or so sightings, supposedly sightings, but nobody can flat say that that's him.

[Daphne]

Now obviously this party has been the source of most of the speculation regarding the case, especially if foul play is in Fact to blame for Randy's disappearance. Locals and law enforcement alike were baffled. And the sheriff's office announced candidly that they had no reason to suspect that he had run away, but that they also couldn't find a motive for possible foul play because they don't have a crime scene or a body or even his mom's car, which was really, really odd. And I gotta say, at least they're not, like, sticking to their guns that, oh, he probably ran away or drove somewhere because he. He did have his car with him, and the car is also missing. But. But they're. They're very suspicious of this. They. They don't understand where he could have possibly gone. But I will say everyone knew that he would never run away. Like something had to have happened to him. As we know, Randy was very well liked. He had no known enemies, and he was very much looking forward to finishing high school and was, of course, particularly excited about his new car and his new ride on lawnmower. He also had with him only $50, $60 in cash. And which really called into question how far he could have made it that night. And it also makes robbery an unlikely motive.

[Heath]

Yeah, I mean, you've only got like 50 or 60 bucks. It's not like you have enough money to really plan out, like an escape. You're gonna go stay in motels, and you're gonna have enough money for gas and this and that.

[Daphne]

And we can acknowledge when a case has that feeling or when you. You might imagine that would have happened. This is not that one.

[Heath]

This is just not the one. Yeah, I mean, this kid was about to graduate from high school. He was very much excited about doing that.

[Daphne]

Well, by the end of June, Again, this is 1988, so over two full months since Randy disappeared. Lieutenant Hank Spellman announced, quote, because it's a juvenile missing person, we'll stay on the case for quite some time. In our mind. We have no more leads to go on. We have probably interviewed 75 to 80 people already, and we still have more to interview at this time. In the Linwood area, there's not that much crime. A lot of people feel now that because of him being missing and the rumors of the drugs and things. Well, there haven't been any more parties down there that we know of. And to be fair, as well, cases like this are so difficult. There's not a clear rumor going around just yet, other than the fact that he was at this party and that he was probably high and nobody is saying anything. So if nobody's slipping there's no sign of him or his car. There's no surveillance footage or cell phone pings or anything like that to work on. It is one of those cases where it's like, unless somebody comes forward or we find his car or we find his body, we have literally nothing.

[Heath]

Yes. It's incredibly hard just given the time, really, the fact that we don't have technology to really kind of be a backup here, as this is a boon. Yeah, exactly. So really, you know, and you. You imagine that things like this happen, and then rumors start to swirl, as you were mentioning around the party, like, oh, I saw him leave with this person.

[Daphne]

Right.

[Heath]

We should check into that. But we really don't have anything like that here.

[Daphne]

And we're going to go into plenty of speculation, but at this point, there really isn't anything clear going around that leads them to a particular person just yet.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Daphne]

And then, of course, they started the investigation a little bit late. They're not really putting boots on the ground as much as his parents want him to. So things are just kind of, like, fussied up. Now, his friends, many of whom were interviewed by law enforcement, say that Randy never had a problem with drugs or, I'll say, alcohol. So hearing of his state of mind that night was a bit confusing.

[Heath]

