The last time 51-year-old Richard Strong’s wife spoke to him was at around 3:00 pm on February 18, 2011. He told her he was going to drop a friend off at their home. Details on what happened between the last time she spoke with him and the exact time he was next seen are virtually non-existent as far as what I was able to find online.
Authorities said later that night, he was on a strip mine above Hwy 899 in Raven, Kentucky with some friends having drinks. I’m imagining the whole bonfire scenario that happens so often around this area. That’s not really important though… Witnesses say that the last time they saw Richard was after he had gotten into an altercation with someone and he walked off.
Police found his car a couple of miles up another trail just past mile marker 9 on Hwy 899, but there was no sign of Richard.
His wife states that he has diabetes, and hadn’t taken his medication since that morning.
Was there more to the story than just a simple altercation? Or did Richard wander off into the darkness and succumb to his disease? There’s no mention of what type of diabetes he had. Medication is taken for both Type 1 and Type 2. Granted, if he did have Type 1 diabetes and he got lost in the darkness without his insulin, it doesn’t bode well. There were 2 other disappearances around the same time as Richard’s, within a close proximity. It was mentioned by someone on the Websleuths forum. Jerry Rowe went missing on January 29, 2011, from Magoffin County. Dillon Bryant on February 28, 2011, from Carter County. Both areas can be reached within an hour from the location where Richard vanished from. However, since then Jerry and Dillon have both been located. Both sadly were deceased. Jerry’s cause of death was inconclusive and Dillon was murdered, and his murderer has since been charged and sentenced. There doesn’t appear to have been any connections.
If you think you may have seen or heard anything related to Richard’s disappearance, please contact the Kentucky State Police at 606-435-6069.
His family deserves to know the truth.
NamUs
01/21/2021 – no updates available.
