Missing 411 (2016) - full transcript

Uh-huh.

News in Idaho falls
is kinda slow.

Not a lot of big things
happen here.

I had only been here
a few weeks,

when this case,
the biggest story of my career,

happened.

It just
didn't make sense

to not find anything.

Footprints, pieces of flesh,
pieces of clothing.

Oh, it's-- it's troubling.

You know, I got, you know,
members of my search and rescue unit



that aren't sleeping
too well.

This is a small town
in Idaho called Leadore.

It's remote. Your cell phone
is going in and out.

You're on
a gravel road at first,

but then it turns
very rocky.

And when I say rocky,
I mean big boulders.

You need to drive
maybe five miles an hour

and that's safe.

And it's just real rocky.
Takes a long time

to travel the short distance
from the town of Leadore

to the campground.

Once you leave
the pavement, I think it's

a little over seven miles
of pretty rough road.

Once you reach the campsite
to where they were at,



the Timber Creek Campground,

it kind of just dead ends.

And you get out
and there's the campsite,

there's the table,
there's a fire pit.

Ten-twenty feet away,

there's a steep hill that
goes to the creek.

It's a combination of

willowy, swampy,
creek bottoms,

steep hillsides,
some of 'em...

sage brush,
some of them timber.

Lot of rock.

They arrived
at the campground

late on the evening
of July 9th, Thursday evening.

It was very late,
it was dark.

They say they
instantly went to bed.

From day one,
law enforcement told us

that all of the people
at the campsite

were considered persons
of interests

just because they
were simply there.

DeOrr Sr and Jessica Mitchell,

the parents of young DeOrr,

Grandpa, Jessica's grandpa,

And another man
named Isaac Reinwand,

who was a friend of Grandpa

who apparently at
the last minute

decided to go camping
with them.

It was dark when
they got there.

DeOrr said they
parked the truck

parked the trailer
in the Suburban.

Issac pitched his tent,

they got Grandpa settled
in the camp trailer,

they slept in the back
of the Suburban.

Got up the next morning,
and then he realized

how rural it was.

You know,
they were basically at the end of the road.

Thought it was
a pretty safe place.

You know? Cliffs kinda
all the way around,

not really any way
for him to get out.

You know?

The next morning,
July 10th, Friday,

they wake up,

they're hanging around
in the campsite.

They had gone
into Leadore, to the store,

because Jessica needed
feminine products,

They went in there
and they bought,

you know, just that stuff

and then some candy and
stuff for the little man.

Jessica goes
to the bathroom,

as the boys loaded up.

And they return to
the campground.

So they get to the campground,

this Isaac and
the grandfather Bob

said, "We got some fish."

And he showed the fish
to DeOrr,

and DeOrr supposedly says,
"I ain't believing you caught those fish in the stream.

I can't believe it.
Show me where you got 'em."

So Jessica and DeOrr
with this Issac

go towards the creek,
which is maybe 100 feet away.

They say
to little DeOrr,

"Do you wanna come
with us?"

According to law enforcement,
little DeOrr follows them for a point,

but then turns around
and goes back.

The parents continue on assuming that Grandpa is watching DeOrr.

And Jessica tells me,

she keeps looking back
over her shoulder

to make sure the little boy
is not following them.

And when she was confident
he wasn't following,

they went to the two spots
along the creek

where they supposedly
caught the fish.

They went down there
probably 10-15 minutes,

and then they saw minnows.

And they were gonna go back to camp and get little man,

because he loves fish.

He loves bugs...
stuff like that.

And so,
they went back up there

and DeOrr looks
at Bob and says,

"Where's little DeOrr?"

And Bob says,
"He was right here."

"Where's little DeOrr?"
And Grandpa says, "He's right there."

Of course he's not there.

Grandfather claims he didn't
go inside his trailer.

But I believe he did.

Police say that Issac Reinwand at this time is down at the creek, fishing.

They say they panic.

They do a search of
the immediate campground.

They look wherever
they can.

Craziness started.
Everybody's...

I mean, they started yelling,
they started searching.

They searched for about
15 to 20 minutes.

No sign of them.

Then it's decided they
better call 911.

It's a remote area,
you can't get cell phone service.

Jessica says miraculously
she got a signal.

Um, my two-year-old son...

um, we can't find him.

DeOrr hops into his truck,

goes down the road to see
if he can get better service.

Both of them were
on the phone

with 911
at the same time.

You know, "My son's missing.
Can you help us?"

And then it's just all been
chaos from there.

Good evening, everyone.

You're in the right place,
at the right time.

This is Coast to Cost AM.

