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Search renewed for Kenton boy who vanished in 1980 Towson University students helping search Kincaid Lake Park Julia Fair Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
A scent that could be decades old renewed the search for Randy Lee Sellers, a Kenton County boy who vanished in 1980. Sellers attended the Kenton County Fair with friends back then. Kenton County Police had to drive the 17-yearold boy part of the way home after he got drunk at the fair but he never made it home. The decades that followed were fi lled with questions about what happened to Sellers. A group of 37 criminology and forensic chemistry students from Towson University hoped to answer some of those questions this week. The students began surveying Kincaid Lake Park June 2 for signs that Sellers' body was there. They looked for pieces of thick denim, rusted zippers and metal eyelets that would have come from his work boots he wore that night almost 40 years ago. Associate clinical professor Dana Kollmann said it was a needle in the haystack type of search. "We‘re not looking for bones, we’re not looking for a victim, we’re looking for someone’s son," said Kollmann. The search was renewed in an investigatory manner. A Kincaid Lake Park ranger still had
questions about the case and had time to review it during a slow winter season, according to Brian Jones, the Kenton County lead detective on the case. That's when the ranger recruited the Kentucky K-9 Search and Rescue Team nonprofi t team to survey an area of interest. In March 2018 the team's dogs picked up an alleged scent of a decaying human body, which, paired with other information Jones was reviewing, renewed the search for Sellers' body. The area where the scent was found matched statements that serial killer Donald Evans gave in 1994 claiming to have killed Sellers, Jones said. At the time, Evans was on death row for the murder of a 10-year-old Missouri girl. Evans produced a hand drawn map to show police where he had buried Sellers but no body was found when police follow it. That same map, oriented a diff erent way, matched where the scent was found and Evans' statements enough that Jones decided the new area needed to be searched. The police department gave Kollmann's students permission to search the identifi ed area after the K-9 nonprofi t group recommended her help after working with her previously. "My hope is that they keep this compassionate piece in mind," said Kollmann as she recounted their visit with Sellers parents before starting their search. The case will remain open and the search for Sellers will continue, said Kenton County Police Chief Spike Jones. He remembers growing up in Co-
Wanda Cotton in 1995, at her home outside of Burlington, Kentucky, holds a photo of her son Randy Lee Sellers. The teen disappeared in 1980. Donald Evans, a confessed serial killer, told police he killed the teen but refused to reveal the location. The search for Sellers' body has been revived. ENQUIRER FILE PHOTO
vington and hearing about the case. He was a freshman in high school when Sellers fi rst went missing. "When new information comes up, it brings new life into the investigation," he said.
Julia Fair is the new Northern Kentucky government reporter through the Report For America program. Do you know something she should know? Send her a note at jfair@enquirer.com and follow her on twitter at @JFair_Reports.
You’ve never seen the Roebling Suspension Bridge like this Blink Festival in October will put on a light show Carol Motsinger Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
Our singing bridge is getting a new tune. We got our fi rst look last week of what the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge will look – and sound – like during the Blink Festival Oct. 10-13. “We will focus on the most grand and predominant features of the bridge, including the anchorage, gateway towers, arches and spires,” said Steve McGowan, owner and partner of Brave Berlin, in a news release. “It is our goal to illuminate the river in a magic glimmer of color and refl ection.” Brave Berlin is one of the producers of this art and light festival, set to transform 30 city blocks and the Ohio River. Free and open to the public, the October event features large-scale projection mapping, murals, interactive light sculptures and more live entertainment.
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This is a rendering of what the Roebling Bridge will look like during Blink, an art and light festival that returns to Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky in October. PROVIDED
Blink’s inaugural event in 2017 attracted some one million visitors, now considered the largest gathering ever in Downtown and Over-the-Rhine. It’s also the only event of its kind in the United States. This year’s event is already poised to be bigger. It’s about 20 blocks larger and will expand into Northern Kentucky, via the Roebling suspension bridge, for the fi rst time. (It will stretch from Findlay
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Market to Covington.) The massive collaboration behind the scenes is also expanding in 2019. Greater Cincinnati Foundation is supporting the suspension bridge installation. (Blink is produced by The Agar, ArtWorks, Brave Berlin, the Carol Ann and Ralph V Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.) The suspension bridge’s Blink look
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will be a new phase in its storied history. Since opening to the public Jan. 1, 1867, the bridge’s appearance has altered, of course. There have been many million-dollar enhancements, starting in 1895 with new trusses. That’s also when folks added that blue coat of paint, covering the original reddish brown hue. And the origin of the singing bridge nickname? The Roebling suspension bridge earned that musical moniker, one earned when we drive over it today, quite recently. The Commonwealth of Kentucky installed a metal deck in 1955. The suspension bridge has also been showing its age. In April, the John A. Roebling Bridge closed to vehicular traffi c “until further notice” after softball-sized chunks of rock fell from one of the bridge’s towers. Pedestrian traffi c, however, is still allowed on the bridge. Blink offi cials “will make any needed adjustments as we learn the status of work on the bridge,” said Rich Walburg, communications director of Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.
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