In the early morning hours of Memorial Day weekend in 1976, eighteen-year-old Andy Joe Lepley arrived for his shift at the Texaco gas station situated at the intersection of I-25 and Highway 165 in Crow Junction, a part of Pueblo County, Colorado. He opened the station between 6:15 and 6:30 AM, a routine task for the young man who had been a part-time employee for two years.
Shortly after opening, he walked over to the adjoining restaurant to deliver a newspaper, where he shared a lighthearted moment with a waitress. By 6:45 AM, he was seen standing under the gas station's canopy near the pumps. This would be the last confirmed sighting of Andy. Not long after, customers began to arrive, only to find the station completely deserted.
The unattended station quickly raised concerns, and the police were summoned. Upon their arrival with the station manager, they found Andy's 1967 pickup truck parked in the lot, undisturbed, with the keys still in the ignition. The scene inside the gas station, however, suggested a struggle or a hurried departure. The microphone for his CB radio had been forcibly ripped out, and the cash register was empty, with somewhere between $50 and $100 missing. Despite the high-traffic location and it being a holiday weekend, no one reported seeing or hearing anything out of the ordinary. His mother, Betty Lepley, has long held the belief that her son may have interrupted the robbery and was abducted after he attempted to call for help.
In the days that followed Andy's disappearance, a massive search effort was launched. Volunteers, the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office, and the FBI scoured the area on foot, horseback, and with four-wheelers, while a helicopter searched from above. Investigators even consulted with local psychics. Through hypnosis, two waitresses from the restaurant next to the Texaco provided a description of a potential suspect. They described a middle-aged white male, about 5'11' and 175 pounds, with graying sandy-colored hair and blue eyes. He was reportedly seen leaving the Texaco around 7:00 AM in a 'flashy' late-model, two-door car, possibly a silver or white Pontiac Grand Prix with maroon trim. He was also towing a small, handmade plywood trailer covered with a tarp and had mentioned he was on his way to Wyoming. Years later, suspicion would fall on a local college professor after his own wife vanished just four days before Andy did. The remains of the professor's first wife were found four years later, and his second wife died under suspicious circumstances. The professor, who later died by suicide, was considered a person of interest by a group of retired FBI agents who reviewed the case in 2005.
At the time he went missing, Andy was on the cusp of a bright future. A senior at Rye High School, he was just days away from graduation. He was an honor student, a former class president, and a well-rounded athlete who participated in pole-vaulting, football, and basketball. He had been studying motorcycle mechanics in a vocational program and had plans to work for his father as a plumber's apprentice over the summer before enlisting in the Air Force and eventually attending Adams State College. A reward for information leading to his safe return was quickly established, starting with community donations and eventually growing to $10,000. Despite the extensive investigation, the passage of decades, and the lingering suspicions, the case of Andy Joe Lepley's disappearance remains unsolved, with foul play strongly suspected. The promising young man who vanished from his workplace one spring morning has never been found, leaving his family and community with unanswered questions.Last Seen: May 30, 1976
