DODGE CITY — For the past 25 years, authorities have puzzled over the fate of Chris Clark, a Minneola man who disappeared from south Dodge City.
But now, Ford County sheriff's investigators have information leading them to believe that Clark was the victim of foul play.
Clark was last seen on Jan. 12, 1985, after celebrating his 20th birthday at Stonewalls, a popular Dodge City bar. He left the bar shortly before closing time with two friends.
His friends drove him to the area near Minneola and Beeson roads, where he was supposed to meet a woman from the bar.
They dropped him off and drove away. Sometime that night, he vanished.
Six months later, someone found Clark's wallet — which still held his work ID and other documents — at a local salvage yard and turned it over to his family.
But efforts to track Clark down proved fruitless. Eight years after Clark vanished, his family went to court and had him legally declared dead.
Twenty-five years later, authorities still don't know who Clark was supposed to meet the night he disappeared. Nor has the person who found Clark's wallet contacted authorities.
But investigators have received new information about the case in the past two months.
Undersheriff James Lane said this week that the Sheriff's Office received a tip concerning Clark's disappearance from a confidential informant in mid-November, shortly after the Dodge City newspaper published a story about the case. That information, coupled with new interviews with possible witnesses, helped investigators track down a vehicle that may have been involved in the case.
Investigator Pat Williams said authorities collected possible evidence from the vehicle and sent it to the KBI lab in Great Bend for testing. Some of the collected material was sent to the FBI for additional testing.
Another possible break in the case came two or three weeks ago, when investigators received an anonymous letter that supported the information from the confidential informant. The letter bore a Jetmore postmark, but it was unclear whether the writer was from Jetmore.
Lane said investigators want to contact the writer in hopes that he or she can provide additional information about the case.
Lane and Williams said they will probably ask Ford County Attorney Terry Malone to consider opening an inquisition — much like a grand jury proceeding — into the case. They said they may discuss the case with him sometime next month.
This story was originally published January 27, 2010 12:00 AM.