Disappearance of Caleb Diehl (Ricky Dale Howard)

Last night I watched an episode of "Never Seen Again" about the disappearance of 18 year old Caleb Diehl from Nocona, Texas in 2015.

It is abundantly clear that Ricky Dale Howard killed him and hid his body. Dale was a bank loan officer at a bank in town, and was apparently very highly regarded in the little Texas town.

The FBI investigated Howard in 2001 for bank fraud:

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The I-Team found court records showing that in 2001 an FBI agent investigating Ricky for bank fraud spoke to five young men who alleged that Ricky had sexually assaulted them. According to one document, the allegations “related to Howard as a bank loan officer or the access he gained to victims through the children of a client because of his position at the bank. Each victim independently recounted details of Ricky Howard’s sexual abuse during adolescence and when they began working for him on his ranch. “ Moreover, the FBI began to suspect that the "loans may have been made to relatives of these young men in an effort to ensure their silence."

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in 2007 he was convicted of bank fraud, but not of anything related to sexual abuse, because the lead investigator was told by his superior to only focus on the fraud charges to keep the case clean. However...

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While federal prosecutors charged Howard only with financial crimes in this case, the judge orders that he undergo treatment as a sex offender — with regular polygraph tests, as part of his probation.

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He was released from prison after a two year stay.

He then would eventually go on to employ Caleb Diehl to work on his land, and sexually abuse him, and eventually Caleb goes missing. His body hasn't been found, and Howard was never charged with his murder. However, Howard was charged last year with sexual exploitation of Caleb after video evidence was found in his trailer of him sexually molesting Caleb. He got 30 years, and will hopefully die in there.

You can read the full timeline here:

LINK

The documentary made it seem like it wasn't exactly a secret that Howard was abusing kids, yet this guy was someone that people in the town apparently respected, and allowed to be around their families.

My question is is how in the hell does this guy get away with this for so long? Did the adults just not believe their children? Even after there was an obvious trend? I know that he was threatening people's property in his role as a loan officer, but if that was your child, would you let that stop you from doing everything in your power to expose this guy, or take things into your own hands?

Maybe not as many people knew or believed as the documentary made it seem like. But me personally, if that were my child, brother, nephew, I wouldn't be able to find too many reasons not to kill this guy myself. I would at the very least go on a campaign to expose him. Its just absolutely unfathomable to me how someone like Howard could get away with something like that for so long. It made my blood boil thinking about it.

Anyone from that area, or familiar with this case?