Tonight, we plunge once again,

into the deep end of
the paranormal pool.

Hundreds of people vanish from our national parks and forests.

Some right under the noses
of parents or family members,

under very unusual,
but very similar circumstances.

Dave Paulides, welcome back
to the program.

Thanks for
having me, George.

All right, Dave,
I wanna jump right into this.

DeOrr Kunz, two-years-old.

I mean, you were a cop.

If you were
investigating this case,

abduction is one of the least
likely events, right?

I would probably say yes.

And the reason for that is,

is that the family was
in a campground,

deep into the mountains.

There was one very
rocky, rough road going in,

and the same road out.

If someone would have driven
into that area,

you would think that the family would have heard him.

And if they would've
walked up to the campsite,

they for sure would
have been seen.

It's like,
it's like in so many of the other cases.

It's like he's plucked
out of the sky.

It's like just snatched
out of the sky.

That case
is very reminiscent

of a case that happened
decades earlier

just outside of Estes Park,
Colorado.

St. Malo is...
Purely for Catholics,

it's one of the most visited
placed in the Estes Valley.

Up on the hill
you have the statue of Christ.

Then right below that,

is St. Catherine's chapel.

The story of St. Malo
is really wonderful.

It goes back to a man
named Father Joseph Pascetti,

who was a Catholic priest.

One day, in 1916,

he came up to Tahosa Valley,

and he and two or three
others were camping

on the slopes of Mount Meeker,

when they saw
a meteor in the sky.

They got up,

wandered toward the meteor hoping they'd found where it came down,

and ended up standing
on the rock

where St. Catherine's Chapel
is located.

And Father Pascetti said this would be a good place for a boys' camp,

and the rest is history.

I'm the caretaker here,

at St. Catherine of Siena's
Chapel on the Rock.

This was built 1935

as a chapel for camp kids
for all those years.

Lots of camp kids
came here.

And 1973, I came up here
and became a camp counselor

at camp St. Malo,
and loved the outdoors.

Every week,
the kids would go on hikes.

There was an easy,
medium and hard hike.

And we'd have bonfire
and lodge night,

where we did skits
and sang songs and...

The camaraderie was awesome.

It's August,
it's a warm summer month.

Bobby Bizup was
a ten-year-old camper.

He was partially deaf,
wore a hearing aid.

And he liked to fish.

Well, on August 15th,
at about 6:00 p.m.

Bobby was fishing in the small
creek behind the retreat,

when a counselor approached him and told him it was dinner time.

Bobby acknowledged
the counselor

and started to follow him
downhill towards the retreat.

As the counselor was
walking back,

he turned behind him
to look,

and Bobby was gone.

And that's when
the search started.

St. Malo Retreat and
the summer camp

is right on the border of
Rocky Mountain National Park.

Within four days there were 400
searches from the National Park Service,

local sheriffs, volunteers
and SAR experts.

Officials were
difficult to understand

how Bobby could get lost

because it's straight downhill on a very defined trail to the retreat.

During the height
of the search,

the civil air patrol dropped
5,000 leaflets

over 200 square miles,

which were telling Bobby that his
parents loved him and they needed him.

On August 25th,
the formal search was terminated

after a nine day effort.

Now, there were
three counselors

that were looking for Bobby
that entire time,

and the following year
they returned.

And one day, they walked
up the side of Mount Meeker,

right through
the boulder field,

about 2,000 feet up
from the retreat,

and saw a hearing aid,

and bits of clothing.

They found
Bobby Bizup's remains.

And they found him
in a ravine,

up on the face
of Mount Meeker,

which is right here,

along Cabin Creek.

He was in a ravine
that they had searched

at least three times
the year before.

Make no mistake,
Bobby could not have been lost.

Uphill, the Meeker
is an exhausting

and treacherous
hiking spots.

Downhill to the retreat is
dinner and an easy hike.

You mentioned that
Bobby is hearing impaired.

When you look
at the big picture

in the number of cases
that you have investigated,

the fact that he's impaired is almost as if that's one of the factors

on why they're targeted.

George,
that's an interesting point.

It seems as though an abnormal number of these people

disappear with some type of
physical impairment,

or genetic deficiency.

So Bobby's case
happened August 15th, 1958.

These go back decades.

But even today it's happening
as we speak.

It's the third night
an Idaho Falls family

is spending without
their son.

More than 10,000
man hours have been put

into trying to find
a missing toddler

in Lemhi County.

A lot of facts
didn't add up.

I just... I don't know.

The day before--

It's a disappearance that has many scratching their heads.