Well, from the very beginning, Randy's parents have been praised for the active role that they took in their son's disappearance. I mean, of course, horse this is their loved one. They were his greatest advocates from day one, and they spent all of the time and money that they could spare on pursuing answers and justice. They raised $1,500 for a reward, and they printed and distributed more than 20,000 missing posters. Eleven weeks after Randy's disappearance, his father, Harold, told a local publication, quote, nothing makes sense. That's what's hard to accept. I do know that when kids get out from their parents and they're out with other kids, they can be totally different from what you think. But his classmates, even the older people, say that he was just unique. And basically, by that, he just means that Randy wasn't some crazy partying kid or totally different and that he was a respectful and good kid, like basically always. While almost immediately, Alberta and Harold were outspoken about their feeling that the local sheriff's office had let them down and declined to take the case seriously enough, which has still had its consequences to this day. In a telephone conversation dated May of 1988, Harold actually recorded himself speaking with Lieutenant Spellman and told him matter of factly, my idea from the start, Hank is that he didn't run away and we wasted five or six weeks at least. It seems like just getting to that point. And I don't know where you guys are on it now really, whether you still think there's a good possibility that he ran away or not. And then Hank answered honestly, saying, my feeling is that there is foul play. That's my personal feelings. A couple Years later, in 1990, Harold collected 12,000 signatures in order to put together a formal inquisition into Randy's disappearance, but sadly, this never came to fruition. But then in 1993, three arrests were made of men who were believed to have been at the party that same night. However, after being arrested and questioned, all three men were released, with police unable to concretely connect them to Randy's suspicious vanishing. The Leavenworth County Sheriff's Office at the time admitted they gave statements but not what we wanted. If they know anything, they're not saying, randy's mom Alberta told the Associated Press. It's pretty difficult. We thought that there was a break and it backfires like most of the stuff has the past five years. We do think it's gonna be solved, but it's up and down. In 2001, Randy was declared officially dead, bringing some semblance of closure to his family, who was still desperate to learn what had happened to him, feeling very confident that he died the night he disappeared and that someone was in on it. With spring activities, sports and busy schedules, it can be tough to keep academics front and center. IXL makes it simple to stay consistent and build momentum without adding stress.

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[Daphne]

So it's clear that the leeches feel like foul play was involved. Even the sheriff's office feel that foul play was involved and are admitting it, which, to be fair, would only give them more work to do. It would be easier for them to say, yeah, we just think he's. He's out there somewhere, you know, but they are admitting we think somebody killed him.

[Heath]

Yeah. Which is definitely interesting considering the fact that we don't know if they have more information that we're not privy to that they're kind of holding close to the vest because you would imagine, I mean, it really does feel like one of those cases where possibly he was intoxicated in some way, accidentally drove into a body of water and the car and Randy are just sitting at the bottom of a body of water, you know, because we've seen that before and we're going to get into that. But I do think it's very interesting that the sheriff is definitely saying, hey, this is my belief. I do think that there was foul play.

[Daphne]

Right. So, sadly, all we really have is speculation. But a lot of these theories are backed up. They're not totally baseless. And the most popular theory among all of them in connection with Randy's case is that something happened to him at that party. Who among the hundred plus attendees may have been responsible is still a mystery. But all roads seem to lead back to this gathering. While these could be a series of coincidences, it is worth noting that the Irwins apparently moved back to Kansas city not long after this whole ordeal occurred. In the years following Randy's disappearance, the family home on the property also happened to burn down, which is really strange. Again, could be coincidences.

[Heath]

Yeah, but it could Be something interesting.

[Daphne]

According to a classmate of Randy's named Leann, who believes she may have been one of the last, if not the last, person to see Randy before he vanished. The way that Randy was acting at the end of the night was kind of more consistent with having been drugged with ghb, commonly referred to as the date rape drug, rather than being drunk or even high from smoking weed.

[Heath]

I mean, I've never seen anybody on GHB before, so I would never know, like, what that looks like, I guess. But I will say that it could be like if you're. If you. If he was drinking that night and also smoking weed, it could give that effect that he was kind of like. Like out of it more. So. So I don't know how she particularly determined that, but I do find that interesting.

[Daphne]

Maybe she just felt like he was so messed up and if he was only smoking weed that he wouldn't have been. Yeah, I don't know. It's. It's hard to say. I have not seen anybody on GHB either. I have been high many, many times on ghb. High on weed. But, yeah, I think a lot people act differently when they're. When they're stoned. So.

[Heath]

Sure.

[Daphne]

And you can certainly be out of it and woozy and disoriented and paranoid and all that stuff.

[Heath]

One other thing that we should also mention is the fact that, again, Randy's not a partier. He's 17. So maybe if he's not really, like. If he hasn't really experienced what it's like to be stoned or to be drunk that many times before in his

[Daphne]

life previously, which it seems like he hadn't.

