EL DORADO, Kan. (KSNW) — The Butler County Sheriff’s Office in Kansas has been searching an area in the southern portion of the county in connection to a missing persons case.
In May, the sheriff’s office asked for tips from the public in two cases: Frankie “Punkie” Harrod and Ricky L. Nelms.
Despite a body not being located, three people were tried and convicted for Harrod’s murder, with one of them still serving their prison sentence.
“He provided information to us recently, and as we were interviewing and talking with him, he revealed another individual that was missing from 1988,” Butler County Sheriff’s Detective Glenn Hopper said.
That individual was Nelms.
In early 1988, Nelms left his parents’ home in Lawrence County. He was headed to Wichita, Kansas where he had a job as a roofer. Investigators say he phoned home in February of that year and talked to his mother briefly, but that was the last time anyone ever heard from him.
After six months without a word from him, Nelms’ mother says she reported him missing to Alabama authorities.
During an interview in 2005, a Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office captain told News 19 that the person Nelms left for Wichita with was later found to be a relative of one of the suspects in Harrod’s disappearance and murder.
Hopper says the man currently in prison for Harrod’s death has been cooperating and told investigators he was responsible for burying Harrod and Nelms.
After asking for help from the public last month, Hopper says they have been receiving tips from the public daily.
One of the tips they’re following up on involves Nelms’s body, which led investigators to search a hedgerow Tuesday in southern Butler County. The Sedgwick County Emergency Management K9 Search and Rescue Team is assisting in the search of the area.
“We’re not really pursuing any angle of prosecution for somebody that’s already been convicted,” Hopper said. “We’re just looking for the information to just tell us where the remains are so we can get them back to their loved ones.”
If you have any information that could assist investigators, call 316-322-8817 or 866-484-5924 or by email at crimetips@bucoks.com.
