Overview

Last seen: July 27, 1973
Location: Miami Shores, Miami-Dade County, Florida
Age: 13
Date of birth: October 31, 1959
Classification: Endangered missing
Current status: Unsolved

Landon Lee Deriggi, nicknamed “Lanny,” disappeared after leaving his family home in Miami Shores on July 27, 1973. Official records say he was last seen leaving home to go to a store, while later accounts from his mother said he asked permission to go outside and play. He had previously run away for brief periods, which appears to have influenced the early handling of his disappearance. Some of his belongings were subsequently found hidden in shrubbery near the home. He has never been located.

More than five decades later, official state and national missing-child records continue to list Landon as missing. A volunteer cold-case group has more recently challenged the original runaway theory and publicly argued that investigators should consider whether Landon was the victim of a homicide. That remains a theory advanced by the volunteer investigators, not an announced finding by law enforcement.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Landon Lee Deriggi: The 1973 Disappearance of a 13-Year-Old Boy in Miami Shores, Florida

Last seen: July 27, 1973
Location: Miami Shores, Miami-Dade County, Florida
Age: 13
Date of birth: October 31, 1959
Classification: Endangered missing
Current status: Unsolved

Landon Lee Deriggi, nicknamed “Lanny,” disappeared after leaving his family home in Miami Shores on July 27, 1973. Official records say he was last seen leaving home to go to a store, while later accounts from his mother said he asked permission to go outside and play. He had previously run away for brief periods, which appears to have influenced the early handling of his disappearance. Some of his belongings were subsequently found hidden in shrubbery near the home. He has never been located.

More than five decades later, official state and national missing-child records continue to list Landon as missing. A volunteer cold-case group has more recently challenged the original runaway theory and publicly argued that investigators should consider whether Landon was the victim of a homicide. That remains a theory advanced by the volunteer investigators, not an announced finding by law enforcement.

Landon Deriggi Disappears in Miami Shores

Landon Lee Deriggi was 13 years old when he vanished from Miami Shores, Florida, on July 27, 1973. He stood approximately 4 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 68 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes. He had a noticeably deviated septum and significant vision impairment. Published case information also describes him as having learning difficulties and severe hyperactivity.

The Deriggi family had reportedly returned home at approximately 10 p.m. on July 26 after spending several days camping in the Everglades. The family planned to travel to Disney World the following day. According to an account later given by Landon’s mother, Landon woke her the next morning and asked whether he could go outside to play. She allowed him to leave. Landon was never seen by his family again.

Official Florida Department of Law Enforcement and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children records use a slightly different description, stating that Landon was last seen leaving his house to go to a store. The difference between the accounts has persisted in public case records for years.

Why Landon Was Initially Thought to Have Run Away

Landon had reportedly left home on previous occasions but returned. His mother later explained that this history was one reason she did not immediately contact police when he failed to come home. A day or two reportedly passed before his disappearance was reported.

The initial search apparently produced one intriguing piece of evidence: some of Landon’s possessions were discovered in or around a hedge near a nearby residence. Police reportedly considered the possibility that he had deliberately placed the belongings there because he planned to meet someone or retrieve them later.

His history of briefly running away, behavioral difficulties and the placement of his belongings contributed to a theory that Landon had voluntarily left home.

But he never returned.

There are no confirmed reports establishing that Landon began a new life elsewhere, and no publicly disclosed evidence has demonstrated what happened after he left the house.

A Family Moves Away Without Answers

In 1977, approximately four years after Landon disappeared, his family moved from Florida to Georgia.

Before leaving, his mother reportedly placed a written message for Landon inside or near the electrical utility area of the family’s former home. The message explained that the family had moved and provided information intended to allow Landon to find them if he ever came back.

The gesture reflected a possibility the family still considered: that Landon might someday return to the house where he had last lived.

He never did.

Decades later, DNA samples were reportedly obtained from Landon’s parents for comparison with unidentified remains and other missing-person investigations. No publicly announced match has resulted.

An age-progressed image was also produced showing what Landon might have looked like at approximately age 51. NCMEC and FDLE continue to publish Landon’s missing-child information and photograph.

The Case Is Reexamined Through Another Florida Cold Case

A major new public development came from work conducted outside the original investigation.

Attorney Paul D. Novack and a volunteer cold-case research team were examining the 1966 disappearance of Daniel Goldman from nearby Surfside when they began looking more closely at Landon’s case. According to Novack, their broader review of organized crime, criminal associations and corruption in Miami during that period produced information they believed could be relevant to Landon’s disappearance.

The team said it provided information and documentation to the Miami Shores Police Department beginning in 2013 and also shared material with the Miami-Dade Police Department Homicide Bureau. According to the team’s September 2025 public account, the information included details about Landon’s father’s criminal history and associations that the volunteers believed had never been properly incorporated into the original missing-person investigation.

The volunteer investigators have since raised a fundamental question: was Landon ever truly a runaway?

They have publicly questioned whether the circumstances described by the family in 1973 represented the complete story and whether Landon should instead be considered a possible homicide victim. Their research site, Sunshine Files, describes the case as a presumed homicide.

That characterization requires an important qualification. FDLE and NCMEC have not publicly reclassified Landon’s case as a homicide. Their current public records continue to identify him as missing, and NCMEC continues to solicit tips about his whereabouts.

Latest Publicly Available Investigation Information

As of September 2026, Landon remains publicly listed as an endangered missing person by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and NCMEC still maintains an active poster for him. He would now be 66 years old.

The most substantial recent investigative account located is the September 30, 2025 report by Paul D. Novack in Miami’s Community Newspapers. Novack wrote that his volunteer team had supplied information concerning the case to authorities years earlier and continued to believe circumstances surrounding Landon’s disappearance warranted examination as a possible homicide. The article said that, from the team’s perspective, an official response to the additional material remained pending.

There has been continued public discussion of Landon’s case into 2026. A Websleuths discussion, for example, raised the possibility of comparing Landon with unidentified remains recovered elsewhere in Florida. Those posts constitute public discussion rather than confirmation that police have conducted or accepted any particular comparison.

No publicly documented arrest, identification of Landon’s remains, definitive suspect announcement or official determination of homicide was located.

For law enforcement, Landon Lee Deriggi remains missing.

For researchers who have revisited the evidence, however, the central question has increasingly changed from where did Landon run away to? to what actually happened to Landon in July 1973?

More than 53 years after he disappeared, that question remains unanswered.