[Heath]

Yeah, it seems like he hadn't.

[Daphne]

So he could have gone overboard easily.

[Heath]

Right. That's what I mean. It's like he may not have known just how messed up he really was.

[Daphne]

Well, as we know, the mother and host of this party, Annie Irwin, was charging the minor teens for the alcoholic beverages. She was charging them $3 a cup for what she was mixing up and was not only overseeing the underage drinking, but encouraging it.

[Heath]

One thing that kind of crossed my mind that I'll just touch on very quickly is if somebody was at the party, maybe one of these older people, because we know that it wasn't just teens at the party. Maybe there was somebody there that was dosing these cups, hoping to possibly take advantage of a teen girl. Maybe. And very possible, possibly Randy accidentally drank one. I don't know.

[Daphne]

That's actually a good point. Point. Because he could have taken a drink from anybody. If Annie is specifically saying she doesn't remember seeing him with a drink, she could be lying. She could have easily served him a drink, but maybe she didn't, and he got it from somebody else.

[Heath]

Also, she doesn't seem like the most responsible adult here anyway, if. If she's serving minors drinks, but. So is she really monitoring the situation? Probably not.

[Daphne]

Well, we also know that it wasn't just alcohol and weed at the party, that a lot of the adults at the party were using cocaine. So, yeah, it's very possible that one of the many adults at the party had GHB or a different drug, and they gave it to Randy.

[Heath]

Yeah, this is definitely a recipe for disaster.

[Daphne]

And those adults that we're talking about were a part of a large group of friends of the Irwin family that came in from nearby Kansas City. And according to Leanne, they were, for whatever reason, not really getting along with the teens from Linwood High. So by the time the party was in full swing, many of the people that Randy had known or had been friends with had actually left. So a lot of the teens were like, f these adults, you guys, we're not getting along. We're just going to go.

[Heath]

Which honestly makes things even scarier because I've definitely been to a party like that where you go to a party and you only know, you know, the people that you know, and then those people leave, and then you're like, wait, I'm. Now I'm here, and I don't know anybody here, really.

[Daphne]

So maybe he therefore would be more likely and consistently amongst stranger adults right throughout the evening, like John Burns, Randy's friend Leann claimed that she offered to give Randy a ride home after trying to help him find his keys. She remembers leaving Randy by her car and running inside to use the bathroom, but that when she got back to her car about 15 minutes later, Randy was gone. So, you know, anything could have happened while she was gone. He could have gotten in his car and driven away. He could have, you know, talked to a different person at the party. Somebody could have coaxed him away. If she really was gone for 15 minutes. And what she's saying is true, anything could have happened to him during that short window. So she spent about 45 minutes looking for Randy, but she never saw him again. Similar to what John had said, she assumed that somebody else had given him a ride home. So she left. Though I do think. Not to say that she's suspicious, but I'm kind of trying to look at everybody With a magnifying glass. It's interesting to me that she spent 45 minutes looking for him. I get that going to the bathroom would have taken 15 minutes because there was probably a line which even Annie herself had said she saw Randy in the line for the bathroom at one point in the evening. But for you to assume that somebody else took him home but you spent 45 minutes looking for him, that's kind of a lot of time.

[Heath]

Yeah, but I can see it from the perspective of, you know, if they're decent friends, and maybe she had already kind of mentioned to Randy, hey, I can give you a ride home. I can tell. Take you home. Like, maybe she's just trying to be loyal to what she said.

[Daphne]

But it's just interesting to me. I mean, I get again, as well that she has theories, but she's the one saying, yeah, I think he could have been on GHB or he could have been drugged, and that she also said that Randy's new girlfriend, Teresa, had connections to the local drug trade and wondered if Randy had gotten mixed up in it.

[Heath]

So it's like, is Leanne just kind of pointing fingers elsewhere as, like, a deflection, or is she really concerned and she just really doesn't know and she's trying to come up with theories herself?

