*Photo: Help Find Missing Arlin Henderson Facebook*

The quiet rural community of Ethlyn sits nestled between Moscow Mills and Old Monroe along the eastern border of Missouri. According to us.com, the population is just over 2,000 people as of 2020, and as far as crime statistics and other information, all I could find was that it was an unincorporated city with a post office that had been established in 1904. Ethlyn is just 47 miles northwest of St. Louis, and to get a picture of what the town looked like, I had to use Google Maps and virtually walk the streets. A regular image search only brought up maps and houses for sale.

To be honest, as I was “traveling” through the town, I’m not sure how us.com was able to count 2,000 people in this town. I’m wondering if they included the populations of Old Monroe and Moscow Mills in this number. I saw one main highway, one construction company, a handful of churches, and less than 50 houses. I will say that I did not virtually walk every street or the entire highway length between old Monroe and Moscow Mills, so there is a chance I missed a subdivision or two, but by all appearances on Google Maps, it was a seemingly quaint little town. This isn’t a podcast that travels to cute, quiet little towns unless something terrible has happened. And that is why we are navigating advocacy in Ethyln, Missouri.

*Photo: Help Find Arlin Henderson Facebook*

Arthur and Debra Henderson fell in love after a few years of dating and were married in 1969. A year later, they had their first child. A daughter named Joy. Their family wasn’t quite complete, and 10 years later, Arthur and Debra gave birth to a boy named Charles Arlin Leon. He went by Arlin and, by all accounts, was the typical boy. He loved to be outside, climb trees, ride his bike, and hang out with neighborhood friends. The kids even had a clearing near the woods that they called their “clubhouse.” He reminds me a lot of our boys Melissa, especially our second borns…. absolutely fearless. Jumping off the diving board was his favorite activity when he would go swimming.

Arlin's father, Arthur, passed away when Arlin was just ten years old, leaving Debra and Arlin alone in the Fountain N Lake mobile home park just outside of Ethlyn, where the family had lived since Arlin’s birth. When Arther passed away, Joy married and moved out of the house into adulthood. Despite the loss, the family found solace in each other and their tight-knit neighborhood. Arlin spent his days riding his yellow and white Huffy bicycle around the trailer park and playing with neighborhood kids in their makeshift clubhouse near the woods.

In the summer of 1991, Arlin was between fifth and sixth grade. His favorite school subjects were science and social studies. Looking forward to middle school, this would be a summer to remember.

But on July 25, 1991, Arlin told his mother he was going out to ride his bike up and down the road, as he always did, looking for friends to play with. He begged her to save him one of the Polish Sausages she was making for dinner.

This is something Arlin did every day! Of course, Debra said that was fine but asked him to stay inside the mobile home park.

The hours passed, and Arlin never came back inside for dinner. When a neighborhood friend stopped by to hang out with Arlin, Debra realized her son was missing. This sparked a frantic search as soon as Debra contacted law enforcement. Around 150 neighbors, law enforcement, and community members searched the neighbor’s houses, woods, hills, and farmlands surrounding the area. They searched well into the early hours of the morning with no leads.

The next morning, searches continued. Investigators stated that they couldn’t list his disappearance as foul play but they also knew that Arlin would not have left on his own.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch described Arlin. He was wearing a camo T-shirt, camo pants with a hole in the left knee, and black tennis shoes. He was four feet six inches tall, 75 pounds, and had blonde hair and blue eyes.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, there was a report that Arlin had been seen riding his yellow and white huffy bicycle on Lincoln County Road 837 near Ethlyn.

Despite extensive search efforts, Arlin remained missing. Shortly after Arlin disappeared, Debra received a phone call demanding a ransom. When Debra told the caller, “You’ve got my son! You’ve got my son!” the caller hung up. Debra did not receive another call or another ransom request.

Within five days, the FBI became involved in the investigation. Agents from the bureau stated that Arlin’s disappearance was suspicious, but they could not yet determine if Arlin had been abducted or not.

More interviews and searches were conducted. Search and rescue dog teams had come in and again found no evidence.

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months, with no sign of Arlin. The community rallied around Debra, offering support and assistance in the search for her son. Months stretched into years, yet Arlin's whereabouts remained a mystery.

