The Untold Truth Of Lena Chapin's Mysterious Disappearance
The cattle call seems like as good a place to start as any. In May of 1999, sheriff's deputies in Barry County, Missouri were called to respond to a couple of loose cows. While doing whatever it is that the law does in that situation — pepper spray is presumably involved — the authorities were approached by 32 year old Sandy Klemp, who announced "Well, I guess while you're here I should go ahead and report Gary missing."
That was how the disappearance of Klemp's husband, Gary McCullough, came to light. It was two days after he'd left, per Phelps County Focus, "to go buy a fighting rooster from a Mexican in the nearby town of Diamond." That Sandy hadn't reported her husband missing was decidedly suspicious. The fact that Sandy's boyfriend moved in with her a few days later also raised some red flags.
Investigators cited a lack of solid evidence in their decision to hold off on filing formal charges, and hoped to find further information by talking to Sandy's six children.
It sort of worked. In 2003, Lena, Sandy's second oldest child, recounted her mother pulling her out of school one day to help burn Gary McCullough's body.
And that's how you disappear in Missouri
The conversation was recorded by Lena's ex-stepfather and submitted to the police as evidence. When confronted with the recording, Lena recanted her confession.
Two and a half years later, Lena was 20 and living with her boyfriend, Jason Bryant. On February 14th, 2006, Esquire reports that Bryant remembers kissing Lena goodbye before leaving for work. When he returned home that evening, he says Sandy and two other people were in the apartment, cleaning out all of Lena's possessions.
Sandy reportedly told Bryant that Lena had left to live with a new boyfriend in Florida. That's the last that anyone heard from Lena. Sandy was awarded custody of Lena's son, and she is believed to be living in Missouri with her fifth husband.
Sandy has been uniformly uncooperative with investigations into the unexplained disappearances of Lena and Gary. She's refused to take a polygraph test unless their bodies are found. To date, they haven't been.