Ten miles west of Leadore,

this campground
was the last place

anyone saw two-year-old
DeOrr Kunz Jr.

A child that age,

75 % of them are found within
four tenths of a mile

of the place last seen.

I mean, you look at the terrain
and it's extremely rugged,

but they can go further than
you think would be reasonable.

I sent a deputy up there,

activated Search and Rescue.

The sheriff
within a few hours

he had several searchers

who were searching
for this boy.

Wt find him.

We used dogs

to start with some
ground searchers.

To start with, uh...

Helicopter came in.

Top notch crew.

I mean,
the had flare which is forward looking infrared for night.

This is all these guys do.

This type of stuff,
search and rescue.

I wanna spread everybody
out in one long chain.

As wide as we can get.

I mean, from hilltop
to hilltop,

we gonna walk
the main street high.

I wanna cover every
little nook and cranny,

cover every log...

Anything that looks turned over,
check it out.

I was 90 to 100 miles an hour
driving around people,

you know, just acting
like a maniac to get up there.

I thought it's gonna be really foolish when I get up there

and get out of the car
and he's right there.

You know,
and I got out of the car and that wasn't what happened.

You know, everyone said

take five steps, look up,
look down, look around.

Take five steps, look up,
look down and around.

And that's what we do.

I mean, there's
a lot of area up there.

There is people everywhere.

I mean, there was 200 plus
searchers up there,

the day after he went
missing on Saturday.

You know, there was
people everywhere.

Maybe he fell
into the creek.

That creek,
Search and rescue crews

went through on
their hands and feet,

with poles, literally crawling
through that creek.

Nothing.

I suppose they
check wolf dens,

they check bear dens,

they check eagle nests.

Because an eagle could
pick up 30 pounds.

Little DeOrr weighed
approximately 27-28 pounds.

There are bears
in the area.

There's bobcats,
there's mountain lions.

There's other animals.

But there would be some
sort of clothing,

or a bone, or something,
you would think.

There's no clothing,
there's no flesh

or anything that would indicate
that an animal got him.

There's no blood,
there's nothing there.

You know, you think you
would find something.

You're talking about
the trace you're looking for,

or maybe a boot came off.

Well, they were camouflage
cowboy boots.

You know, the thing of it is,

everything there at that time of the year's that tall.

You know...

Same size as him.

It's possible.

This little boot
is similar...

Actually this
is the exact boot,

maybe just
a couple sizes bigger,

that DeOrr was wearing
the day he went missing.

I can tell you from experience,

that these boots don't
stay on real good.

My grandson kicks them off
in the car seat

every time
we put him in there.

They were too big for him,
so they were sloppy,

and he was clumsy anyway.

When he would walk,
he'd just walk clumsily.

Somebody picked him up,
the cowboy boot must have fallen off his feet.

So if these were the boots

that DeOrr was wearing
that day and they were too big,

certainly if an animal
would have grabbed him,

even if somebody else
had abducted him,

I think we would have
found... something.

The boots, his jacket...

Something would be found
up there.

We went for three or four days
without any sleep.

And I got to the point where

I was an emotional mess.

You gotta have
a twofold investigation.

You gotta think the search,
that's good.

Then you can't find anything,

then you start focusing
on the parents.

Then you focus on people,
who else were in the camp around at that time.

And so now they're
coming down hard

on Jessica and DeOrr.

Try to play
one against the other

to see if one's gonna tell.

Law enforcement
continually told us

that all of the individuals
were being cooperative.

They were all questioned
individually,

and together.

And they were working
with them.

There wasn't any
sort of red flag

that police were saying

that were pointing them toward
one specific individual.

You know, I've had to
grab her by the hand

and go for walks with her
and say,

"You just have to promise me,

if there's anything
that's going on,

you gotta talk to me,
you gotta tell me."

You know,
and those conversations

have been very clear
and straightforward,

and she's come back and said, "Mom,
I don't know why you're doing this to me.

I didn't have anything to
do with this."

DeOrr Sr. And Jessica Mitchell,

the parents of young DeOrr,

came into our studios
and looked upset.

They looked like they had been
wearing the same clothing

that they were wearing
when they were camping.

A hoodie...

She was carrying
DeOrr's blanket.

It was dirty,
it was ragged,

it hadn't been washed.
And a teddy bear.

One of his little toys.

We sat down, and as I
do with any interview,

especially with
a distraught parent,

you wanna show compassion
and kindness.

But you also
wanna find out if they

might have anything to do
with his disappearance.

All right, DeOrr,
so take us back...

Was it Friday?

I'm not sure what day
it is today.

