In the late summer of 1980, just two weeks before he would have turned eighteen, Randy Lee Sellers vanished from the small community of Visalia, Kentucky. On the evening of August 16th, Randy attended the Kenton County Fair with friends. Reports from that night indicate that he became intoxicated after consuming alcohol and marijuana, leading to a physical altercation. Law enforcement officers who were providing security at the fair took the seventeen-year-old into custody for public intoxication and disorderly conduct. The officers, noting he was a minor, decided to drive him home instead of to the police station. This would be the last time Randy Sellers was officially seen.
According to the two Kenton County Police officers involved, the drive to Randy's home was not a smooth one. They stated that Randy became aggressive and refused to provide them with his address. As a result, the officers claimed they dropped him off near a railway overpass, approximately a mile from his residence. However, inconsistencies later emerged in the officers' accounts of that night, including the exact time and location of the drop-off and the degree of Randy's intoxication. When he failed to return home, his family reported him missing the following day, sparking an investigation that would span decades. Initial searches of the nearby Licking River, based on the belief he may have drowned, yielded no clues. The family's grief was compounded a decade later when Randy's younger brother, who was thirteen at the time of the disappearance, tragically took his own life.
Over the years, the investigation into Randy's disappearance has explored various leads without a definitive resolution. In the early 1990s, a convicted serial killer named Donald Leroy Evans confessed to murdering Randy. Evans claimed he had picked Randy up while he was hitchhiking, drove him to Kincaid Lake State Park, shot him, and buried him in a shallow grave. He even provided a map to the supposed burial site. Despite searches of the area, both at the time of the confession and again years later, no evidence was ever found to substantiate his claim. The original officers involved in Randy's last known moments have also faced scrutiny due to the conflicting details in their stories. One officer reportedly admitted his partner had struck Randy but later retracted the statement. The Sellers family eventually filed a lawsuit against Kenton County, alleging the police had recklessly endangered their son, which resulted in a settlement. Despite the passage of time and the various theories—from accidental drowning to foul play involving the police or a serial killer—the case of Randy Lee Sellers remains an unsolved and deeply felt mystery in the community of Visalia.
Last Seen: Aug 16, 1980
