Benjamin James Parker was 34 and working as a self-employed wrecker driver and junk dealer when he disappeared from Clay County, Florida, in the summer of 1980. He lived in Lakeland and worked in Jacksonville; all activity on his driver’s license, Social Security number, and other accounts stopped in mid-1980. He was never officially reported missing and his family was told for decades that he had left them.

In 2005, in the months before her death, Parker’s wife told their three children that he had not abandoned the family but had been killed by her son-in-law, Kenneth Wayne Murwin, and buried on the family’s ten-acre property in Keystone Heights. After their mother died in 2006 the children reported that claim to police and authorities searched the property on Montana Trail but found no remains or physical evidence.

Officials later said they had an eyewitness and that Murwin admitted to the killing during questioning. In June 2009 Murwin was charged with first-degree murder; he was convicted of second-degree murder in 2010 and received a 20-year sentence. The body of Benjamin James Parker has never been recovered and foul play is suspected.

Anyone who knew Benjamin, his work locations, or activity in Clay County or Keystone Heights in 1980 is asked to share information that could help locate his remains or clarify what happened.