Martha Leanne Green

Title

The Vanishing of Martha Leanne Green: A 37-Year Mystery That Shattered a Tennessee Community

Author

Benjamin Hayes

Publication Date

August 10, 2025

On the evening of April 15, 1987, a promising young woman was looking forward to her junior prom the following night. Her pink dress and matching shoes lay waiting on her bedroom bed in White Bluff, Tennessee. But Martha Leanne Green would never make it to that dance, and her disappearance would become one of Dickson County's longest-running mysteries, fundamentally altering how a small community viewed its own safety.

A Normal Evening Turns Into Nightmare

Martha Leanne Green, who preferred to go by her middle name, had just finished her shift as a hostess at the Holiday Inn in Dickson, Tennessee around 9:00 PM on that Wednesday evening. The 17-year-old junior at Dickson County High School was known for her friendly demeanor and responsible nature. Her twin brother, George Lawson Green, arrived to pick her up in their cousin's borrowed 1979 silver Monte Carlo with tinted windows.

The Green family lived a typical middle-class life in White Bluff, about 30 miles west of Nashville. Their father George was a U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient who worked as an accountant and later at the local post office, while their mother Margie worked as an accounting clerk for the state of Tennessee. The family was close-knit and attended White Bluff Church of Christ together regularly.

The drive from the Holiday Inn to their home should have taken only about ten minutes, covering roughly ten miles through the familiar Tennessee countryside. However, the borrowed Monte Carlo had other plans. Just one mile into their journey along Highway 46, near Fabric Road in the Pomona community, the car sputtered to a stop. They had run out of gas.

The Good Samaritans and a Fateful Decision

Lawson managed to guide the disabled vehicle onto the shoulder and activated the hazard lights. As the twins discussed their options on the dark, two-lane road, another set of headlights appeared behind them. A family of four, returning home from their Wednesday night church service, pulled over to offer assistance.

The helpful strangers offered to drive Lawson to the nearest gas station to get fuel for the stranded Monte Carlo. This presented a choice that would haunt the Green family forever. Leanne could either accompany her brother to the gas station or remain with the car. Despite feeling scared about staying alone on the isolated highway, Leanne ultimately decided to wait with the vehicle while Lawson went for help.

The round trip to the gas station took approximately 15 minutes. When Lawson returned with the good Samaritans and a container of gasoline, the Monte Carlo sat exactly where they had left it. The hazard lights were still flashing, and Leanne's purse remained inside the vehicle along with the car keys. But Leanne herself had vanished without a trace.

The Search Begins

There were no signs of a struggle around the vehicle. No scuff marks in the gravel, no torn clothing, no indication that Leanne had resisted an attacker. It was as if she had simply evaporated into the Tennessee night. The Dickson County Sheriff's Office was immediately contacted, and what began as a potential runaway case quickly evolved into something far more sinister.

Leanne's mother, Margie Green, emphasized to investigators that her daughter "never spent the night or ever gone anywhere for any length of time without me knowing where she was, even in broad daylight." This was not a teenager prone to impulsive decisions or risky behavior. The family knew something terrible had happened.

Within days, law enforcement agencies including the Dickson County Sheriff's Office, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and FBI had joined the search efforts. Despite their efforts, citing a lack of leads, police called off the physical search for Martha Leanne Green just three days after she disappeared. However, the investigation was far from over.

Authorities established roadblocks along Highway 46 a week after Leanne's disappearance, stopping vehicles between 8:45 PM and 10:00 PM and questioning motorists about what they might have seen. Two witnesses later claimed they had seen Leanne at roadside stops along interstates between Virginia and Ohio. In both instances, the young girl appeared drugged or tired and was accompanied by a man. The witnesses reported that she seemed as if she did not want to be with her companion. However, police could never confirm these sightings were actually of Leanne.

Enter Robert McKinley Richards

In the fall of 1987, approximately six months after Leanne's disappearance, authorities identified their first major suspect: Robert McKinley Richards, a 22-year-old man who was serving time at Lake County Regional Correctional Facility (now the Northwest Correctional Complex) in Florida.

