In the winter of 1974, a young man named Edward 'Ed' Leroy Nichols vanished from the woods of northern Kentucky, leaving behind a mystery that would haunt his family and investigators for decades. On the morning of December 3rd, the 22-year-old left his parents' home in Florence to go deer hunting with a friend, David Stites. After stopping at a store for hunting socks, the pair headed to a wooded area known as Shady Nook Bottoms, near the Boone and Gallatin County line.
According to Stites, he and Nichols separated with a plan to meet back at their car later that afternoon. Stites reported to police that when he returned to the vehicle at the agreed-upon time, Nichols was nowhere to be found. After waiting for four hours, Stites contacted the authorities, initiating a search and a case that would remain cold for nearly fifty years.
In the initial stages of the investigation, there was speculation that Nichols may have disappeared voluntarily. He was on probation for a drug charge at the time and had missed a meeting with his probation officer, which resulted in a warrant for his arrest. His hunting companion, David Stites, was fined for hunting out of season. Early on, police believed Nichols might be avoiding them, especially after two other hunters reported seeing a man they identified as Nichols, who fled from them. However, as days turned into years with no contact, the theory that he had simply run away became less plausible to his family and eventually to law enforcement. His sisters always maintained that he would not have voluntarily left and that they immediately felt something was wrong. The case eventually transitioned from a missing person investigation to a suspected homicide, though without Nichols' body, progress was stalled for many years.
Decades after his disappearance, new information brought a significant break in the long-stagnant case. In 2021, a family member of David Stites, the friend who had been with Nichols on the day he vanished, came forward with a story that changed the course of the investigation. According to this new witness, Stites had confided that another man in their hunting party, Bobby Franxman, was responsible for Nichols' death. The account detailed that Franxman and Nichols had gotten into an argument over a woman, which escalated to Franxman shooting Nichols in the face. Franxman then allegedly forced Stites to bury Nichols' body. This revelation led investigators to name Bobby Franxman, who died in 2007, as the primary suspect in the murder of Ed Nichols. Tragically, David Stites took his own life in 2022, the day before he was scheduled to testify before a grand jury. While a suspect has been identified, prosecutors cannot press charges against the deceased Franxman, and the remains of Edward Nichols have never been found, leaving his family with partial answers but still without the closure of laying him to rest. The case stands as a somber narrative of a young man who went hunting one morning and never came home, his disappearance remaining a painful void for his loved ones for over half a century until new testimony finally shed light on his probable final moments.Last Seen: Dec 3, 1974
