NY Times: “He vanished in 1980, the year before the disappearance of 6-year-old Adam Walsh in Florida would change the way America looked at missing children. Adam’s father, John Walsh, became a household name and a beacon for parents like Mrs. Cotton, who felt alone and ignored by the authorities.
…
From the morning his parents reported Randy missing, the police seemed to be two steps behind. Yet, the last people known to have seen him alive were two officers who were supposed to take Randy home after he got drunk at the fair.
In the years that followed, the investigation would take vertiginous twists and turns. There was a neighbor who turned out to be a child molester and a drifter who professed to be a serial killer, a psychic nurse who said she knew where Randy’s body was buried and a Naval officer who claimed he could detect magnetic currents surrounding corpses. About once a decade, a new detective has reopened the file to pursue a new lead.
Yet, no trace of Randy has ever been found, and no one has ever managed to quiet the suspicions Mrs. Cotton has about the officers who were with Randy that night.”