- Today's Monday. It was Friday.
- Yeah. It was Friday.

Friday about...

2:26 is when I...
Was it 2:26?

It was 2:36 when I called.

2:36 is when she called
and I was in the truck

hauling down to the road,
trying to get service.

'Cause I didn't think
one bar would get it.

We... we were just...

Yeah, we decided we were
gonna go a little exploring.

He was gonna be good with
Grandpa by the campfire.

- We weren't probably more than 15--
- Ten minutes.

Fifty yards away
in ten minutes

by the time I'd seen him

to the point I figured out
he was gone.

And the creek was empty?

The creek,
there was nothing.

They had chainsaws,
um, moving,

'cause every few feet
it was blocked off.

Blocked down and
blocked off from nature.

From tress, from branches,
from debris.

I mean, there was a lot
of places that he could be,

and that's what they
wanted to eliminate.

That was my biggest concern.

'Cause that's where
we were by.

That means that there's
a chance he's still alive.

And that's all I need is a chance to know that he's still alive.

And until I have him...

and closure, or him,
nothing is stopping.

Nothing is...

Do you know if somebody
had a vendetta against you?

I mean, I'm sure you've
gone through your mind...

We've been
wreaking our brains.

We have been
wreaking our brains.

And I don't know anybody
that doesn't have a few people

that either will like you
or hate you.

But not to harm a two-year-old,
almost three-year-old.

Not to harm us this way.

Especially knowing how
much he means to us.

He's everything to us.

No, we're actually
getting married next month.

Oh.

I saw the rings and didn't know if it was engagement, or...

Engagement.

How long have you
been together? Pop quiz.

- Almost five years.
- Yeah.

Jessica's always been
very, very reserved.

She does not like to let
people see her emotionally.

Yeah, she is quiet.

And he is the one
that more dynamic.

Maybe you might say
probably to a fault.

You know, the 911 call
that she made,

everyone kept saying,

you know, why was it that
she was so calm?

I am
actually camping in Leadore.

Just outside of Leadore.

Uh-huh.

Um, my two-year-old son...

um, we can't find him.

I know they
need money.

I know they owe
a lot of money in Montpelier,

A lot of money
for childcare.

And I know she had
her tubes tied since,

so she could never have it reversed,
never have another child.

I think she did that because
she didn't want children.

But there's evidence
that she was...

Uh, had a hard time
dealing with kids.

She would leave her kid
at daycare,

and leave him unattended
many times.

I've talked to many people
that brought that up.

She has two kids
from her ex-husband.

And every other weekend they go to her house for the weekend.

Seemed like good kids.
Still think they are good kids.

Um...

They're hurting... bad.

Um...

I've held DeOrr while
he's cried.

After we
finished the interview,

I said, "Well, I hope
he's found today.

I hope you find him today."

And then, that night,

I saw them again
at a vigil.

Hear the God
of all comfort, Lord,

that you would comfort
the heart of Jessica and DeOrr

and Trina, Lord.

He could be very, very close.

He could be very far away.

We don't know,
but we are covering all bases at this point.

There's not much to be said other than one small mistake as a parent.

You know, leaving him
with an adult

that turns his head
for a minute,

they move, they go.

Please, cherish
and love each other.

'Cause it can be changed
in just a split second.

And they said that they were leaving from the vigil

to go back up
to the campsite

to continue to search.

Basically what we
would do is pick an area

were we would like
to hike and explore.

And so when we went along Big South Trail for the first time,

gorgeous hike,
beautiful, beautiful river.

This is really a wild area.

And the reason why Gary and I so much enjoy

hiking together.

And then it was
just coincidental

that we wound up
in a rock field

and said, you know,
"Let's hike up the ridge."

And I think it's about
2,000 foot hike up

elevation to get to
the top of it.

But really remarkable country.

Yeah, okay...

Pretty much it was like
almost a scramble.

So you're watching your feet,

and basically you're
just focused

a few feet in front
of you, your own feet,

so you don't twist an ankle
or something.

And that's when I saw
the shoe.

It was pretty pristine.

It was like somebody had just took their foot right out of it,
you know.

It was so fresh,
I thought like

I would see a kid
standing in front of me.

- Cheese.
- And what's your name?

Jaryd.

Now give me that big smile
with dimples.

Yeah!

It wasn't so much
that he liked the Raiders.

He loved silver and black.

And when he saw the Raiders
on TV one day,

He's like, "Dad, there's
a silver and black team."

I said, "Yeah, there is."
"That's my team, Dad."

And I'm like, "Okay."

So he's a Raiders fan.

