BUTLER COUNTY, Kansas, August 19, 2008 – Two oil field pits northwest of El Dorado were filled more than 20 years ago. But the area is now a crime scene as authorities are digging with the hopes of finding a man missing for 22 years.

Twenty-seven-year-old Steven Hedgers was last seen at his El Dorado home on July 25th, 1986. Since that time his missing person case has gone cold, but authorities and his family have long thought his disappearance could be a case of murder.

Police would not talk on camera, but issued this statement:

“We have a duty to help Mrs. Hedgers and their family to at least have a definite answer to this disappearance; to provide some amount of closure. If we find a body and it can be positively identified as Mr. Hedgers, we will then have a known homicide and that will begin the clock ticking on a final phase of this investigation.”

Last year, divers searched a water-filled rock quarry in a pasture to follow up on a tip from a confidential source. Nothing was found but detectives didn’t give up. They traveled to Nebraska and Minnesota to interview people of interest in the case. Those interviews led authorities to believe Hedgers’ body may have been buried in the oil pit in Butler County, less than one mile from the rock quarry.

Now crews are excavating slow and methodically with the hopes of solving a case two decades old.

Steven Hedgers’ family now lives in Washington State. But they, along with authorities, ask anyone with any information to call the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIMES or Butler Co. Crime Stoppers at 321-1080.