[Daphne]

It's impossible to say, I'm sorry, Leanne, but, you know, gotta wonder.

[Heath]

But Leann's theory would go hand in hand with one particular rumor, which was that Randy's death was drug related, either an overdose or possibly a confrontation with someone over the local drug trade. One tip alleged that he was removed from the party in the trunk of his own car and possibly even taken across state lines, because, of course, nearby Kansas City sits right on the border of Kansas and Missouri, and then also Iowa and Nebraska are close, too. So many think that he may have overdosed by accident, since he wasn't used to taking substances, and that party attendees panicked and possibly disposed of his body, not wanting to face legal ramifications. But the question remains, what the hell would they have done with Alberta's car?

[Daphne]

This makes me think of Psycho. When Norman Bates hides Marion's car and he tries to, you know, drown it. Yeah, sink it, I guess, in that little river. And then they. They dredge it up at the end. So it's like, people do this. They have done this before. We have seen many searches occur where a car is found at the bottom of a lake or a river.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Daphne]

This is not impossible. Or.

[Heath]

What's that? What's that? Other movie that came out x, it was 824.

[Daphne]

Yeah. Did they put the.

[Heath]

Yeah, there's like a, there's like an alligator like swamp pond and they push a car into that.

[Daphne]

My God. I don't remember that part.

[Heath]

Yeah, I remember the alligator but I get the, I get the psycho reference as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Daphne]

I mean it's done. People do it.

[Heath]

Yeah, people have done it for sure. Well, one name that has been synonymous with Randy's case since the very beginning is Steve Dougherty who was an acquaintance of Randy's who was a few years older than he was. Because before anybody actually knew that Randy was missing. And while Alberta was still in front of the house faced with this terrifying realization that her son never made it home, she recalls that Steve was driving by their home at a slow pace of about 10, 10 miles or 16 kilometers per hour and that he seemed to be watching them, maybe even possibly looking for a certain reaction.

[Daphne]

That's pretty weird.

[Heath]

I mean aside from the fact that he was driving 10 miles per hour on a street that was posted at a speed limit of 55 mph or 88 km. She found it really strange that he would be passing by before 7 o' clock that morning. Like what are you doing?

[Daphne]

I got to agree with her there,

[Heath]

you know because it's like if, if Randy had already been, if people already knew that Randy was missing it would make a little more sense. Maybe you're curious because you're, you know Randy and you want to drive by to see what the commotion is. But nobody really knew that Randy was missing by that point.

[Daphne]

No. Alberta herself had just found out. She hadn't even gone to the Irwin's house yet. They did that right after the she saw Steve. But another name that has come up frequently in Alberta and Harold's investigative efforts is Dan Flanagan who was one of the few neighbors of the Irwins at the time the party took place. 17 year old Randy actually parked his car on 37 year old Dan's property and walked over to the Irwins property to attend the party. Remember these are larger pieces of land out in the country. We can imagine if there are upwards of 150 people there are a lot of cars parked all along that road.

[Heath]

Yeah. And I imagine that if you park on somebody's property that is not where the party is being held that would probably piss somebody off.

[Daphne]

So one possible explanation that the leeches were tipped off about was that Randy and Dan ended the night in a confrontation that moved inside Dan's home after Randy Went back to Dan's, someone he did not know, to get his mom's car and leave. Randy then apparently flipped over a table containing drugs that Dan either wanted to use or sell. And Dan was so irate at this that he supposedly got into a physical altercation with Randy, killing him and driving him across state lines into Missouri to dispose of the car and his body.

[Heath]

Okay, this is kind of feels like a wild theory only because he would probably have to have help because how are you gonna drive Randy's mom's car across state lines and then how are you gonna get back?

[Daphne]

True.

[Heath]

You know, so there had to be somebody else involved that helped him do this. Not saying that that's not possible, But I wonder where this like theory or rumor came from.