My name is Jocelyn Atadero,

and my brother Jaryd Atadero
went missing

in the Colorado Mountains
in 1999.

As I was younger,

my dad would tell me that
I would tell him

certain memories I had
of the hike.

As I got older, though,

I couldn't even tell you what
I told him back then.

The only memory I have

of the resort,
or that whole time period,

is after Jaryd
had disappeared.

We were back
at the resort in a room...

I couldn't even tell you where,

and my dad was
kneeling on the ground crying,

and I was hugging him.

I was attracted
to Poudre Canyon,

because, you know,
the trees were beautiful.

And you know there's
stuff out there,

but it's just
interesting because

you become part of
the Poudre Canyon right there.

It was approximately
a ten acre resort.

It was small, but, you know,
we kept busy.

It was all about
just being there.

It was one of those
situations where

when you actually own
a little store there...

We got up at six o'clock
in the morning,

and we closed at eleven o'clock
in the night.

Not only did it
take care of us,

but how many people
get the opportunity

to be next
to their kids 24/7?

And that's what I really
enjoyed about the canyon.

There were only
three of us.

I mean, even though had
a family at the resort,

we had people that
worked for us,

it was Jocelyn, Jared and I.

We knew that
we were the family.

The group decided they wanted
to go to the trout farm,

the fishery,
right around the corner.

Maybe about a mile and a half,
two miles from the resort itself.

Hey, Allyn.
Jocelyn wants to know...

Several of the people
I knew quite well.

So I gave permission
for Jocelyn to go.

Not knowing that Jaryd
would be saying,

"Gee, Dad. If she can go,
why can't I go, too?"

He had his shoes on.

He hated tying his shoes.

So I didn't make him
tie his shoes.

And he had like
a beige color jacket.

Have fun, okay?

Don't get too close
to the water.

I let Jaryd go and I assumed
that's where they were going.

Moderate.
Ups, downs.

You could take a kid on it as long as you kept the kid in line

and hung onto him.

'Cause there was some areas where
the ledges were only 24 inches wide.

And you had loose shell all the way down to the river, so...

And then there was
rock fields.

Being a moderate trail,
it was pretty tough.

If you're not in shape,
it will take it out of you.

The church group went up
to the Big South Trail.

They parked at the trail head,

and they started walking
in on the trail.

They started to separate or
spread out as they walked.

Some people faster and slower.

One adult with Jaryd's sister
and Jaryd,

seemed to be out ahead
of everybody else.

As Jaryd,
as a three-year-old,

is running and playing
and having a good time.

And I believe
there was something

ten to twenty minutes
worth of time

that she lost track...

The adult realized, "I haven't
seen him for a while."

And when they went up
to try to find him,

they kept going thinking
they would catch up,

and they didn't catch up.

It was reported that he
spoke to some fishermen.

And he asked if
there were bears around.

And he's alone at this
point in time.

At least they have an idea,
you know, roughly

where he was last seen.

I myself was cleaning
some things,

and decided to sit down
and watch a football game.

And I must have been watching
for maybe 15 or 20 minutes,

and I slowly nodded off.

Something is wrong.

And they're like, "Allyn,
we have to talk to you."

"Sure. What's going on?"
And they said,

"We had a problem
with Jaryd."

"What happened? Did he fall?
Did he scrape his knee?

Did he break his arm?
What happened?"

And what they actually
said to me was,

"He's okay.
We just can't find him."

At that moment, I realized
I had to go up the road.

We got in our cars.
I was in my truck.

And I'm like, "Well,
where are we going?"

They said it's about...
I can't remember.

Sixteen, fifteen, sixteen
miles up the road.

I'm like, "Are you serious?"

How'd you guys get that
far up the road?

And the entire way
up the road,

I just kept beating myself
on the chest,

like someone had stabbed
me with a sword.

Just beating my chest
and yelling.

Dad's sorry, little man.

Just yelling Jaryd's name.

Sorry I let you go...

Yelling for God
to help me.

Please help me find
my son, Lord.

Just yelling and screaming.

I yelled and screamed
in my truck

all the way up the road.

I don't even know how
I got there.

I drove that road
probably twice as fast

as anyone should even
drive that road.

Jaryd!

Jaryd!

And as I ran up that trail,

I yelled and yelled,
and screamed his name,

screamed, "Jaryd."

Screamed "Jay-Rod."
I called him Jay-Rod.

I called him "my little man."

I called every name
I could,

trying to get a response
from him.

And I listened.

And I'm not sure exactly
how far we got up on the trail,

but I stopped and I realized, "Oh,
my God. This is gonna be...

This is not what
I thought it was.

