In January 2018, 29-year-old Carlton Lamaar Edmondson of Morganton, North Carolina, became the focus of a multi-jurisdictional investigation after his family received a ransom call demanding $700 for his safe return. Valdese Police Department and the Burke County Sheriff’s Office treated the report as a kidnapping and followed leads that took investigators from Boone, North Carolina, into Johnson County, Tennessee.

Investigators say Robert Leroy Littleton, III told them Edmondson had been taken to a remote area in Tennessee, assaulted and abandoned. Cellphone video of the assault was recovered, and authorities charged six people in connection with Edmondson’s disappearance and murder, including Littleton, his wife Leigh Katherine Littleton, Valerie Ann Dollar and Michael Stacey-James May. Searches with K9 units and drones covered hundreds of acres in Johnson County but Edmondson’s body has not been found.

Several defendants have since been convicted on charges including first-degree murder, kidnapping and especially aggravated kidnapping, and received lengthy sentences. The absence of Edmondson’s remains leaves his family without full closure. If anyone knew Carlton, saw him in January 2018, or has information about where he might be, please come forward.