Five years after she disappeared, the search for Megan continues

It’s been roughly five years since Megan Renee Foglesong was last seen in Rice County, but occasional tips still lead volunteer Ashlie Duft to rural parts of south-central Kansas searching for any clues to where she might be.

Foglesong, who was 21 when she went missing around Thanksgiving 2015, is Rice County’s only missing persons case, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

Duft said tips to her volunteer search group poured in after Foglesong’s disappearance and again after the 2019 death of David Madden, her former boyfriend and suspect in the disappearance. Madden ended his life after a 2019 shooting spree where he shot the undersheriff and sheriff, killed his father and then himself. Since then, they have slowed to a trickle.

For Dawn Foglesong, Megan Foglesong’s stepmother, knowledge of what happened to Megan died with Madden.

“Honestly, I don’t think he would have told where she was anyway, and the world is a better place without him,” she said. “I think he did something to her.”

About Megan

Megan was born in Liberal and moved to Illinois as a child. She graduated from a small high school in 2012 and soon after moved to Kansas to be near her biological mother, Foglesong said.

Facebook photos show she was a longtime softball player who liked to pose with her nieces, nephews and siblings — usually by making extra-cheesy smiles or sticking her tongue out.

Megan, blonde with green eyes, also liked to bow hunt and fish.

She started dating Madden shortly after moving to Kansas.

Rocky relationship

Kelly Starnes, a former friend of Madden, told 911 dispatchers in a December 2014 call that Madden kidnapped Megan Foglesong while she was on Starnes’ property in rural Ellinwood.

Starnes said “they just split up.”

“He threatened to put her in a straitjacket and throw her in the closet. He’s threatened to kill her and he’s had a gun pointed at her before,” Starnes told 911. “He’s a loose cannon. He’s ex-military. He hates the government and he hates cops.”

Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir said law enforcement in neighboring Rice County, where Madden lived, found Foglesong at Madden’s home. Foglesong said she was fine and hadn’t been kidnapped, which ended the investigation.

She spent Christmas that year in Illinois with her family.

She wrote Starnes, in a letter he provided to The Eagle, “Thank you again, and I’m so sorry too. NEVER AGAIN!”

A few months later she returned to Kansas and she and Madden rekindled their relationship.

Dawn Foglesong said she continued to advise her stepdaughter to stay away from Madden, until she stopped responding all together.

Foglesong started to suspect the worst when her stepdaughter didn’t call home during the holidays.

Days after Megan Foglesong’s birthday, one of her friends told Dawn Foglesong that “her ex merked her out,” slang she learned stood for murder.

Starnes also grew concerned, especially after Madden told him, ‘No one will ever have to worry about her again.”’

Law enforcement later told the media that foul play may be involved in Megan Foglesong’s disappearance. The KBI said Madden remains a suspect in the case.

Madden was wanted on a state and federal warrant the day he went on a shooting spree following a traffic stop.

He was wanted on a federal warrant after officers found 24 metal pipe bombs and an “AK-47 machinegun” at his home in Alden, according to federal documents. State documents show Madden also had a warrant for failing a drug test for methamphetamine.

Searching a dog’s grave for Megan

The property at Madden’s childhood home, where the shooting spree ended after he shot the sheriff and killed his father and himself, has been repeatedly searched for Foglesong, especially an area where Madden had buried his dog, Rommel, along the Arkansas River.

Rommel’s grave has been dug up at least twice.

Dawn Foglesong said she dug up Rommel’s grave around summer 2016. She had the permission of Madden’s father, Thomas Madden, who was alive at the time.

“We were a little freaked out knowing (David) could be out there running around,” she said.

The KBI dug up the grave again in October 2019, according to Madden’s sister, Julie Boeckman.

“We are willing to cooperate with the KBI and Megan’s family in any way possible,” Boeckman said in an email. “I have been in contact with Dawn, Megan’s stepmom, and told her she is always welcome to contact us and we would help them search the area any time.”

The interest in Rommel’s grave is driven by some of the theories about Foglesong’s disappearance. One theory is that Madden killed Foglesong and fed her to the dog and then killed and buried the dog.

KBI spokesperson Melissa Underwood, citing Foglesong’s ongoing investigation, would not comment about Rommel being dug up.

Boeckman said there were about five or six officers at the family’s property digging up the grave. The KBI also used tools to check the nearby sand and see if the ground had been disturbed elsewhere, she said.

Burying guns

Rommel isn’t the only thing that Madden reportedly buried near the river on the family farm.

He allegedly buried guns along the river that were taken from the U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, where Madden was stationed while he was a Marine.

A 2002 story about the stolen guns appeared in the Lyons Daily News titled “N.C. firearms recovered.”

The story says the Rice County Sheriff’s Office was notified by the criminal investigation division at Camp LeJeune and that “weapons stolen from the camp were believed to be buried in the county.”

Former sheriff Steve Bundy told The Eagle the guns were recovered along the Arkansas River, near the family’s property.

They were buried in the sand.

“The suspect travelled to Kansas to locate the weapons,” the article stated. “Sheriff Bundy said an AR-15 rifle, a 9 mm handgun, a 12 gauge shotgun (and) accessories were uncovered Saturday along the Arkansas River, south of Raymond.”

Despite the history of burials along the river, Duft, the volunteer searcher, doesn’t believe Foglesong is anywhere on the family farm.

“Just from my research, I just don’t believe (Madden) put her there on his dad’s property,” Duft said.

Still searching

Duft, a Sterling business owner, first started volunteering in searches for missing people during the 2018 search for 5-year-old Lucas Hernandez. The boy’s stepmother eventually led a private investigator to the Lucas’ body, which was hidden under a rural bridge.

Afterward, Duft founded Missing in Kansas Megan’s Voice, an organization that volunteers to help find missing people. Over the years of searching for Foglesong, Duft and Dawn Foglesong have grown close and communicate regularly.

Duft said she follows up on the few tips a month about Foglesong’s whereabouts. Most of the tips come through the Bring Megan Home Facebook page.

“Everyone deserves to come home, to be home,” Duft said. “If we can at least bring some of the missing home, just to give the family some of that closure, that is better than nothing at all.”

That’s what Dawn Foglesong hopes for as well.

“I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble because I’m convinced it was (Madden),” Foglesong said. “I just want to find her, that way you’re not spending the rest of your life trying … At least you will know where she is at, what happened to her.”

This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 4:31 AM.