[Daphne]

I don't know. This is a tip that the family received. And this is one of those rumors that was circulating, Obviously specific enough to know about the table being flipped over and what Dan did with his body and where he put it. So it's like. Yeah, it's pretty specific.

[Heath]

That's what I was gonna say. It's not just like, oh, I think, you know, because Randy parked on Dan's property, Dan probably did something. It's like, no, this happened. Randy flipped a table with drugs on it and Dan got pissed. And then they got in a. And it's like very specific.

[Daphne]

Yeah. And actually giving potential credence to this story was the fact that in 2018, Dan killed his girlfriend. So on April 3, 2018, almost 30 years to the day since Randy disappeared, 67 year old Dan got into an aggressive verbal argument with his live in girlfriend, 61 year old Constance Perryman. And out of frustration, he pulled his gun on Constance, shooting her in the arm. But one bullet actually entered under her arm and struck her heart, causing her to bleed out and pass away fairly quickly. A tenant of Dan's who rented the trailer on his property recalls Dan standing over constantly demanding get up after shooting her. In the end, Dan pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. And in 2022, he was sentenced to just four years and 11 months in prison. But even more suspicious was something that Dan said in his confession. According to the Leavenworth Times, Flanagan reportedly said that this was the first. The first time he had become enraged in 30 years.

[Heath]

Oh, 30 years, you say?

[Daphne]

Very specific. The quote continues. He was asked if the experience of the last time he had been in a rage was the same as the recent incident. Flanagan reportedly said he had not killed anyone the last time he was in a rage. Which of Course, he's not going to admit, yeah, actually, I did. I did kill somebody the last time I was this enraged. But he did say 30 years, which just stuck out a little bit.

[Heath]

Yeah, it feels like. Almost like a little crumb.

[Daphne]

But Dan has maintained his innocence in the case of Randy's disappearance and even spoke with the leeches and assured them that he would pass along any pertinent information that he came across. But just so everyone knows, it took two years for police to interview Dan in Randy's case. So they didn't search his property. They didn't go there right after Randy went missing.

[Heath]

Lost some very valuable time.

[Daphne]

Very much so.

[Heath]

Well, going back a bit for a sec, to two years after Randy went missing back in 1990, a man came forward to law enforcement alleging that he had seen Randy's body himself and that it had been hung in a cave.

[Daphne]

Nightmare fuel.

[Heath]

Very, very weird. He also said that inside these caves were depictions of pentagrams and witchcraft symbolism, including one shocking picture which featured a pigeon with a cross in its rear end. But weirdly, this went hand in hand with rampant rumors that Randy was a sacrifice for a satanic cult or ritual which supposedly involved dozens of local teens and young adults, including many of the party attendees. Now, this same witness alleged to have seen these people wearing robes in what he believed was the performance of human sacrifice. And it's pretty wild because this man even passed, like, multiple polygraph examinations and seemed to truly believe the story that he was telling, as though it was fully true. However, he also admitted to having been using drugs when he supposedly spotted Randy's body and then left town soon after offering up his testimony. It's also worth noting that 1988 was kind of the height of the satanic panic. So this account may have been nothing more than, like, drug induced paranoia. Now, for years, Randy's parents would receive tips from locals, as well as Randy's friends and acquaintances or party attendees, and they passed each one off to the Leavenworth county sheriff's office. Though they're pretty doubtful that each tip was investigated with enough care to rule it out or to pursue it as a possibility. They're like, I don't think, really think the police did their due diligence here,

[Daphne]

which is devastating that they are doing their own investigation at all, but that they're like, hey, we heard this. Will you look into it? And they don't even have the faith and the belief and the confidence that they're doing their job.

[Heath]

Yeah, I mean, it's pretty sad when you feel like, just disenfranchised by the whole process, you know? Within weeks of Randy's disappearance, the leeches hired a private investigator, but they didn't get much farther than what they had on their own at that point. For years, Alberta stated her belief that Randy and his car entered a body of water and hoped that he and the car would just eventually be found. But she, along with many other locals, have noted that the area was experiencing a pretty heavy drought at the time. And they noted that none of the waterways in the vicinity of where he disappeared from would have been deep enough to cover his vehicle.