Richards had been arrested in August 1987 for sexually assaulting two Memphis women and attempting to abduct another woman after pulling her car over using a police blue light in Hardeman County. One of his victims was a St. Francis Hospital employee. His method of operation immediately caught investigators' attention, as it suggested he might have used similar tactics to approach Leanne on that dark highway.

Richards' background painted a troubling picture. Born on July 11, 1965, to Jerry and Jewel Richards in Memphis, he had grown up in what a clinical psychologist later described as an abusive household with an "extremely rigid" and "rather abusive" father and an overprotective mother. Richards had told police in 1988 that he witnessed the abduction and rape of a woman when he was around eight years old, claiming the assailant had "pulled her over like he was the police."

The Hypnotic Confession

During the autumn of 1987, Richards agreed to undergo hypnosis as part of the investigation. What happened next would both provide crucial evidence and begin a four-year cat-and-mouse game that would frustrate investigators. While under hypnosis, Richards confessed to killing Martha Leanne Green.

Even more startling, Richards provided two pieces of information that investigators believed only the killer could know: he knew that Leanne had been menstruating at the time of her disappearance, and he described a distinctive piece of jewelry she had been wearing that night. According to former Shelby County detective W.J. (Buck) Wood, "Richards looked me square in the eye and said, 'I swear on my mother's life that I killed Leanne Green.'"

However, this confession marked the beginning rather than the end of the Richards chapter in Leanne's case. Richards would confess, then recant, then confess again multiple times over the following years. On several occasions, detectives removed him from his cell based on his promises to lead them to Leanne's burial site, only to be taken on fruitless searches that yielded no evidence.

The Cat and Mouse Game

Richards took investigators to several different locations where he claimed to have buried Martha's body, but extensive searches of those areas turned up no evidence whatsoever. Each time, he would provide detailed explanations of how he had disposed of her remains, only to later admit he had been lying or to change his story entirely.

When Leanne's devastated parents, George and Margie Green, visited Richards in prison in 1989, hoping to find closure and answers about their daughter's fate, he denied having killed her.

The psychological games continued until 1991, when Richards' manipulations came to an abrupt end. While serving his sentence, Richards was murdered by his cellmate, who strangled him with an extension cord. Some reports indicate he may have been stabbed instead. Regardless of the exact method, Richards took whatever secrets he may have possessed about Leanne Green's fate to his grave.

Other Suspects and Theories

While Richards remained the primary suspect, investigators did not limit their focus entirely to him. According to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation records, authorities confirmed that three suspected serial murderers were traveling along Highway 46 on the night Leanne disappeared. This revelation suggests that the investigation considered multiple potential perpetrators who might have encountered the stranded teenager.

During the investigation, authorities also compared Leanne's disappearance to similar cases involving young women who had been abducted from cars along roadways and later murdered in Arkansas and Oklahoma. However, no concrete connections could be established between these cases and Leanne's disappearance.

One unidentified vehicle was spotted in the area when Martha disappeared. Witnesses described it as a rust-colored or wine-colored Ford, though investigators were never able to determine whether this vehicle was involved in her disappearance.

Impact on the Green Family

The disappearance devastated the Green family in ways that extended far beyond the immediate trauma. Leanne's twin brother Lawson was particularly affected, struggling with guilt over the decision to leave his sister alone that night. He chose not to return to school that year, instead completing his assignments through a homebound teacher who checked in on him weekly. His mother Margie noted, "He doesn't say too much, but by his actions, I know he feels somewhat responsible."

The family was forced to put their lives on hold as they searched for answers. As George Green explained to reporters, "We just live one day at a time. We've dropped everything to concentrate on this." As Mother's Day approached just weeks after Leanne's disappearance, Margie expressed that she wanted no other gift than to have her daughter back home safely.

Tragically, both of Leanne's parents died without ever learning what happened to their daughter. Margie Green succumbed to cancer at age 57 in 1997, having spent ten years hoping for answers that never came. George Green lived to be 91, passing away in January 2023, still carrying the burden of his daughter's unsolved disappearance. Leanne's twin brother Lawson and her two older sisters, Lisa and Laurie, continue to reside in Tennessee.

Community Impact and Law Enforcement Response

Former Dickson County Sheriff Tom Wall captured the community's shock when he said in 2008, "People just couldn't comprehend that a 17-year-old girl could be abducted in our town." The case fundamentally altered how residents of this small Tennessee community viewed their safety and security.

