On the evening of April 15, 1987, seventeen-year-old Martha Leanne Green, known to her loved ones as Leanne, vanished from the side of a Tennessee highway, leaving behind a community in distress and a family heartbroken. That night, Leanne had just finished her shift as a hostess at a Holiday Inn in Dickson. Her twin brother, Lawson, had picked her up, and they were heading home to White Bluff when the car they were in ran out of gas on Highway 46.
A family of four, on their way home from a church service, stopped to offer assistance. Despite her brother's reassurances, Leanne felt scared and opted to stay with the disabled vehicle while Lawson went with the family to get fuel. When he returned a mere ten to fifteen minutes later, his sister was gone.
The scene of Leanne's disappearance offered few clues to what had transpired. Her purse and the car keys were found resting on the seat of the unlocked car, and there were no indications of a struggle. At the time she went missing, she was wearing a white sweatshirt, faded blue jeans, and white high-top sneakers. Authorities quickly determined that her case was a non-family abduction and did not believe she had run away, especially since she was eagerly anticipating her high school prom the very next day. Her pink prom dress and shoes were laid out on her bed at home, a poignant symbol of a future that was tragically stolen. The abrupt and mysterious nature of her disappearance left her family devastated, with her twin brother so deeply affected that he was unable to return to school for the remainder of the year.
In the years that followed, the investigation into Leanne's disappearance encountered numerous challenges and heart-wrenching dead ends. A man named Robert McKinley Richards, who was later imprisoned in Florida for the rape of two women, became a prime suspect. Under hypnosis, Richards allegedly confessed to killing Leanne and provided details about her that were not public knowledge. He even led investigators to several locations where he claimed to have buried her body, but extensive searches yielded no evidence. He later recanted his confession and was never formally charged in connection with her case before he was killed in prison. Despite the passage of time and the lack of definitive answers, the Dickson County Sheriff's Office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have kept the case open. The disappearance of Martha Leanne Green remains an unsolved mystery that continues to cast a long shadow over Dickson County.Last Seen: Apr 15, 1987
