AITKIN, Minn. 鈥� Veteran Matthew Boyd arrived home from deployment, anticipating his father might be on the road trucking for some time. Then, the bills began piling up. Friends became concerned, and law enforcement came knocking.
Fifteen years have gone by, and there are still no answers. Where is Leroy Keith Boyd?
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Life in Aitkin
Born March 21, 1941, Leroy spent most of his life in the small town of Aitkin. After his father was killed while serving in World War II, Leroy was adopted by his mother Dorothy Woodrow's new husband, There was quite an age gap between Leroy and his younger half-siblings: Tuffy Boyd, Mick Boyd, Nancy Burgwald, Edee Connor and Ruth Moore.
Leroy went on to serve in the Army as a military police officer. His civilian background was in excavating and construction, and he owned the Aitkin Lanes bowling alley for a while.
He was divorced with two children, Matthew Boyd and Amanda (Boyd) Hop, and several grandchildren 鈥� some of whom he never met.
"He was caring in his own way," Matthew said. "He did a lot for a lot of people. Was always there when I needed him. Sometimes, I got the tough love, but he was always there in one way or another. I looked up to him in a lot of ways, so in the end, I hope I turn out to be half as good as he was."
Trucking business
Following in his father's footsteps, Matthew Boyd joined the military after high school. From the Marine Corps, he transferred to the National Guard before being activated into the Army. He then returned to the National Guard and volunteered for another tour.
Having served as a 92 Fox fueler for aircraft and ground equipment, Matthew is now medically retired from the Army. He works occasionally for Cuyuna Regional Medical Center and helps out with his wife's home dog-grooming business, Alpha Dog.
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"Before I deployed, my father got the idea to start a small trucking company. He was going to name it 'Ol' Buzzard Trucking,' so he bought a Dodge 1-ton truck and ended up with a trailer and was going to start hauling people's toys 鈥� motorcycles, cars, whatever 鈥� just to Sturgis," Matthew Boyd said.
According to a news release from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Leroy previously traveled extensively across the Midwest and East Coast.
Matthew Boyd said his dad, 67, was going to do a run down to Florida, but something came up, so his business partner, Matthew Hop, was sent instead. Matthew Hop was the boyfriend of Leroy's daughter, Amanda Boyd.
"I was informed when his truck broke down by my father," Matthew Boyd said, adding that apparently, Matthew Hop told Leroy he hit an empty box in the road. Investigators told a different story.
"Somebody burned the engine up in it," former Aitkin County investigator Steve Cook said. "They wrecked the engine by running it hot. It ran out of coolant. That person kept on driving it and they sealed it up. The dealership said, 'Pure stupidity.' It's like if your vehicle's antifreeze line breaks and sprays antifreeze all around, and you just keep driving it."
Cook was assigned to Leroy's missing person case in 2009 after its original investigator, John Drahota, became undersheriff. In 2022, Cook retired after 24 years with the sheriff's office and still works occasionally. He confirmed that Leroy's 2005 Dodge pickup truck and trailer were found at a dealership in Florida, and its repairs were never paid.
"Matt told my father that the insurance company was contacting him about it because he was the one that did the initial paperwork down there. He told him that he'd handle that part of it because it broke while he was driving it," Matthew Boyd said. "Dad found out that he was spending all of this money and he wasn't getting any of it back."
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Based on Matthew Boyd's conversations with his father, he believes Leroy planned to confront Matthew Hop about the discrepancies.
Matthew Boyd said he last spoke to his father around May or June 2008, when he called Leroy to let him know he was returning home from deployment and needed a place to stay for a while.
"He said, 'By all means,'" according to Matthew.
In early August 2008, he flew from Kuwait to Wisconsin, where he spent one week before arriving in Aitkin.
"When I came home, he wasn't here, but when I talked to him in Kuwait he said he might be on the road. He might be here, he might not be here, but make myself at home," Matthew said. "So when I came home, I did. And everything kind of erupted from there."