On October 10th, 1991, a farmer walking along County Road 685 picking up aluminum cans found Arlin’s Huffy bicycle in the weeds 15 feet off the road along the edge of a soybean field, seven miles from Arlin’s home. Reports stated that it appeared to have been lying there for “quite a while.” According to the St. Charles County Post, the area had been searched previously. The farmer reported the bicycle to the police, and it didn’t take long for all of the collaborating departments, including the FBI, to arrive on the scene. The bike was taken in for testing, and at least one fingerprint was found.

Search efforts around this piece of evidence also ramped up. They searched for days for any additional clues, but none were found. Authorities felt that someone other than Arlin had placed the bike at the edge of that field.

With Arlin’s bike being found and a newfound hope, community groups set up a reward of $10,000 for Arlin’s safe return.

Unfortunately, the reward did not entice any new leads to come forward.

Months continued to pass, and Debra was lost without Arlin. In an interview, she told The St. Louis Post Dispatch that “if tears and all the emotions had brought Arlin home, he would have been home by now.”

In February of 1992, Debra did what we have seen countless families have to do. She “went into business” to find Arlin. She turned her home into essentially a call center. She took in leads and clues and processed them. She set up her own tip line, created lead sheets, and made flyers, and she even had a group of approximately 20 advocates helping her out. They even called themselves “Friends of Arlin”. Debra felt that she was helping Arlin by continuing to push for information.

In September 1993, the FBI offered a $10,000 reward for information that led to the recovery of Arlin and the identification, arrest, and conviction of the person or persons responsible for his disappearance.

The Sheriff’s department released to the public that they felt Arlin knew his abductor. It was someone he was familiar with.

At the end of 1993, Debra was still fighting. She purchased Christmas presents for Arlin and refused to move if Arlin tried to return home. She even would leave a note on the door every time she left that said, “Arlin, we’ve gone to the store. Back in a few minutes.”

Debra was able to connect with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to release an age-progressed photo of Arlin of what he may look like at 13 years old. Debra pleaded with the public for someone to please come forward. She told the St. Charles Post, “Please help, I’m so tired. I don’t know how much longer I can hold on not knowing. Sometimes I think I’m losing my mind.”

Arlin’s case goes cold and remains that way for quite some time. And as if losing a child wasn’t hard enough, Debra was hit with another tragedy in 2000.

On the evening of March 10, 2000, Debra was waiting for her then 29-year-old daughter Joy and Joy’s three kids to come home. Joy and her husband, Bob Leonard, had separated after Bob had threatened to kill her. Joy and the kids were the only company Debra was expecting that evening, so when Lincoln County Sheriff Jim Johnson knocked on her door, Debra was surprised.

Sheriff Johnson was there to deliver the news that Joy and three of her friends had been murdered at Joy’s friend’s house. Debra’s three grandchildren were in the basement during the shooting but were not physically harmed.

Sheriff Johnson told Debra he believed Bob was involved but was not found at the scene.

Sheriff Johnson spoke with Bob on the phone the following day for 6 hours. Bob stated that he had killed Joy because he couldn’t live without her, and he killed her friends because they were telling her to stay away from him. In this same conversation, Sheriff Johnson asked if Bob had anything to do with Arlin’s disappearance. He said no. The phone call came to an end when Bob said he could not face his children, and then Bob completed suicide.

After Joy’s murder, Debra took in her three grandchildren and purchased a larger home 80 feet from where she lived with Arlin. She kept all of her bills in Arlin’s father's name and kept the same phone number in the event Arlin was attempting to return home.

It wouldn’t be until 2001 that a potential break would come in Arlin’s disappearance.

On July 30, 2001, authorities identified three men involved in Arlin Henderson's disappearance: 29-year-old George Gibson, 27-year-old Charles Gibson, and 23-year-old JD Spangler. Just before the 10th anniversary of Arlin's disappearance, JD confessed to killing him and implicated the Gibson brothers. He described how he kidnapped Arlin, kept him in a house in nearby Davis, then took him to a nearby creek bed and shot him in the forehead with a 9mm pistol on July 28, 1991. He said that he then had George Gibson help him move the body into a truck and took him to a house where Charles Gibson looked at Arlin and told George to take it away. JD claimed to have heard the Gibson brothers say they buried him in a shallow grave beneath a house near the Mississippi River. JD led authorities to search for Arlin's remains at a burned-down home near Winfield, Missouri, but they found nothing, even with the assistance of infrared and ground-penetrating radar technologies and cadaver dogs.

