Lawrence Journal-World 11-16-14

Page 1

Holiday Arts Guide

Our special seasonal calendar of events. Arts & Entertainment, page 1C

L A W R E NC E

Journal-World ®

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SUNDAY • NOVEMBER 16 • 2014

STILL IN THE DARK

LJWorld.com

School task force hopes for budget ruling soon

Almost three decades after Randy Leach’s disappearance, his grieving parents are no closer to knowing what really happened to their boy

By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock

A special task force established by the 2014 Kansas Legislature plans to finalize a report next month suggesting ways public schools could be more efficient with the money they receive from the state. But while members of that group engaged in sharp debate Friday over issues affecting relatively small sums of money, many officials are anxiously awaiting a court ruling that could order the Legislature to add hundreds of millions of SCHOOLS dollars in education spending. The case still pending before a threejudge panel is the second — and possibly the largest — part of a school finance Please see BUDGET, page 2A

Lawhorn’s Lawrence Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

HAROLD AND ALBERTA LEACH, OF RURAL LINWOOD, have had 26 years of sleepless nights wondering what happened to their son, Randy, pictured in the framed photograph on the table. Randy, then a high school senior, disappeared in 1988, along with the family’s car, after attending a party. He would now be 44.

Law enforcement’s failure to unseal records, share leads in case deepens family’s grief By Karen Dillon Twitter: @karensdillon

For the first few years, Harold and Alberta Leach kept hoping their missing son, Randy, would come home. Twenty-six years have passed since the high school senior and the family car vanished from a graduation party, but the Linwood parents still want to find their only child. They’re desperate to know whether law enforcement left no stone unturned in the search for Randy, in part because they’ve felt for

years that investigators were secretive, refusing to keep them abreast of developments. But law enforcement agencies refuse to release the records, citing an ongoing investigation, even the broad outlines of which they decline to reveal. The Leaches’ desire for information is only stronger since they learned earlier this year that law enforcement, including the KBI and the FBI, had had a suspect in the 1990s who died in prison four years ago.

Randy Leach then and now

Low: 12

Today’s forecast, page 10A

Middle school a living reminder of our history

T Randy Leach, left, was 18 years old when he disappeared. The photo at right is an age-progression image provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children showing what Leach might look like now, at age 44.

Please see SCHOOL, page 6A

INSIDE Arts&Entertainment 1C-8C Events listings Books 6C Horoscope Classified 1D-8D Movies Deaths 2A Opinion

High: 29

clawhorn@ljworld.com

here are perks to being the principal of Lawrence’s Liberty Memorial Central Middle School. Having business cards the size of a Trapper Keeper to accommodate your school’s name perhaps is not one of them. But giving tours to other school district employees, now that is fun. They come in from other buildings spread throughout the district, and LMCMS (I’ll buy a vowel, please) Principal Jeff Harkin gladly shows them around. One place always gets featured on the tour: the balcony of the school’s auditorium. From that perch, you really get the sense

Please see LEACH, page 4A

Sunny, cold

Chad Lawhorn

2B, 4C-5C Puzzles 7D Sports 2C Television 9A

7C, 7D 1B-6B 10A, 2B

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Alleged rape

Vol.156/No.320 34 pages

Two men were arrested Saturday on suspicion of raping a woman in a dormitory at Haskell Indian Nations University. Page 3A

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