http://www.newsenterpriseonline.com/articles/2008/01/18/news/news01.txtTwo Hardin Countians not seen for more than two years are labeled missing persons By BOB WHITE
Thursday, January 17, 2008 8:33 PM CST
HARDIN COUNTY — A local radio personality who disappeared from Elizabethtown earlier this year is no longer considered missing, but the cases of two Hardin Countians missing for more than two years remain unsolved.
Police suspected early on that WAKY disc jockey Greg Laha might have vanished on purpose May 17 for personal reasons. Messages Laha later sent to family and friends backed up investigators’ suspicions.
“He sent some text messages to people here a few months ago and we believe he’s all right,” Elizabethtown police spokesman Virgil Willoughby said.
Police would not disclose Laha’s suspected whereabouts, but a Lexington friend of Laha’s told The News-Enterprise he’d been in contact with Laha numerous times since his May 17 disappearance.
While Laha’s case is closed, two additional missing-person investigations remain open and continue to stump police in the county’s north end more than two years after those involved first vanished.
VICKY DELAURIER
Vine Grove resident Vicky DeLaurier was last seen leaving her job at the Radcliff Sav-a-Lot store Dec. 17, 2005. She had left with thousands of dollars in cash and checks from the store to be deposited. The deposit was never made, police say. She has not been seen since.
Vine Grove Police Capt. Dale Riggs, who was police chief at the time the case opened, said DeLaurier’s car was found the next day parked on Ky. 313 near South Boundary Road.
The car was parked as though it had swung around from South Boundary Road, Riggs said. DeLaurier’s purse and makeup bag were found inside and investigators said in previous interviews that it appeared she may have left the vehicle in a hurry.
The vehicle’s hazard lights, running throughout the night, are thought to have drained the car’s battery.
“There were no obvious indicators of a struggle in the car,” Riggs said.
There are no leads in the case, he said.
Court records show DeLaurier filed a domestic violence complaint against her live-in boyfriend, Ray D. Hively Jr., a week before her disappearance. Hively allegedly threatened to kill DeLaurier. Police said Hively’s alibi checked out.
“He took a polygraph and that showed no deception,” Riggs said. “He was very forthcoming with any information.”
A year after her disappearance, DeLaurier’s son, Jason Mines, also took a polygraph test. Riggs said Mines also showed no evidence of deception during the test.
“We have nothing new,” Riggs said. “I continue to check in with her mother in West Virginia and I let her know that if I do hear anything, she’ll be the first to know.”
At the time of her disappearance, DeLaurier was married to Steven Ray DeLaurier, but Riggs said he was outside Hardin County when his wife disappeared. As with her boyfriend, court records show DeLaurier had filed a domestic violence complaint against her husband a year before n claiming he’d threatened her after she told him she wanted a divorce.
“He told me that me and whoever I was with are living on borrowed time,” her complaint to the courts stated.
Steven DeLaurier remarried five months after Vicky DeLaurier’s disappearance. Riggs said he never was considered a suspect.
Radcliff police also have a file on Vicky DeLaurier’s case. Police there charged her with theft after her disappearance, since the bank deposit for Sav-a-Lot was never made.
DeLaurier now would be 47 years old. At the time of her disappearance, she was 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighed approximately 170 pounds. She had blonde hair and blue eyes.
Anyone with information about DeLaurier’s disappearance should contact Vine Grove police at 877-2262. Anonymous tips also can be phoned in to Hardin County CrimeStoppers at (800) 597-8123.
KENNY M. NAIDAS JR.Six months before Vicky DeLaurier went missing, 23-year-old Kenny M. Naidas Jr.’s locked SUV was found in the parking lot of a Dollar General Store on South Dixie Boulevard in Radcliff.
He’d last spoken to his fiancé while running afternoon errands May 18, 2005. Naidas’ family described him as a man with close family ties. His disappearance was a mystery to them as was what led his SUV to be abandoned.
While relatives described Naidas as a family man, investigators say he also was tied to a troublesome crowd.
Busted for a conspiracy to traffic 57 pounds of marijuana and a small amount of cocaine, Naidas’ friends, Victor Brown and Jeffrey Puckett, were jailed within days of Naidas’ disappearance.
“We know he had some involvement in that,” Radcliff Detective Ralph Craig said.
Speculation as to what may have happened to Naidas is compounded by other events relating to the marijuana deal.
A phone call from Brown to police in Murray ultimately led to the drug charges.
Murray Police Capt. Eddie Rollins said police there received a call from Brown who reported that several people had attempted to kidnap him.
Brown’s report led to his arrest on the drug charges, Rollins said. Puckett later was tied to the case.
Rollins said he believes the botched drug deal, worth more than $100,000 by police estimates, is tied to Brown’s attempted kidnapping and to Naidas’ disappearance.
The alleged kidnappers, however, were not the buyers in the drug deal, Craig said.
“Other than that being where Brown went to school, there’s no tie to Murray,” he said.
The drug deal has police thinking Naidas may be hiding from prosecution, drug dealers or may be dead. But without a body, and with reports of Naidas being sighted both in and outside Kentucky, Craig said he could not rule out that Naidas is alive.
One such sighting came from sources in Fort Stewart, Ga., but Craig said none of the reported sightings could be confirmed.
“There are others around here who know something about this,” Craig said. “They need not fear us.”
Up to this point, those who have information relating to Naidas’ disappearance have given police nothing more than rumor, Craig said. Police have no new information to go on.
In May, Craig released the information about Naidas’ alleged drug involvement in hopes it would get people talking about the disappearance again. Unfortunately, nothing new came about, Craig said.
Naidas now would be 25.
Naidas is described as 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighed 180 pounds in 2005. He has olive-toned skin and dark hair. A tattoo of the seal of Guam is on his left shoulder blade and the words “Chamorro style” are tattooed between his shoulders.
Anyone with information about Naidas’ disappearance may contact Radcliff police at 351-4470. Anonymous tips also can be phoned in to Hardin County CrimeStoppers at (800) 597-8123. CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards for information leading to arrests and convictions.
Bob White can be reached at 505-1750 or
bwhite@thenewsenterprise.com.
