Clyde Branum, 69, left Barbourville, Kentucky on March 12, 1988 with his 32-year-old son Louie for a scheduled eye appointment in Columbus. Days passed with no word, and a fisherman later found Louie’s body along the Cumberland River; Louie had two gunshot wounds to the chest and investigators treated his death as a homicide. Clyde was never found despite an extensive search. Family and detectives have long considered drowning a possible explanation for Clyde’s disappearance, but no remains or concrete evidence have been recovered to confirm that theory.

The sequence of events that led to Louie’s killing and Clyde’s vanishing remains unresolved. The Kentucky State Police Post 10 maintains the case file and the disappearance is filed in Harlan, Kentucky. If anyone has information about Clyde’s movements after March 12, 1988, or remembers seeing the two men in or around Columbus or along the Cumberland River, please come forward.