In the spring of 1978, a sense of unease settled over a family in Oklahoma City when 48-year-old Kenneth Henry Sumner vanished without a trace. On April 24th, Kenneth, a man known for his strawberry blond hair and a playful nature, made a trip from his home to a ranch he and his wife owned in Gerty, a rural area in Hughes County where they raised horses and cattle. That afternoon, at approximately 2:00 p.m., he stopped to visit a female friend for a short while.
Before he departed, he made a comment that, in hindsight, would be chilling: 'This is the last time you will ever see me.' At the time, given his reputation as a prankster, his friend did not take the statement seriously. Kenneth then left, and was never seen or heard from again. Also missing was his brown 1975 Ford F-150 pickup truck and two guns he was known to keep inside it.
Investigators were left with few leads in the early days of the search for Kenneth. One avenue of investigation considered a local dispute Sumner had with some neighbors regarding a fence. However, a more sinister theory soon emerged, casting a dark shadow over the case. Just one day before Kenneth disappeared, two convicts, Claude Eugene Dennis and Michael Charles Lancaster, escaped from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Dennis was serving a 50-year sentence for a triple murder, while Lancaster was serving 25 years for armed robbery. After their escape, the pair broke into a nearby prison guard's home, stealing food, guns, and a yellow Datsun. This set off a multi-state crime spree that would end in the deaths of eight people, including three state troopers, before Dennis and Lancaster were killed in a shootout with police.
The connection to Kenneth's case came into focus about a month after the deadly crime spree ended. The stolen yellow Datsun was discovered abandoned in a densely wooded area behind a barn in Gerty, not far from Kenneth Sumner's ranch. This discovery led to the strong possibility that Dennis and Lancaster had encountered Kenneth on the day he vanished. A prevailing theory is that the escaped inmates abducted Kenneth, stole his pickup truck, and used it to travel to Texas where they committed their next murder. It's been speculated that when Kenneth told his friend she would never see him again, he may have been under duress, possibly trying to send a desperate message with his captors nearby. Despite these strong circumstantial links, no direct evidence has ever been found to definitively connect Dennis and Lancaster to Kenneth's disappearance. In 2007, with no new leads and the passage of many years, Kenneth Henry Sumner was declared legally dead. His case remains an unsolved and painful mystery for his family, a story that began with a trip to a quiet ranch and ended with an ominous farewell.Last Seen: Apr 24, 1978