Reported missing
According to a release from the BCA, Leroy was last contacted May 25, 2008. He was last seen alive at an insurance business office in Aitkin around early June 2008 by then-employee Jenni Cline.
Cook described Leroy as a quiet loner who stuck to himself, living alone in his home. His daughter, Amanda Boyd, also lived in Aitkin during this period.
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"His daughter was his life. When she was in high school, because he got divorced, she was his sparkle in his eye," according to Cook.
However, Leroy was initially reported missing by an out-of-state friend Aug. 15, 2008, according to an article in the Aitkin Independent Age.
"The call was from a friend of his in Oklahoma for the welfare search," Matthew said.
According to Cook, Leroy occasionally stayed with some friends, who became worried after receiving some strange correspondence.
"When they started trying to get in touch with him, they were suspicious about the messages. They didn't believe it was his vocabulary and how he would write a message. Not that he didn't send messages, because he did. They were just not usually the way he writes or answers," Cook said.
Matthew also grew concerned when overdue payment notices began arriving in the mail.
"Dad would go places and be gone for a while, but he never didn't pay his bills. That was really ultimately when I started questioning everything," Matthew said.
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Things weren't adding up
Over the following two weeks, the BCA became involved in the case, assisting the Aitkin County Sheriff's Office to gather additional information about Leroy's whereabouts and activities before the lies came to light, Cook said.
"We interview people to verify stories in multiple different directions," said Aitkin County Sheriff Dan Guida. "The suspects are built on conflicting information."
Guida joined the sheriff's office in 1994 and has been involved with Leroy's case from the beginning. In 2020, Guida took over for former Sheriff Scott Turner, who did not respond to a request for an interview from the Duluth News Tribune.
The Aitkin County Sheriff's Office executed a search warrant at Leroy's property and he was officially declared missing by authorities Aug. 29, 2008.
According to Cook, phone records indicated Leroy's phone was active until early June 2008, and became inactive until August 鈥� when a few calls were made after Leroy had already been reported as missing. However, the phone was never located, Cook said.
"Every phone number that he called from that phone, they went and interviewed," Guida said.
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Although details were not available due to the sensitivity of the pending case, Guida said there were many red flags raised while looking into Leroy's business and personal finances, phone records and statements.
A news release from the sheriff's office in late September 2008 stated investigators believed foul play was involved in Leroy's disappearance and that persons of interest were identified.
Searching for closure
In August 2010, Matthew and Jessica Boyd attended Matthew Hop and Amanda Boyd's small wedding ceremony in Duluth, expecting that Leroy would show up.
"I was told that he'd be there. I was told that he would be at the birth of their child. He wasn't there. I was told a lot of stuff," Matthew Boyd said.
Leroy was declared dead around 2011 so Matthew and Jessica Boyd could obtain a quiet title to transfer the property into their name, saving it from foreclosure and enabling them to fix the failing septic system.
"When I did it, I was hesitant, but it's what I needed to do at the time. It is well apparent that he is (dead)," Matthew Boyd said. "I've gone from the search-and-rescue mindset to the recovery so we can bury him, so there can be the closure 鈥� not only for me, but the entire family."
Lack of participation draws suspicion
Initially treated as a suspect, law enforcement said Matthew Boyd was soon cleared because his military status proved he was out of the country when his father disappeared. Cook also confirmed there are no suspicions of Leroy's half-siblings, who have been fully cooperative in the investigation.
"When I got back, Matt (Hop) always tried to talk to me and be civil, but every time I told him that law enforcement was trying to talk to him and stuff he would say, 'Yeah, I'll go talk to them,'" Matthew Boyd said. "He was telling me one thing, but wasn't doing it."
As of Oct. 24, 2023, Cook confirmed there are no interviews on file at the Aitkin County Sheriff's Office with either Amanda Hop or Matthew Hop, although several attempts have been made to speak with them regarding the case. Amanda Hop did not respond to the Duluth News Tribune's request for an interview.
