Sometimes family is who you choose. And for Jennifer Johnson, John Dudding has been considered family for a long time. “Everybody around here calls him JP,” she said. “He’s just always been family.”
“I’ve never met anybody that didn’t like him,” Jennifer told Dateline. “There was no one, you know, that had a negative thing to say about him.”
Jennifer grew up around horses, which is something she had in common with JP. “He used to train horses for us,” she said, adding that JP was also a farrier and owned a horse named Chief. He also worked in the fencing and roofing business.
Later on in life, Jennifer and JP actually did become family. “His son started dating my middle daughter, and they got married,” Jennifer said. Last year, the couple welcomed their first child.
But JP wasn’t around to meet his grandson. JP vanished in January 2023. “[He] would’ve spoiled this boy beyond belief. He was very good with kids,” Jennifer said.
Jennifer first learned something was wrong when her daughter called to say they couldn’t find her father-in-law. “As soon as she said it, we knew something bad had happened,” Jennifer said.
JP, who lived alone, was last seen at his home by a neighbor in Willow Springs, Missouri, on January 28, 2023. “There was an ice storm coming and JP, being the man he was, went cutting wood to make sure everybody had heat while the storm was there,” Jennifer recalled.
According to Jennifer, on February 5, JP’s son got a call from a friend saying JP was nowhere to be found. Concerned, the son headed out to the property to check it out. “[JP] left his truck with the door open. He left his house with the door open, and clothing kind of strung outside,” Jennifer said. “His wallet was still at home. His cell phone was still at home. It was just like he just up and vanished.”
JP’s son then called the Texas County Sheriff’s Office. Dateline spoke with Sheriff Scott Lindsey who confirmed his office received a call on February 5. “It came in as a missing person report,” he said. “Family had been down to check on Mr. Dudding and couldn’t locate him.”
Deputies responded to JP’s home on Varvel Road in Willow Springs. “The only obvious sign of a problem is there — there had been a fire inside the residence,” Sheriff Lindsey said. “There was signs that there had been a fire and smoke inside the house.” The state fire marshal was called in to investigate. “They came up with a probable cause of an accident,” Lindsey noted. “But, um, you know, we’re going on three years of a missing person here right now. And so we have to — we have to be open to all possibilities.”
Sheriff Lindsey confirmed JP’s personal belongings, including his cell phone and wallet, were left behind in the home. He also confirmed JP’s truck was left behind with the door open and that some clothing was found outside of the residence.
Almost immediately, loved ones conducted searches for JP. “We did do searches in the area and we found nothing,” Jennifer said. There was, however, one friend who found a bandana and some items that looked like they could belong to a truck on a nearby road. “There were some items turned in, but there was no confirmation that those were related to JP or the case,” Sheriff Lindsey said.
Sheriff Lindsey says his office also conducted several searches for JP. “There was a search of the property down there on Varvel Road,” he said. “And then as part of further investigation, we’ve conducted a couple of other searches elsewhere.” Lindsey did not divulge any additional details about the other searches due to the active nature of the investigation. He did, however, confirm they have not found anything of note during their searches.
Leslie Albrecht was a detective with the San Diego Police Department for 25 years. Following her retirement, Albrecht became a private investigator. In 2024, she helped solve the 1989 murder of Kelle Ann Workman in the Ozarks region of southwestern Missouri. Albrecht read about JP’s case online and decided to reach out to the family. “It appeared to me there’s a scene involved and there’s evidence possibly involved,” she said. That was in April of 2025, just a few months after the two-year anniversary of JP’s disappearance.
Albrecht told Dateline JP lived in a very rural area of the Ozark mountains. “Absolutely beautiful, but very, very, very rural,” she said, adding that the neighbors all knew each other very well and their families had been living there for generations. “They all looked out for each other, they all loved JP, he loved them.” The storm JP had been preparing for was part of the reason for delay in reporting JP missing. “Everybody hunkered down in their homes for days,” Albrecht explained. “During that time, he went missing.”
“People are noticing him missing throughout the week,” Albrecht said. “They’re just sort of going, ‘Huh, where’s JP?’” When JP didn’t show up for a job on February 5, they knew for sure something was wrong. That’s when someone called JP’s son to let him know.
“The theory was maybe he got hurt in his house,” Albrecht said. “They thought maybe he got hurt and wandered into the woods. No one super believed that because he is tough as nails and that wouldn’t be what he would do.”
“The whole time they’re looking for him, they’re like, ‘There’s just no way he would’ve went out in this blizzard,’” Albrecht said. “They looked anyway, but they didn’t find anything. They found some evidence of things that they think could belong to the truck and stuff like that, but not JP.”
“His car’s there, his wallet’s there, his keys are there, his whole life is there,” Albrecht said. “He didn’t take off. He couldn’t have taken off. You can’t leave that area without a vehicle.”
Albrecht went to the Texas County Sheriff’s Office and asked if she could take a look at the files. “They were very kind. Very kind and very welcoming and absolutely allowed me in,” she said. “I started working with them. We made a lot of progress.” Albrecht told Dateline that based on looking at the files, she does not agree with the fire marshal’s assessment that the fire was an accident.
She does, however, believe the case is solvable. “Everybody knows everybody and everybody knows everything about everybody,” Albrecht said. “That’s what helps you solve the cases.” Albrecht is still hoping for answers for JP’s family. “He is still missing,” Albrecht said. “We just hope that eventually someone gives us that final missing little link.”
“Here we are three years later, and nothing has been located,” Sheriff Lindsey told Dateline. “We treat it like it could be a — a criminal investigation until we find out otherwise.” The sheriff did say his office has persons of interest related to JP’s disappearance, but no one has been charged in the case.
“It’s still very much an active case. We’ve followed up on leads as recently as 2026,” Lindsey said. “We just hope that there’s some break that comes forward, whether that’s information from somebody that helps the case or, uh, we’re able to develop something with the information we already have.”
Jennifer Johnson thinks JP may be gone, but she still would like to find answers. “We would love for somebody to come forward,” she said. “We keep hoping every deer season that somebody will come across a bone, or –. But there’s nothing.”
Jennifer and another friend of JP’s run the “Justice for JP” Facebook page to bring awareness to his story. They have raised $7,500 as a reward “to any non-anonymous person who can lead us to remains of JP Dudding or information leading to the arrest and conviction of person(s) responsible.”
John “JP” Dudding is about 5’8” and 130 lbs., with gray-ish hair and blue eyes. He has a horseshoe tattoo on his left arm. “He had surgery on his ankle at one time, so he had metal plating in there,” Jennifer told Dateline. JP would be 61 years old today.
If you have information on JP’s whereabouts, please contact the Texas County Sheriff’s Office at 417-967-4165 and press 1 for dispatch.
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