Cold Case Kansas: A Social Detective Podcast · Cold Case Kansas: A Social Detective Podcast

Missing & Murdered

·44 min·2 clips

Tammy testifies that Kelly, Jerry, and Tammy planned Punky Harrod’s killing, and that Jerry told Tammy to shoot him.

Cold Case Kansas begins with memory, and that gives the episode a different weight before the facts even start. The show reminds listeners that it is independent, has no ads or sponsors, receives no funding, and is built as a legacy for Krista Martin. That context matters. It makes the casework feel personal instead of packaged. Then the episode turns to Butler County. The main thread follows the report on Punky Harrod, who Kelly says she last saw on July 29 when he left to walk to the store for cigarettes before the day got too hot. The details do not line up in a comforting way. He left behind his keys, wallet, pager, car, and a pack of cigarettes, and the episode treats that list as the sort of ordinary stuff that becomes hard to ignore once someone is gone. Nothing about it feels neat. That is part of what keeps the case open in the listener's mind. The family takes the disappearance seriously. Punky’s parents tell Kelly to call the Butler County Sheriff's Department, and the episode walks through how a missing-person report starts with a timeline of the last confirmed contact. That process becomes its own kind of evidence. The show also contrasts that older investigation with the way current officers prefer data, ring-camera footage, Flock cameras, and other traceable evidence, while making clear that those tools were not available back then. The point is not nostalgia. It is the gap between what investigators can prove now and what families were left with then. The episode keeps returning to one question: would Punky really have left on purpose? Kelly says there were marital issues, but nothing too serious because he would never leave his children. That tension sits at the center of the story. The show does not rush to fill in blanks or turn uncertainty into drama. Instead, it keeps circling back to behavior, timing, and the details family members can still test against memory. Near the end, the frame widens. Ricky Nelms is named as another missing man, with a reminder that he has been missing since 1988 and that a substantial reward is available for information on either case. The call to action is direct. Listeners get the Butler County Sheriff's Office contact details and are asked to come forward with anything that could help recover the remains of Ricky Nelms or Punky Harrod. The closing note is personal, too. The episode thanks Hannah King for keeping Punky’s case alive and says plainly that her victim-advocacy work in Kansas City still matters.

As heard by us

A plainspoken local case file that keeps Ricky Nelms, Punky Harrod, and the family account in view.

Cold Case Kansas treats this as a plainspoken true-crime case, built around the effort to keep Ricky Nelms and Punky Harrod from fading into the background.

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Why you'd press play

You want a missing-person case that walks the timeline carefully and keeps the family questions and small details in view.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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