I just can't get up here
and find him."

We worked for solid eight days to begin with.

And that was 24 hours a day
for eight days.

We're gonna keep
visual contact at all time.

We did some night searching.

It was limited
to a certain extent,

but we did always have
people out in the field

to make noise,

so if somebody was
out there now,

Jaryd would have heard it,
he would have maybe

responded or went to.

It was very intense.
Very media friendly.

I mean,
there was media, CNN...

So it became a real
nationwide episode.

So, that put a lot of stress on us and a lot of stress on the dogs.

It was a situation to where...

people lost hope.

Like, we're not gonna
find him, you know.

This is one of those situations
where he disappeared.

We had hiked the area
couple of times before,

and we had talked about

the mystery of Jaryd Atadero.

Whether he had been
swept downstream,

abducted by a mountain lion,

or of there had been something
more sinister than that.

This time, we decided
to go off trail.

And we just walked
right into it.

And we knew right away

that it was probably
Jaryd Atadero's clothes.

Not...
Boy, that's a hard one.

No way. No way.

- I...
- Absolutely no way.

Not all the way.
I couldn't see him going...

He lived in a cabin--

He's a three-year-old.
There's no way...

There's no way
that would happen.

Yeah. I mean, it was a struggle
for Gary and I to get there.

Very rough terrain.

There were K-9 alerts

that would go
that direction.

Now, whether they were right
at the scree field,

or before it, but they were
at least alerting up that hill.

That's why I'm reasonably
certain we searched it,

because we...
When a dog alerts like that,

we're thinking, "Okay,
something must be up there.

Let's get up there
and search for it."

But we never
found anything.

I think whatever's happening is
beyond our understanding.

In a lot of these cases,

Search and Rescue,
or the volunteer searching people

have already gone
over certain areas,

not once, not twice,
but even dozens of times.

And then,
the child is found there

maybe a year,
maybe a few years later.

When we had
discovered the clothes

and went back up there,

with some of the people
involved in the search,

you know, they were all
scratching their heads.

Like, you know, they had
all been around

the area.

My conclusion was
an animal encounter

right at the beginning.

And so, I'm not sure
officially

what has really been
released as a finality,

but it pretty much points
to an animal encounter.

If a cat actually took him,

which is what I believe,
I believe happened.

The cat would have taken
him some place

and buried him, and...

With all of the activity
that was going on.

It probably would
have left,

because we would have
scared it away,

and it would have
came back later.

I hear constantly
about a mountain lion.

Yet, when they tested
Jaryd's clothing,

there was
no mountain lion hairs,

no DNA, no blood,
nothing on his clothing.

This is actually what's
left of the cranium

after four different DNA tests.

To think that I...

I mean, I have a hard time
comprehending this.

But to think I'm actually sitting here holding my son...

This is what I have
left of him.

The clothing was sent
to the CBI.

The clothing was
tested by the CBI.

No mountain lion hairs,

no blood, nothing on any
of the articles of clothing.

If a mountain lion
would have attacked him,

they go for the stomach area.

This jacket would
have been in shreds.

I've been told
by several people,

mountain lion experts
in the woods,

this jacket would not have survived a mountain lion attack, period.

These are the actual shoes.

These are Jaryd's shoes that were found up on the mountain.

I've been told by experts

that they do not look like they've been in the wilderness

for three-and-a-half years.

The other thing that's
interesting about the shoes

is you would think

that if a mountain lion
were dragging his body

up a mountain,

and dragging him like this,

you would see marks
on his shoes.

And there are no marks here.

You would think if he was
dragging him this way

up the mountain,

not only would you
see marks,

but it would have pulled
his shoes off way before

the area where they found him.

Jaryd's pants were
found inside out.

When people first see this,

they get terrified, and go,
"Oh, my gosh!

What could have
happened to him?"

There were birds
and rodents and stuff

literally pulling it apart,

using the material
as nesting.

So you see
this material everywhere.

So it's not because
something attacked him

and ripped his leg off.

This is all due to
rodents and birds.

We were relieve in one sense,

that the mystery had
been solved.

My sense of it is that

Jaryd was abducted
in the boulder field

by the mountain lion.

The mountain lion
grabbed him by his shoulder,

and went straight up
the side of this mountain.

In one of the reports,

a person says,

"The reason why we didn't find
any DNA or blood

or anything
on Jaryd's clothing,

is because either he or something removed his clothing

before he was attacked."

Either Jaryd or something removed his clothing before he was attacked.

And they go on to say that

"Because there are so many
hikers coming up,

that the mountain lion took Jaryd's body 500 feet up the side of the cliff."

