In the summer of 1999, a young man named Anthony 'Tony' Dale Kennedy, aged 22, disappeared from his home in Hillsboro, Oregon. He was last seen on July 2nd of that year. On the day he vanished, he had mentioned to a friend that he was planning to go target shooting in the Pumpkin Ridge area. Concerned when he failed to show up for planned social events and didn't respond to calls, his friends and family reported him missing.
The initial missing person case, however, would soon take a more serious turn as details emerged. Sometime after his disappearance, his vehicle was found abandoned at an apartment complex within a mile of his home.
The investigation into Tony's disappearance quickly began to focus on his roommate, Kenneth Todd Gipson. Friends who searched their shared residence found several unsettling signs: Tony's pager and jeans had been left behind, his marijuana plants were dead, and his truck was gone. Suspicion mounted when Tony's distinctive galvanized toolbox was discovered inside Gipson's van. It was also alleged that Gipson, who was reportedly facing financial difficulties, knew that Tony was expecting a large sum of money related to marijuana sales on the day he went missing. Prosecutors would later claim that Gipson attempted to cover his tracks by asking people for alibis and altering the appearance of Tony's truck. Despite these suspicions and inconsistent statements from Gipson, the case went cold due to the lack of a body or new leads.
Years turned into more than a decade with no answers. The investigation was briefly reopened in 2004 but was suspended again. Then, in 2018, Hillsboro detectives took a fresh look at the cold case. A breakthrough came when a preserved paper towel from Tony's truck was forensically tested and found to have Gipson's blood on it. In 2021, a grand jury indicted Gipson on murder charges, and he was arrested in Tennessee. The subsequent trial in early 2025, however, ended in a hung jury, leading to a mistrial. The charges against Gipson were ultimately dropped, with prosecutors citing the passage of time, the death of key witnesses, and other evidentiary challenges as reasons they could not proceed. The defense argued that there was never enough evidence, pointing to the fact that Tony's body has never been found. The case of Anthony Kennedy, which began as a missing person report and evolved into a homicide investigation and a decades-later trial, remains unresolved, leaving his loved ones with unanswered questions.Last Seen: Jul 2, 1999