JD was charged with first-degree murder but could only be tried in juvenile court due to his age. He also would not be eligible to serve any time as juveniles could only be allowed to serve time until they’re 21. He pleaded guilty and walked free after sentencing as he agreed to testify against the Gibson brothers. The Gibson brothers, George and Charles, were also charged with first-degree murder. George had no previous felony convictions, but Charles was serving a 30-year sentence for running a meth operation. Charles had a history of violence and had physically assaulted several people with firearms, cattle prods, and shooting at them. Charles was serving time in a hospital as he was in a wheelchair after suffering partial paralysis in 1988.

Debra, Arlin's mother, expressed disbelief and confusion upon hearing the news, still hoping that Arlin might be alive. Authorities continued searching for Arlin's remains, confident in JD's confession. JD seemed to know things that hadn’t been made public, including the ransom call. However, they found no evidence.

JD's story unraveled when inconsistencies emerged, casting doubt on his claims. For one, why would Charles want JD to kidnap Arlin? He claimed that Charles took Arlin due to someone in Arlin’s family owing him drug money and that JD sold drugs for Charles, and this was how he was going to get his money or payback.

Other facts did not line up with the timeline of Arlin’s disappearance. The property JD referred to was not purchased until years after Arlin had disappeared, and how would a then 13-year-old JD kidnap an 11-year-old Arlin without some sort of assistance?

After intense interrogation, JD admitted to fabricating the story out of hatred for the county and the Gibson brothers. He was charged with felony perjury, and the Gibson brothers were cleared of any involvement in Arlin's disappearance.

Debra expressed disappointment and exhaustion, but she also stated she had not believed JD from the beginning. No one in her family knew who the Gibson brothers were.

JD was sentenced to seven years for perjury but later claimed his confession was true, though lacking credibility.

In 2007, two teenagers abducted in the St. Louis area by Michael Devlin were found inside Devlin’s apartment, prompting an investigation into his possible connection to Arlin's case.

One of the teenagers, who was 13 years old, had been abducted from a rural area about an hour from St. Louis. He was the same size as Arlin when he was kidnapped. The other was a 15-year-old who had been abducted four years prior when he was 11 and was out riding his bike also an hour outside of St. Louis, and he looked identical to Arlin.

As investigations into Michael Devlin deepened, Witnesses recalled seeing a man taking pictures of Arlin before his disappearance, a man who resembled Devlin's physical description. Even Arlin had come home and told Debra that he had seen a tall, thin man taking photos of him.

A task force was put together, but despite initial suspicion, no link was found between Devlin and Arlin's case or five others, leading to the disbandment of the task force.

Debra continued to hold out hope, marking the 16th anniversary of Arlin's disappearance with a vigil.

In 2010, authorities displayed Arlin's bicycle publicly for the first time in hopes of generating new leads, underscoring the ongoing quest for answers in Arlin's disappearance.

It wouldn’t be until August 2023, that the Sheriff’s department would share again publicly that they were seeking help in gathering more information about Arlin’s disappearance. They revealed that they believe Joy and her husband Bob may have had critical information about Arlin’s disappearance. The sheriff’s department had learned that the two had made some comments that may have been relevant to the investigation and as Joy and Bob were both deceased, they were requesting that those who knew the two please come forward to speak with them.

NCMEC also released a new age-progression photo of Arlin, at 40 years old.

Anyone who has information related to Arlin’s disappearance or who was associated with Joy and Bob Leonard should contact the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office at 636-462-6153. You can remain anonymous.

There is also a Facebook page called “Help Find Missing Charles Arlin Henderson”.

Sources:

Gillerman, Margaret, “Searchers scour area…”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 27 Jul 1991
N/A, “Search goes on…”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 28 Jul 1991
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Missouri : Charles “Arlin” Henderson

Montana : Jeannette “Charlie” Atwater

Mississippi : Jacqueline Levitz