Larry Bernard Kelly was 39 when he vanished from his Spring Lake, North Carolina home in the summer of 1998. On July 15 he told family he was walking to a nearby store and left on foot, wearing a t-shirt, tennis shoes and a ball cap. He was a Black man about 5 feet 9 to 5 feet 11 inches tall, 150 to 160 pounds, with short curly black hair, brown eyes, small gold loop earrings and a gold-colored snake chain.

His body had several identifying marks: a scar above his eye extending into his eyebrow, a scar on his forehead, numerous other scars, a healed rib fracture and pierced ears. There was no sign of a struggle or any obvious disturbance at his residence, and no one recalled seeing anything unusual the day he disappeared. The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office opened a missing person case, and his information was later entered into NamUs in March 2010. DNA samples from his children are on file with the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification to help match any unidentified remains.

The disappearance remains an open cold case. Does anyone remember seeing Larry in the Spring Lake area around July 15, 1998, or have information that could help clarify his last known movements?