[Daphne]

That's very interesting, because obviously one of the weirdest parts of this story is how the car could vanish. So despite that fact, Heath nearby waterways have been the first focus of the investigation for years. Just in case.

[Heath]

Yeah, because it's hard, you know, when you have a car as well as a person missing, because a lot of times when we cover cases, a person will go missing, and then they'll find the car on, like, some random road, and then that's kind of what they have to work off of. But with this case, they don't have either, so it makes it even tougher.

[Daphne]

Well, parts of both the kaw river and the Kansas river have been searched and turned up nothing. So Harold and a friend with a boat headed out on the Kansas river back in the early 90s and also checked out Stranger creek and bear Lake in nearby Bonner Springs via boat and sonar equipment. Sandy and Jean Raulston, who are renowned volunteers and diving enthusiasts from Idaho, who have managed to locate over 100 drowning victims, also came down to Kansas to assist the leeches. They made use of their underwater camera and their sonar, but the frigid weather kind of foiled their plans. Ground penetrating radar has also been used in an attempt to locate possible remains. And back in 1988, obviously the year that Randy went missing, a friend of Alberta and Harold's even offered up their plane to conduct flyovers of the area in hopes of spotting the missing car from above.

[Heath]

Yeah, because they're not just, like. They're not just considering the fact that the car may be in a body of water. They're also like, could it be hidden amongst, like, some bushes or trees or something?

[Daphne]

And that's part of why this case is so weird. There are so many searches being done and so many different methods. So many different people are out there looking, even though it is rural, and they're not finding anything in the air, on the ground, or underwater.

[Heath]

And I will say also, Kansas is Not known to be a mountainous area. It's fairly flat.

[Daphne]

Yeah. This isn't Oregon.

[Heath]

Yeah. So you would imagine that if they're doing flyovers it would be easier to see things from the air.

[Daphne]

Well, in recent years, drones have circled the area for the same purpose and still there's been no sign of the Dodge or of Randy. And this is why, or part of why it is so widely believed that something happened to him. Keith, you were kind of hinting at this earlier, but this story really makes me think back to the Kylie Rodney case that we covered back when it was happening and despite many people, including us for a second thinking that foul play could have been involved. Only 15 days after Kylie went missing, her body and her car were found submerged in Prosser Lake in California after Kylie had accidentally driven into this lake and become trapped after leaving a party because she was under the influence. But the difference in Randy's case is that so many waterways again have been searched and it's one thing to not find a body, but a car, I

[Heath]

mean, yeah, it's, it's kind of crazy to think about, think in your mind how many cars are sitting at the bottom of a body of water because there's probably a lot. Yeah, you know, definitely. And that's why there's, there's different teams. Actually you're going to talk about one here in a second.

[Daphne]

That, talk about them right now.

[Heath]

Yeah, that, that go out and they, they, these vehicles.

[Daphne]

Right. Which is amazing because in the case of Kylie, friends of Alberta and Harold's reached out to Adventures With Purpose who took an interest in the case and came out to the area twice starting in October of 2020. And like you're saying Heath, these types of teams are so popular because many things are buried underwater. And so we've talked about Adventures With Purpose so many times on this show. So according to Alberta, they cleared over a dozen areas of interest and subsequently released a multi part series on YouTube detailing their search and their findings in Randy's case. Well, strangely In August of 2021, Jared Lisik, who is the co founder of Adventures with Purpose, shared that they would be declining to return to the area. Writing in an email. We've had a lot of strange happenings and even some threats in a few cases this past year that our team has made the tough decision to step away from all missing persons cases where foul play might be involved. While I'd love to help Alberta and all families in need, we do have to consider our family's safety, well being and comfortable and he unfortunately didn't feel like he could elaborate exactly what or whom in particular was making him feel unsafe. But as many of us know, Jared was accused of two rapes that took place in 1992. So it could just have to do with that. For those who don't know, basically in Utah, Jared allegedly raped a 9 year old girl when he was 16 years old. So Jared was arrested in 2023 and has yet to see a trial. But in 2024 his trial dates were quietly removed from the Utah state court's website. So that kind of points to the case having been settled out of court. But I don't know, it could have been about that he was being threatened because people were kind of coming on to what he had done or what he was accused of doing. Or maybe somebody involved in Randy's case specifically threatened them because they got too close.

