Kansas sheriff asks for help finding remains of missing men

EL DORADO, Kan. (KSNW) — The Butler County Sheriff's Office is hoping the public can lead them to the bodies of two men who have been missing for decades.

In July 1997, the Butler County Sheriff's Office began investigating the disappearance of Franklin “Punkie” Harrod, and his wife, Kelly Harrod, reported him missing. Investigators eventually uncovered a murder-for-hire plot involving Kelly and two others.

All three were sentenced to prison, but Franklin's body was never found. Kelly and one of his accomplices served their sentences and were released, while the third person, suspected of committing the act of murder, remains in prison.

During the investigation into Franklin's disappearance, detectives learned that the disappearance of a second man nearly a decade earlier was related.

Ricky L. Nelms, originally from Trinity in northwest Alabama, had moved to the Wichita area to work as a roofer. His family last saw him in February 1988, when he left with an old friend to return to Wichita.

After six months without a word from him, Nelms' mother reported him missing to authorities in Alabama. His disappearance remains unsolved.

Fast forward to 2005, when the investigation into Franklin's disappearance led to the arrest of his wife and two accomplices. Our sister station WHNT in Huntsville, Alabama, reports that the investigator assigned to Nelms' disappearance learned that the friend he was last seen with while returning to Wichita in 1988 was a relative of one of the suspects arrested in Franklin's disappearance and murder. in Butler County.

“At that point we started to investigate further and interviewed people who knew Mr. Nelms and tried to gather all the information we could,” Captain McWhorter said. “The information we were receiving was somewhat hearsay and rumor that he may have been killed while residing in Kansas.”

WHNT says that information led Kansas investigators to search for a possible Nelms burial site. However, when investigators went to search the area near Wichita, a shopping center, a new housing development had been built.

The Butler County Sheriff's Office believes the two men may be buried somewhere in Butler County. The department says Sheriff Monty Hughey is offering a substantial reward for information leading to the location of the bodies of Franklin and Nelms.

Tips can be submitted by phone at 316-322-8817 or 866-484-5924 and by email at [email protected].