Leach investigation continues

KBI, sheriff's officers follow leads in 15-year-old disappearance

? Investigators searching for answers in the nearly 15-year-old disappearance of a Linwood teenager still have numerous leads to check, they said Monday.

Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents and Leavenworth County Sheriff’s officers have about 80 leads they want to follow in their effort to determine what happened to Randy Leach, who was 17 at the time he disappeared.

A team of 12 KBI and sheriff’s officers met Monday morning and agreed to continue working full-time on the investigation, Undersheriff Dave Zoellner said.

About 70 leads have been checked since the team began a renewed investigation in early December.

“I think we are finding out what things are factual and what things are not,” Zoellner said.

Leach was last seen the night of April 15, 1988, at a party about five miles from his Linwood home.

Neither he nor the gray 1985 Dodge 600 car he was driving have been seen since. Investigators have said they think Leach may have been slain.

Anyone with information that might help the investigation into Randy Leach’s 1988 disappearance is asked to call the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIME. The governor has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest or conviction.

“We haven’t set a time frame (for completing the investigation),” said Bill Delaney, KBI agent in charge of the Kansas City area office. “We’ve still got a lot of things to do.”

Investigators have recently interviewed more than 50 people in connection with the case. Many of them also were interviewed during earlier investigations.

“We’ll still check out anything that comes along,” Delaney said.

Neither Delaney nor Zoellner would speculate whether they are any closer to solving Leach’s disappearance.