Hunter’s 1974 disappearance was decades-long mystery, KY cops say. Now, suspect ID’d
It’s been 50 years since Eddie Nichols was last seen or heard from.
He vanished while hunting in northern Kentucky in December 1974, officials said.
Though his body was never found, investigators have identified the person suspected of killing Nichols just after the 50th anniversary of his disappearance, a letter from the Boone/Gallatin County attorney, posted to Facebook by the Ed Nichols Unsolved Cold Case page on Feb. 26, said.
On Dec. 3, 1974, a group went hunting in Shady Nook Bottoms, then split up, prosecutors said. One of the men waited for Nichols in the car, but he never showed up, officials said.
After recruiting two others to help him search, the hunter called police and reported him missing, officials said. For years, theories about what happened to Nichols were investigated and disproved.
Then, a family member of the man who reported Nichols missing came forward in 2021, according to the letter addressed to two Boone County detectives and shared with Nichols’ family.
One of the hunters had told his son that Bobby Franxman, one of the four hunters in the group with Nichols, was responsible for Nichols’ death, prosecutors said.
While hunting, Franxman and Nichols got into an argument about a woman, and Franxman shot Nichols in the face, killing him, prosecutors said.
Franxman then forced another one of the hunters, the man who initially reported Nichols missing, to bury him, officials said.
The initial reporter died by suicide in 2022, the day after he was served a subpoena to testify in front of a grand jury, according to the letter. His son, whom he shared the details with, died before he could be interviewed by police.
Prosecutors said Franxman is a suspect in the killing of Nichols but that they will not pursue an indictment because he died in 2007, the letter said.
Boone County is about a 75-mile drive north from Lexington.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Hunter’s 1974 disappearance was decades-long mystery, KY cops say. Now, suspect ID’d."
