Seventeen-year-old Norman Ladner left his family’s 122-acre farm near Picayune, Pearl River County, Mississippi, one late summer evening in 1989 to go hunting and did not return by his usual 7:30 p.m. His father found him on the ground, cold, with a single gunshot wound to the head. The coroner initially thought the death might be accidental, but the official ruling was suicide based on a close-contact wound to Norman’s right temple.

The Ladner family strongly disagreed with that finding. They pointed to Norman’s described happy, outgoing nature; the disappearance of his wallet containing $140; a one-and-a-quarter-inch cut on the crown of his head noted at autopsy; and a bullet the parents later recovered from the dirt near where his head had rested, which they said looked different from rounds used in Norman’s gun and bore what appeared to be dried blood and a hair. They also found a homemade electronic device nearby that a former DEA agent suggested could be a signaling device for drug air drops, raising the possibility Norman encountered criminal activity.

Authorities maintained the suicide ruling and did not change it. No arrests have been made and no suspects were officially named. Does anyone with knowledge of the Picayune area in 1989 or the Ladner family’s search have information that could shed light on what happened?