Well, wait a second.

I can buy all that.

But I can't buy this.

If something or someone took Jaryd's
clothing off before he was attacked,

that means his clothing
wasn't with him

when this thing carried
him up the mountain.

Jaryd's pants were
found inside out.

Told by many
mountain lion experts,

mountain lions don't pull
clothing off of you,

especially your pants and leave them there on the mountain

inside out.

There's just too much...

There are too many questions
that don't have answers.

And I feel strongly, my family
and I feel strongly

that there is someone
out there

who knows a little bit
more than we know.

You know, when I
get questioned about this

from people who've heard
our interviews,

people will stick to that

it's a bear,
it's a mountain lion,

it's some kind of an animal.

But I mean, they leave clues,
there's evidence.

There's blood,
there's tissue,

there's indications of
a struggle, right?

Oh, absolutely.

And when the trackers come in
with search and rescue,

they're looking for
those indicators.

There's gonna be a massive
scene there of blood,

hair, drag marks and things,

as the animal would be
taking you away.

That's one of the points
that we vet

before we even look into
one of these cases.

And in the last 100 years,

there's only been 14 fatal
mountain lion attacks

in the United States
and Canada.

Idaho Falls, Idaho,

and Robert C. Walton.

I didn't play
with him much.

He was just getting to
the point where he

could do something,
you know.

He was over here quite a bit
with Jessica.

And he'd come over here
and bum candy off me.

Well...

Sure. I think a little.

But...

I think everybody who was there has a little guilt about it.

You know?

DeOrr and Jessica
say that

they decided to go
camping that weekend

to kind of relive

good memories for
Grandpa Bob Walton.

This was apparently a spot
that in his earlier years

Bob Walton had gone to
several times.

Grandpa is on oxygen.

Some have said,
has some memory issues.

Law enforcement,
since day one,

have continually
ruled out Grandpa,

because of his health issues,

and they don't think he was
in the right frame of mind

to do anything like this.

With my dad being ill,

I asked Jessica
to go up there,

to be with him in the event that something happened to my father

that she could
take care of him.

I don't know Bob,

and I've never met Issac.

But being the only
other two people there,

other than Jessica
and DeOrr...

If he was taken
from that campground,

they have to be
involved somehow.

Since DeOrr Kunz
disappeared,

many have had questions about the friend who was with the family

that day at the campsite.

His name is Issac Reinwand.

So we went to his
Idaho Falls house

over and over...

Hello.

...and over again.

Finally,
early Monday morning,

he answered the door.

I'm Nate Eaton with
East Idaho News.

Yeah, I don't have any
questions, I'm sorry.

You don't have anything
you wanna say?

All right.
Sorry to wake you up.

We just wanna see if you have anything to say about DeOrr missing.

- I don't.
- You don't?

I have no comment.

So he was just with you and the grandfather when he wandered away?

Mm-hmm.

And then, you guys thought
he was with the parents?

Yeah.

And the parents came back
and he was gone?

Mm-hmm.

Okay, listen. I don't have...
I don't... I can't...

I don't wanna answer
anymore questions or anything.

Thank you, sir.

Strange thing about Issac,
he never searched for the boy.

I interviewed Issac.

He's a strange duck.

And he does have a prior
conviction of a sex crime.

It was reduced to
a felony and a misdemeanor.

And the strange thing

is the morning after
the little boy was missing,

he got up and said to
several people,

"It's the best night's rest
I had in a long time."

The parents told me that
they had never met Issac

until this camping trip.

That Grandpa said, "Oh,
I'm gonna bring along a friend.

We're gonna fish together.

We'll have a fun weekend
away together."

And the parents were
okay with that.

Bob Walton?

That's one of my
good friends that I met him

when I lived over on
Chamberlain Avenue.

I've known him for about
five years or so.

He's always tried to
help me out.

And I have done work
for him in his yard.

He's always taking me on
fishing trips every year, so...

I decided I wanted to
go this year, too,

because, you know,
it's fun.

It was nice and clear.

Hot...

I don't know. It was noisy
'cause of the creek.

But other than that,
it was a wonderful day.

There wasn't really
a cloud in the sky.

Not too much.
Only that I was fishing

and Issac was watching me,

and he got all excited after
I'd caught a couple.

He was gonna get
his pole out.

I think we caught
four or five.

About that time, here come
Jess and DeOrr back.

I don't know. I think it was about noon,
maybe a little after.

They had to go down to
get some gas for the truck.

And they came back.

So Issac and
Jessica and DeOrr was...

went to look for fish.