[Heath]

Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure. I think probably it does have to do with the situation in Utah. But yeah, it really does not give a good name to Adventures With Purpose because of him being the co founder. But I really do hope because they do, they do incredible work, they do actually go out there and they have found missing loved ones for people.

[Daphne]

So I mean they found Kylie, Rodney.

[Heath]

Yeah. So we can really only just like wonder what happened with that in Randy's case. But they actually weren't the only organization to search because Echo Divers, which is a Missouri based dive and recovery team, has also investigated the case. Just like Adventures With Purpose, Echo Divers held multi day searches in the area and thus far have found no sign of either Randy or his mother's vehicle. A number of cadaver dogs have also been put to work on the case as well and were brought to almost three dozen locations where Randy was known to have been on the last night that he was seen or where he was suspected of having been taken. But unfortunately none of their indications led to a body. Sadly, Randy's father Harold struggled with his health for years and he actually passed away on January 28, 2021 at the age of 79. So in his honor, Alberta has kept up the search for their son. To this day, gatherings are still being held in Lynwood to raise awareness about Randy's disappearance and in hopes of reaching a conclusion. The Leavenworth County Sheriff's Office has maintained that Randy's case is still in active investigation, though Alberta kinda doubts it. So Mark Rokusek and Joel Langer, two retired police detectives, have since joined forces with Alberta to pursue new information about Randy's disappearance. As well as his whereabouts, and they've maintained that the case is solvable. In October of 2025, Echo Divers announced that they had located a car in the nine mile creek, which is north of where he lived, but it has not yet been connected to Randy's disappearance.

[Daphne]

Randy was 6ft 2 inches tall and had blue eyes and brown hair. He was last seen wearing a blue t shirt, jeans, and white tennis shoes, and driving his mom's 1985 Dodge 600, which was a gray four door with the license plate number LVJ8721. This year marks 36 years since he vanished, and a $5,000 reward remains. If you have any information about the disappearance of Randy Leach, please call the Leavenworth county Sheriff's office at 913-682-5724 or the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-KSCRIME foreign. Thank you so much, everybody for listening to this episode of going west.

[Heath]

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. We're gonna post his missing poster, so if you'd like, please share that missing poster. Also, if you want to see photos of Randy and everybody else involved in Randy's case, head on over to our socials. We're on instagram at goingwest podcast. We're on TikTok tok as well as Facebook.

[Daphne]

It's so hard when there's so many theories and none that feel particularly more concrete than another. Yeah. To really know what happened. But I think the fact that there are multiple specific people named in this case, it's just I really do believe that something was done to him. I think the fact that there. They have searched so many waterways, you know, because if he was impaired and he got into his car and started driving and he got into an accident during the short drive to his home, it probably would have happened sooner rather than later. And they searched the whole area again, underwater, ground, air. So I think it seems likely that somebody did drive him in his car over state lines or somewhere outside of the search vicinity.

[Heath]

Man, it's just like you'd really love to find that dodge. You'd really love to find that car. Just to kind of glean a little bit more information to get something somewhat closer to finding Randy.

[Daphne]

It would. It would tell us so much because if he wasn't in the car and there was no proof that he was in the car when it went underwater or when it went wherever it was, like, that would help so much. So I really hope that they can find his vehicle. And then, of course, him. So thank you so much, everybody, for tuning in again. Big shout out to Addison, Nicole, Maddie, and Megan for putting this one on our radar.

[Heath]

So with that, we will see you guys on Friday. All right, guys, so for everybody out

[Daphne]

there in the world, don't be a strange. Sa.

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