It's been nearly five years since 21-year-old Jason Landry vanished on a dark rural road in Luling, Texas. His car turned up—he'd apparently crashed the Nissan into a tree—and, inexplicably, his clothes were found scattered in neat piles in the middle of the road. But as Peter Holley explains in a deep dive for Texas Monthly, Landry himself remains missing. If it sounds like the setup to a classic true-crime mystery, well, that's because it is. But Holley's story doubles as both a narrative of the mystery itself and a critical examination of the true-crime industry and its toll on families.
- "Online, the Jason Landry universe is sprawling and active, attracting accomplished investigators and amateur sleuths alike," writes Holley. "About a dozen Facebook pages totaling around 50,000 members dissect the case regularly, often drawing from a small library of local news clippings and true crime podcasts that have highlighted the disappearance. For many, Jason's story is little more than a real-life game of Clue."
For Landry's parents, however, it's become a never-ending source of anguish. His father, Kent, tells Holley that even those trying to offer solace by saying that Landry will turn up someday add to the pain. "I want to ask them, 'So is he being held against his will?' Tell me a scenario that doesn't make me want to go hurt someone." Holley is similarly aware that his own story adds to the narrative of the case. (Read it in full here.)
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