Despite the passage of nearly four decades, law enforcement has never given up on the case. The Dickson County Sheriff's Office continues to review Leanne's file regularly, and investigators still follow up on any new leads that emerge. Lieutenant Humphreys from the department expressed hope that someone with crucial information might still come forward: "I just think it's possible that there is still somebody out there who knows something that they never came forward with. Even if it's something small, please tell us."

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation also remains involved in the case, with investigators checking every report of unidentified human remains found in Middle Tennessee to determine if they might belong to Leanne.

Recent Developments and Ongoing Hope

In May 2018, there was renewed hope when employees working for Dickson Electric System discovered human skeletal remains in an open cistern on a property in the 200 block of Blackie Road. The remains were transported to the medical examiner's office in Nashville for analysis to determine the age, gender, and hopefully the identity of the deceased. However, these remains have not been publicly confirmed to belong to Leanne Green.

Modern DNA technology has also provided new avenues for investigation. According to missing persons databases, DNA samples are available in Leanne's case, offering potential for future identification if remains are ever discovered.

The case received renewed attention in 2022 when the Dickson County Sheriff's Office made a public appeal on social media, stating: "We ask that you help us keep this story alive and take moment to pray for Leanne, her family, and her friends. Unfortunately, Leanne's mother passed away without learning what happened to her daughter."

Physical Description and Age Progression

At the time of her disappearance, Martha Leanne Green was 17 years old, standing 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing approximately 120 pounds. She had brown, wavy hair and green eyes, though she wore brown-tinted contact lenses, which is why some agencies list her eye color as brown. She had a birthmark on her chest, pierced ears, and had already had her four wisdom teeth extracted.

On the night she disappeared, Leanne was wearing a white sweatshirt, mid-calf length faded jeans, and white high-top Reebok sneakers. She was also wearing the brown-tinted contact lenses mentioned earlier.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has created age-progression images showing what Leanne might look like today. If she is still alive, Martha Leanne Green would now be 54 years old.

The Enduring Mystery

The disappearance of Martha Leanne Green represents one of Tennessee's most perplexing cold cases. Despite a confession from a primary suspect, extensive searches, and decades of investigation, no physical evidence has ever been found to definitively solve the case. The lack of any trace of Leanne, her clothing, or evidence of what happened to her continues to baffle investigators.

Some experts have suggested that authorities may have suffered from tunnel vision in focusing so heavily on Robert McKinley Richards, potentially overlooking other suspects or theories. While Richards certainly exhibited the behavioral patterns and criminal history consistent with Leanne's abduction, his repeated false confessions and inability to lead investigators to her remains raised questions about his actual involvement.

The case highlights the challenges law enforcement faces when dealing with unreliable witnesses and suspects who may confess to crimes for attention, psychological reasons, or other motivations unrelated to actual guilt. It also demonstrates how a single moment, a simple decision about whether to stay with a broken-down car or seek help, can alter the trajectory of multiple lives forever.

Continuing the Search for Answers

Today, Martha Leanne Green's case remains active with the Dickson County Sheriff's Office. Anyone with information about her disappearance is urged to contact the Dickson County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Division at 615-789-4130 or tips@dicksoncounty.net. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation can also be reached at 615-952-4989 or 1-800-TBI-FIND.

The story of Martha Leanne Green serves as a reminder of how quickly life can change and how some mysteries endure despite decades of investigation and advances in forensic technology. For her family, friends, and the community of Dickson County, the hope for answers remains alive, even as the years continue to pass.

Whether Martha Leanne Green met her fate at the hands of Robert McKinley Richards, another predator who happened upon a vulnerable teenager on a dark highway, or through circumstances yet unknown, her case stands as a testament to the importance of never giving up the search for truth and justice. In a world where many cold cases fade from public memory, Leanne's story continues to resonate, kept alive by persistent investigators, caring family members, and a community that refuses to forget.

Sources

Benjamin Hayes

Benjamin Hayes is a blogger with a passion for true crime and unresolved mysteries. In his free time, Benjamin is an avid hiker and photographer. He finds solace and inspiration in nature, often trekking through the scenic trails of the Appalachian Mountains.