Our hope is that someday, somebody's conscience comes true and that they're willing to come in and tell us the truth. They know that we need to hear the truth.
Since Leroy went missing, Matthew Boyd said his sister hasn't stepped foot on the property of their childhood home. His last contact with his brother-in-law was in 2015, when all of Amanda's belongings that were saved after remodeling Leroy's former home were dropped off at the residence of , her late father-in-law.
"I was called by Matt (Hop) when I left and told that I couldn't go down that street anymore in Aitkin, and if I did he was going to file a restraining order on me," Matthew Boyd said.
The Hops left Minnesota after the investigation began. Records indicate Amanda Hop has also resided in Iowa, Wisconsin and Florida and that Matthew Hop has also lived in Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Oklahoma.
Both Amanda and Matthew Hop have open misdemeanor cases for fraud/theft in Wisconsin courts, and Matthew Hop was convicted of felony fraud in Minnesota in 2012. Aitkin County has an active warrant for Matthew Hop from 2015. He was placed on probation for five years in 2012 and violated his probation. The warrant was issued after he failed in appear in court.
According to a Pensacola News Journal published Dec. 20, 2016, "When dad Matthew, mom Amanda, and the four kids 鈥� Bryce, 8; Elijah, 5; Fiona, 3; and Ezekiel, 8 months 鈥� fled their North Carolina home in the days before Hurricane Matthew battered the East Coast in October, they left everything. Without a home or belongings, the family settled in Pensacola in the hopes of finding temporary housing and employment."
Records show that June 16, 2021, Matthew Hop and Amanda Hop purchased a property in Pensacola, Florida, where they currently reside, according to the Escambia County website.
No body, no crime
"There's two people that need to talk and they're not talking," Guida said. "Everyone else is talking. The two people that need to talk, who everybody will point the finger at, because the evidence points the finger at, except for that we don't have a body, right?"
The term, "No body, no crime," stems from a Western law principle known as corpus delicti, which means the existence of a crime must be proved before charging someone with the crime.
According to Cook, Leroy is believed to be dead. However, searches for his remains have yielded no body fluids, no bones and no body.
There is a concern for the release of sensitive information that could compromise the case, Cook said.
"We'd love to get the person/persons convicted, because we think we believe who was involved, but we can't prove anything that happened," he said. "Nothing was found."
According to Guida, the case garnered more subpoenas and search warrants than any other case taken on by the BCA at that time. The BCA did not respond to the Duluth News Tribune's request for comment.
It is estimated that thousands of hours have been spent on the case, in addition to hundreds of interviews conducted, extending into multiple states.
Yet, disappointment was expressed by Leroy's daughter-in-law, Jessica Boyd, who believes Aitkin County "dropped the ball" on several occasions throughout the investigation.
Jessica and Matthew Boyd also said the crawl space beneath their home wasn't searched until over six years following Leroy's disappearance. "So how thorough of a search could have happened if they didn't even look in the crawl space that you can only access from in the house?" Jessica asked.
The case goes cold
It's been five years without any new pieces of evidence, Guida said, adding that the sheriff's office does not have the right to surveillance suspects without new evidence. "We did a full revisit of this case two to three years ago. We've gone through this cold-case type analysis as well. We've met with the family just about every other year," he said.
Although Leroy's disappearance has been reviewed a few times, Guida said the sheriff's office doesn't have anyone actively working on the case.
"It's exhausted," he said. "We've put every resource we've had toward it, and every time we renew it, we go through it again."
"We've interviewed everybody involved in this case," Guida continued. "We try to turn over every stone. We're not going to forget about it. Our hope is that someday, somebody's conscience comes true and that they're willing to come in and tell us the truth. They know that we need to hear the truth. They know how to get a hold of us. When I say 'they,' I can guess you know who I'm talking about."
Anyone with information regarding Leroy Boyd should contact the Aitkin County Sheriff's Office at 218-927-7435.
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