Kelly Lynn Albright was born on May 17th, 1958, in Hutchinson, Reno County, Kansas. A bright and beloved twelve-year-old girl described by childhood friends as having “a beautiful smile” and a promising future, she lived with her mother, Roberta LeShure, and stepfather, Richard LeShure, in a home on East 10th Street in Hutchinson.
On the night of September 17th, 1970, Kelly disappeared from her family home under mysterious circumstances. Her parents were away visiting relatives that evening. Kelly shared a bedroom with her siblings. Around ten thirty p.m., she briefly woke her older brother to say she was going to the bathroom before he fell back asleep. By the time her parents returned—around twelve fifteen a.m. on September 18th—she was gone. There were no immediate signs of forced entry, adding to the enigma of how she was abducted from the house in the middle of the night.
A massive search ensued involving the Hutchinson police, Reno County Sheriff’s Office, and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI). Four days later, on September 21st, 1970, a local farmer named Calvin Troyer discovered Kelly’s nude and battered body in a sorghum field beside a rural road (sometimes referred to as a “lovers’ lane” area) approximately three miles east of Hutchinson. The location was not far from her home.
The autopsy revealed a horrific crime: Kelly had been sexually assaulted and stabbed eighteen times with a blade approximately five inches long. Minimal evidence was recovered at the scene or home, including a pillow slip and her pajamas. The brutality of the attack and the young age of the victim shocked the small farming community.
Initial investigations in 1970 failed to produce an arrest. The case quickly went cold, hampered by the investigative limitations of the era, including lack of modern forensic tools like reliable DNA analysis.
Decades later, a primary suspect emerged: Glenn Davis, a family friend and acquaintance of the LeShures. Circumstantial evidence pointed to him, including reports of his vehicle being seen in the area around the time of the disappearance, claims he deeply cleaned his car the following day, and statements from family interviews.
Davis was never charged in Kelly’s murder. In 1995, he was convicted in Sedgwick County on unrelated charges of aggravated incest, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, and aggravated indecent liberties with a child under fourteen. He was imprisoned and died in 1997 from heart failure, the day before investigators planned to question him again in hopes of obtaining a dying declaration or confession.
Some family members and friends, including Kelly’s uncle Don Wilson, childhood friends Linda Kirby and Rona Smith, have questioned whether Davis acted alone or if others were involved. They pointed to a close relative of Kelly’s based on reports of past violent and erratic behavior, family letters, and interviews. However, law enforcement, including Reno County Sheriff’s Capt. Steve Lutz, described evidence against suspects as circumstantial only, with no charges ever filed. Some DNA evidence was collected but reportedly lost or mishandled between agencies in the pre-modern chain-of-custody era.
Don Wilson, Kelly’s uncle, dedicated years to the case after his wife (Kelly’s aunt) passed away. Starting around 2006, he amassed extensive files, conducted interviews, and advocated publicly until his own death around 2013. He collaborated with Kirby and Smith, who reconnected through visits to Kelly’s grave at Yoder Mennonite Church Cemetery in Yoder, Reno County.
The murder of Kelly Lynn Albright endures as one of Kansas’s oldest unsolved child homicides. No one has ever been charged, and the case remains open but inactive without new evidence or witnesses.
Crime Immemorial 