Eugene Gabbard Jr. -- Missing Since January 14th, 1985

Missing Person: Eugene Gabbard Jr.

Note: This photo was taken from a 1979 high school yearbook, 5-6 years before the person disappeared.

He had facial hair at the time of his disappearance.

Details (might be paraphrased): Gabbard was last seen in Jackson, Kentucky on January 14th, 1985. He has never been heard from again. At the time of his disappearance, he was driving a blue 1976 Pontiac 2+2, license plate KY JGM-248 which has never been located. There are few details regarding Gabbard's disappearance and his whereabouts remain unknown (from Websleuths).

Not the actual vehicle. Generated image to show what the vehicle likely looked like.

Last contact: January 14th, 1985 (Monday) according to NamUs; January 15th, 1985 (Tuesday) according to journalism

Last location: Jackson, Kentucky

Age when Eugene Gabbard Jr. disappeared: 23

Sex: Male

Height in inches: 72

Weight in pounds (lbs): 150

Ethnicity: White/Caucasian

Hair color: Brown, had a beard

Eye Color: Brown

Scar or distinctive characteristic: small scar over left eyelid under the eyebrow; birthmark of a brown spot on front of left chest near shoulder; skull with spider over it on left arm between shoulder and elbow, Harley Davidson sign with eagle over a green wreath with initial H.D. on upper right arm.

Link to government source: Link to Government Source: MP9737 (right click to open).

BMI means body mass index. It is meant to describe someone's healthy body weight relative to the individual's height. It is only food for thought because it does not account for all body types. Eugene Gabbard Jr. had a BMI of 20.34. He was at a healthy weight by BMI standards at the time of her disappearance. 

Commentary and Research

By: Shane Lambert 

A color photo from his high school yearbook. Also, 5-6 years before his disappearance. Shootout to Websleuths user MadMcgoo for the find.

Has Eugene Gabbard Jr. been found?

I did not find much information on this missing person when it came to published journalism from about the time of his disappearance. However, he received a bit of press coverage in 2001.

Reportedly, he was on his way to purchase a new truck the day that he disappeared. This day was reported as January 15th, 1985. That is one day later than the dates on his online profiles.

Was Robbery a Possible Motive?

Importantly, when he disappeared he had $3000 in cash on him that he was planning to use to buy the vehicle. That's about $8700 by today's standards. This could have made him a target for anyone who knew that he might have been carrying that kind of cash during his trip. There were some tips that he had been murdered, however, the police seemed to have very little to go on.

The Mountain Eagle. August 15th, 2001.

I feel like one loose end in this case is simply who was he going to meet?

Car sales involve more than enough money to generate clandestine activity. We're all aware of stories, in modern times, involving illicit transactions from online classifieds. The same things happened before the Internet, involving newspaper classifieds.

Bud and June Runion Murder: How a Craigslist Car Sale Turned Deadly in Georgia

As food for thought, in January 2015, Elrey “Bud” Runion, 69, and his wife June Runion, 66, embarked on a 180-mile trip to Telfair County from their home in Georgia. They were chasing a 1966 Ford Mustang convertible, a car Bud had coveted since much younger days. After posting an ad on Craigslist, they thought they’d found a seller in McRae, a quiet rural town. Carrying cash for the purchase, they left home on January 22nd, 2015, with intentions to buy the vehicle.

But things turned really dark for them. The couple never made it back, and four days later, on January 26, their bodies were found in a wooded area near McRae, both shot in the head. Their 2003 GMC Envoy was discovered submerged in a nearby lake. There was an arrest and conviction, but the point is that a simple vehicle sale can be a very dangerous meeting, due to the amount of money involved.

Source: The Runions Went Missing, Later Found

Why Hiding a Car Is Harder Than Concealing a Body: Size and Logistics Explained

Hiding a car can be far more challenging than concealing a body. A vehicle like Eugene Gabbard Jr.’s 1976 Pontiac 2+2 is a large, conspicuous object that doesn’t vanish without effort.

Abandoning it in a remote forest or ravine might seem viable. If it goes unnoticed the years and decades will pass and it will start to deteriorate. But if someone recognizes the car as belonging to a missing person, then the vehicle could be incriminating.

Often when a person is missing and the car is as well, the vehicle is found submerged in water. The following image is computer-generated based on the description of Gabbard Jr.'s vehicle.

Research in March 2025 Proved Fruitless

On March 17th, 2025, I tested a hypothesis that there might have been an advertisement in a local newspaper that Gabbard had responded to. I looked for such an advertisement for a truck that cost $3000 and did not have an exact hit. But not all of the newspapers in the region are digitalized at Newspapers.com. The Mountain Eagle was the main newspaper available, which was not entirely local to Gabbard. I gave up feeling like maybe a hit to an interesting classified ad might be possible in the future, so feel free to visit this angle with other publications, as more and more are presumably digitalized in the future. Despite extensive analysis, no definitive leads emerged.