Key facts
- Name: Kelly Hollan Jr. (sometimes listed as Kelly Junior Hollan)
- Born: November 17, 1975
- Age at disappearance: 6
- Last seen: February 12, 1982
- Location: Larks Lane, Pine Tree Hollow, Mousie, Knott County, Kentucky
- Height / build: 4’0″, 60 lbs, brown hair, blue eyes; cleft-palate scar on left side of face, speech impediment; last seen in blue winter coat with hood, blue jeans
- Status: Still missing — the only missing-child case the KSP Hazard post still works
- Case numbers: Police 13C82295; NCMEC 601735
- Investigating agency: Kentucky State Police (Post 13, Hazard)
The boy in the snow
School was canceled on February 12, 1982. A heavy snowstorm had buried Knott County, Kentucky, and six-year-old Kelly Hollan Jr. stayed home with his mother, Judy Moore, in their house on Larks Lane in Pine Tree Hollow — five miles outside Hindman, in country so rural and desolate that the nearest real town was half an hour away.
Around 11:00 a.m., after asking repeatedly, Kelly was allowed outside to play in the front yard. His mother told him not to leave the yard. She checked on him through the afternoon — at 4:00 p.m., he was still out there, playing in the snow in his blue winter coat.
Then Moore went to a neighbor’s house to take a phone call. The family had no phone of its own.
When she came back, Kelly was gone.
She assumed he’d gone to a friend’s house to watch television — a common occurrence. It wasn’t until around 6:00 p.m., when she went to fetch him for dinner and learned he’d never been there, that panic set in. She couldn’t reach the police until around midnight. The official search didn’t begin in earnest until the following morning.
A six-year-old boy, in a snowstorm, in Appalachian hill country — and half a day passed before anyone started looking.
“For lack of a better term, he just kind of disappeared into thin air,” Trooper Jody Sims of the Kentucky State Police would say, decades later. “There was nothing in and around the residence to indicate that injury or struggle or anything like that. It was just a matter of, he was there, and then when they went to check on him again, he wasn’t.”
Who Kelly was
Kelly Hollan Jr. was born November 17, 1975, with a cleft palate that left a small scar on the left side of his face, between his nose and upper lip, and gave him a noticeable speech impediment. He was a small boy for his age — four feet tall, sixty pounds — with brown hair and blue eyes.
He lived with his mother in one of the most isolated pockets of eastern Kentucky: Pine Tree Hollow, off Larks Lane, near the little community of Mousie. In 1980, Hindman — the nearest town of any size — had 876 people. The roads were curvy and isolated. In February 1982, they were buried in snow.
The investigation
The search, when it finally began, found nothing — no tracks leading away that made sense, no clothing, no sign of a struggle. In a snowstorm, tracks should have been everywhere. Instead: nothing.
Over the years, there has never been a named suspect. At one point, Kelly’s own mother, Judy Moore, was a person of interest. She denied it, on the record, years later: “If I had done anything, I’d come forward and say, ‘I did it.’ But, I didn’t do it.”
The house where Kelly was last seen is gone now — torn down. A couple of years ago, working on tips, police came back to the area and dug up ground underneath concrete. They found nothing.
Trooper Sims has said the case is the only missing-child case the KSP post in Hazard is still working. “I don’t know that that would be a stretch,” he said, when asked whether Kelly might still be alive — “but you still have to be cautious about how you talk about those things, because there always is that chance that he is still alive.”
Kelly would be 50 years old now.
Theories: what might have happened
Abduction. A six-year-old doesn’t walk out of a snow-covered yard and vanish without tracks. Someone took him — that is the shape the absence makes. Who, and how, in a hollow five miles from anywhere, in a blizzard, without leaving a sign, is the question no one has answered in 44 years.
Wandered off and succumbed to the elements. The obvious theory for a child in a snowstorm — except that searches found nothing, no tracks, no clothing, no remains, in terrain that has been worked and reworked for decades. Children who freeze leave bodies. Kelly left nothing.
Foul play at home. The mother’s brief elevation to person-of-interest status keeps this theory nominally alive, but it was never sustained by evidence, no charges were ever filed, and Moore has consistently denied it.
Have information?
Contact the Kentucky State Police, Post 13 (Hazard) at (606) 435-6069, or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST). In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- November 17, 1975 — Kelly Hollan Jr. is born.
- February 12, 1982, ~11:00 a.m. — Allowed outside to play in the snow; told not to leave the yard.
- February 12, 1982, ~4:00 p.m. — Mother last sees him playing; leaves to take a phone call at a neighbor’s.
- February 12, 1982, evening — Found missing; police not reached until ~midnight.
- February 13, 1982 — Official search begins; nothing found.
- Years later — Mother briefly a person of interest; no charges. Police dig under concrete on tips; nothing found.
- Today — Still missing. The only missing-child case KSP Hazard still works.
FAQ
Is Kelly Hollan still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Kelly Hollan Jr. has been missing for 44 years.
Was Kelly Hollan ever found?
No. No remains have ever been identified as Kelly’s, and no one has ever been charged in his disappearance.
How old would Kelly Hollan be today?
Kelly was born November 17, 1975 — he turns 51 in November 2026.
Was Kelly Hollan’s mother a suspect?
She was at one point considered a person of interest, but no charges were ever filed and she has consistently denied any involvement: “If I had done anything, I’d come forward and say, ‘I did it.’ But, I didn’t do it.”
How can I help?
Share this case file. Contact Kentucky State Police Post 13 (Hazard) at (606) 435-6069 with any information.
Sources
- Official / law enforcement: Kentucky State Police, Post 13 (Hazard); National Center for Missing & Exploited Children — Kelly Hollan (NCMEC 601735).
- News: LEX 18 (Lexington — “Missing Person Search Continues For Knott Co. Child 35 Years Later,” 2017; Trooper Jody Sims and Detective Chris Collins interviews).
- Reference: Missing People in America — Kelly Hollan Jr. (case 6201); The Charley Project.
- Media: Kentucky History & Haunts — “What Happened to Kelly Hollan?” (July 2023); The Mountain Mysteries (Sept 2021).
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.