The Howell County Sheriff's Office in a post made on its Facebook page at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday announced a man who was last seen in West Plains in May 2017 has been located and is safe.
Collins had been reported missing in May 2022. The sheriff’s office reported he was found Tuesday.
The post goes on to say Kermit Collins, 66, was positively identified and did not disclose his location in consideration of his privacy.
To date, Howell County has nine unsolved cases of eight missing people, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Missing Person Clearinghouse. They are Danny Roberts, 33 at the time of his disappearance in 1995; Robert Huddleson, 66 when he was reported missing in 2017; Limon Little, 49 in 2020; Ira Briscoe, 25 in 2020; Sandra Bennett, 60 in 2021; Hailee Chasten, 24 in 2023; Falecia Gutierrez, 35 in 2023; and Devin Daniels, 35 in August 2024.
In August, authorities reported finding the skeletal remains of two people in a cistern on property in Lanton. The Howell County Sheriff’s Office continues to await identification of those remains from the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Laboratory.
