Adoptive father suspected in disappearance of Adam Herrman dies

Doug Herrman – suspected of involvement in the unsolved disappearance of his adopted 11-year-old son Adam Herrman – has died, Butler County Sheriff Kelly Herzet said Thursday.

Herzet said he learned from Oklahoma authorities that Herrman died Wednesday night after an illness. He was 61 and lived near Grove, Okla., the sheriff said.

Adam disappeared from his Towanda home in 1999, but authorities in Kansas didn’t learn about it until late 2008. Doug and Valerie Herrman, Adam’s adoptive parents, had said that the boy ran away and that they didn’t report it out of fear that their other children would be taken from them.

Herzet, the lead investigator in Adam’s disappearance during an exhaustive investigation that stretched through 2009 and 2010, said of Doug Herrman on Thursday: “I was always hoping he would do the right thing and tell us where Adam’s remains were.”

Valerie Herrman, 59, is ill, Herzet said.

Although the couple were not charged in Adam’s disappearance, they spent time in prison after being convicted of the theft of $15,488 in state adoption subsidies, collected by the couple after they didn’t report Adam missing.

At their sentencing in 2011, Butler County District Judge David Ricke said the case against the couple was more than a theft case. If the Herrmans had told authorities that their son was missing, Ricke said, a missing-child alert could have been issued. There could have been search parties.

“His face should have been on milk cartons,” the judge said.

On Thursday, Herzet noted that the disappearance remains an open case – a case that continues to frustrate him.

There still is a $100,000 reward from an anonymous donor for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Adam’s disappearance, Herzet said.

Someone has information that could help solve the case, he said. “I guarantee you.”

Tips can be called into Butler County sheriff’s investigators at 316-322-4257 or 866-484-5924, he said.

This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Adoptive father suspected in disappearance of Adam Herrman dies."