Teen’s disappearance unveils dangerous serial predator – Everything Law and Order Blog

In this episode of Crime Watch Daily Updates: 18-year-old Caleb Diehl borrowed his family friend’s Chevy pickup truck on March 30, 2015, and was never seen again. His family reported him missing on April 1, 2015.

Caleb and his family were close with a man named Ricky Howard, a businessman who Caleb often worked the odd job for here and there. Even though Ricky was a successful entrepreneur in the area, he harbored dark secrets.

Ricky was accused of sexually assaulting a boy who once worked for him, and information soon came to light that Caleb was another one of Ricky Howard’s victims.

Ricky was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm, and from there, the floodgates opened. He was indicted in October 2018 on several charges of indecency with a child and possession of child pornography. Investigators found photos of Ricky sexually abusing Caleb as well as a burn pit with several of Ricky’s computers melted down.

The case went to court, but there was a mistrial due to a juror injury. In July 2021, Ricky pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation and was later sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.

Let’s look back at the case of Caleb Diehl, an 18-year-old on the cusp of life who disappeared and is nowhere to be found.

source

38 thoughts on “Teen’s disappearance unveils dangerous serial predator”
  1. He burned the computers?? Nothing says ''don't look here" and also I know nothing about computers quite like that. The feds would have all they need just through internet activity within weeks of the investigation, plus the guns. Is this idiot still walking around? Also, what's up all these people saying what a great guy this scumbag is when they know he's raping boys?

  2. personally ik i'd have been so ashamed of what happened that i'd def drive away…but idk like the dude's truck that caleb drove that was found in his own garage is sus af why would it be there and not caleb like did he confront rick and threatened to tell on him and he made caleb disappear to save his own azz (that's what it seems like to me) don't quote me on that i'm 16 not an investigator 😅 i rly hope they end up finding caleb

  3. what's mysterious about it? that's where it's supposed to be
    he was the last person to use the truck and now he's missing
    no…he was the last person to borrow the truck. someone else might have used the truck
    wow the lawyer sure has a bizarre threshold for what's needed to qualify as "mysterious"

  4. Ok. A victim does not “come clean “ and admit to being molested. That suggests that the victim was doing something dirty or wrong. The victim is a victim and does not have to “come clean”! It’s the grown man preying on young or adolescent children that is wrong. Let’s just get that straight right now.

  5. I get that you’re being paid to defend Ricky, but that lawyer is a piece of shit. It’s obvious that Ricky murdered Caleb. Put aside your ego. I DARE that lawyer to look into Caleb’s families’ eyes and SAY he didn’t murder him.

  6. The mole man from the simpson is now a creapy lawyer. The responses are dumb, blaming children for not coming forward, gtfo. He was a "friend" of the family, male on male molestation looked at shameful for the kid, probably threatened violence on the families, the list goes on for the victim's POV. I hope the family gets justice.

  7. I didn’t read every comment but I read many. 1 thing I didn’t see suggested in the video or by any of the viewers comments was the possibility that Caleb was sold into trafficking. This can happen to anyone, anywhere but there are several things mentioned to make believe it may be a more likely scenario than murder. The large amount of photo evidence on the computers indicates intent to distribute at the very least. Additionally, sharing was & still is the primary reason for saving anything to a computer. This predator has a long history of successfully getting away with his crimes by pretending to be the nice guy. Offing victim(s) is definitely a possibility but it’s not matching his behaviors. He’s wealthy & his stature shows a tendency towards self spoiling laziness. Paying someone to get rid of Caleb is more likely & having a large business network, community trust & an online network of predators gives him easy access to international human trade. i35 is close by & a considerable amount of its traffic is human trafficking. That border in TX has crossings in both directions & a young man, especially a young blonde haired blue eyed man is a high priced commodity. I know. I was that commodity. I was blessed to have never been transported outside of the states & it’s a miracle I escaped with any remaining portion of my life. If TX law enforcement is anything like GA law enforcement, not only are they participating in the trafficking problem but helping & actively covering it up. Corruption is everywhere & that attorney is bare minimum an active participant in the coverup & most likely an active purchaser of whatever fulfills his fetishes.

  8. Can I ask why the father is posing like an idiot? If I was a parent and my child was missing I wouldn’t even be able to do half of the stupid posed face shots this father is doing.

  9. My guess is that caleb was going to expose Ricky Howard and decided to end that, at that point Caleb was 18 years he could go his own way, the fact that the $300 was ziptied to the steering wheel and the key location was in an odd location and the truck was inside the garage (I believe the truck was tampered with by Ricky

  10. It takes a certain type of person to be a defense attorney. A person void of any type of conscience or morality that only cares about twisting, suppressing truth and filling their pocket.

  11. It always kills me when people say “he was a kind guy who was the first to help you and would give the shirt off their back” etc etc etc. Predators act this way PRECISELY to groom victims and gain the trust of clueless parents. If it seems too good to be true……IT IS!!

  12. This is just a suggestion, but putting the update first than the original story is backwards in my mind. Maybe switch those two around with the update after? I would of followed this story a lot easier. Thank you!

  13. The two possibilities I see is that Caleb was abused and and killed by Rickey Howard, OR Howard trafficked Caleb to another person as a sex slave, and he has since been killed.

Leave a Reply