Willard Karmon Rusty Branch Jr was 17 and known to hitchhike when he vanished in November 1972 while trying to make his way back to Houston, Texas. His disappearance devastated the family; his father, a Houston police officer, suffered a fatal heart attack during the search. For months Branch’s fate was unknown amid a wave of missing young men in the area.

A breakthrough came on August 8, 1973, after 17-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley shot and killed Dean Corll and then confessed. Henley and David Owen Brooks implicated Corll in the abduction, torture and murder of numerous teenage boys and young men. Investigators uncovered a mass grave in a rented boat shed in Southwest Houston; Branch’s remains were among those recovered, and he was later formally identified in July 1985.

Henley and Brooks were arrested and convicted for their roles; Corll died during Henley’s confrontation. Some researchers raised a question in 2025 suggesting Branch’s remains may have been misidentified. Does anyone have verifiable information about Branch’s life, last known movements, or contacts in 1972?