And the kid was
there with me,

but I turned my head
for a minute, I don't know

for how long, five or ten
minutes, I don't know.

The grandfather claims he
didn't go inside his trailer.

But I believe he did.

I believe he did
go inside the trailer.

I showed them
a couple of fishing holes.

I was going down
to another fishing hole.

I was probably down there
half an hour, an hour, and...

I looked to the right where
they were fishing.

And I noticed their fishing poles laying there on the ground,

and they weren't there.

And then
here come DeOrr.

What were his words?
"Little DeOrr?"

And I said,
"He's right there." You know.

And then, I see my friend Bob
upon the ridge

and I walked up to him and asked him what was going on.

And he said,
"DeOrr is missing."

So we all started
looking for him.

No.

No, I was the last one
to see the kid.

And it wasn't that much...
Five-ten minutes.

They was looking for him
themselves.

Everyone's gonna have to have someone to blame here.

You know, and unfortunately

the last person to see him is gonna be the one that has the blame,
you know.

I mean, there was four people
in that campground that day.

If everyone was that
worried about it,

the baby should have went
with the parents.

He chose not to, 'cause
he wanted to stay with my dad.

He wanted candy.

This is the campsite where DeOrr and his family were camping.

It looks like
your average campsite.

You've got a fire pit,
a picnic table...

Very close to the creek we
have heard so much about.

In fact, the creek
is just here,

a few yards away.

Notice the terrain
down to the water.

It's very steep.

I don't...

I really don't know what
happened to little DeOrr.

In my heart or nothing else.

No, I don't.

I don't.

I really don't know what
happened to the kid.

I don't know how much
more you need.

It would be nice
to get him back.

That's the only thing
that I can say.

We stayed up there until
about, you know, the...

the Red Cross left.

Till law enforcement told us
we could go home, so...

And just coincidentally,

above where
DeOrr disappeared,

above that campsite,

there is a large boulder field

extending an
extraordinary distance.

And that would be
one of those area

that I'd give
an intense look at.

According to
Oregon State Police,

there are 41 missing children
in Oregon.

One of them is Samuel Boehlke.

He was eight-years-old
when he vanished

at Crater Lake
six-and-a-half years ago.

Crater Lake is
a magnificent place.

The first time
somebody sees it

and the 100th time
somebody sees it,

you say, "Wow."

It is a top of a mountain.

It was blown off thousands
of years ago,

It was a volcano caldera

that filled up with water.

The water is the most incredible blue that you can imagine.

Knock out beautiful.

I've been there
dozens of times.

Maybe a hundred times.

It's one of the most
foreign places

that you can really
imagine on Earth.

Every trip that
I've gone there,

it's also a different
kind of a mood.

Three, two, one.

The best news about today's search
and rescue effort is that the weather...

As a news guy,

this was a story that
was equally frustrating.

Some of them just start off bad
and they get worse.

The way I understand Sammy's
disappearance is that he was

visiting Crater Lake
with his dad.

Staying at
Diamond Lake Resort.

He's got some
developmental problems.

Maybe some, uh...

Some form of
autism on a scale.

While he is at Crater Lake,

they are near what's called
the Cleetwood Cove overlook.

They got about quarter mile
to the east

of Cleetwood Cove Trail.

And they parked, and he
kind of went running off.

At some point Sammy crosses the road,
and he's up this

a scree hill of kind of some rock cutout where the road is there.

And there was
a cyclist riding by

that had stopped to
take a photo.

And Sammy was getting ready,

or looked like he was gonna
throw a rock at the cyclist,

and the cyclist cautioned him.

And dad was yelling for
Sammy to come back.

And whether Sammy was
just being a boy,

or if there was something to
do with his condition also...

He ran the other direction.

His dad ran up the hill
after him,

and he had vanished.

It gets very, very cold
at Crater Lake

this time of the year.

I mean, it easily gets down
below freezing at night.

And so, time was really
of the essence.

So, beginning at about
six o'clock, Saturday night,

we started putting
searchers into the field.

That first night we had up to
about 25 searchers.

A combination
of foot searchers,

search dogs
and tracking teams.

That's what we're basing
this entire search on.

We're searching for a live
Sammy Boehlke.

Perhaps burrowed in
under some thick vegetation,

or from a rock overhang.

We were really involved the next
day after Sammy went missing.

I remember it being a difficult search because of weather.

Two feet of snow came in
the next day.

And the park, I think, was
overwhelmed with

the people
starting to come in.

They set up staging area,

and now they've got all
of this assistance coming

to try to help and look.

We did a limited
helicopter search

on Saturday morning.

And unfortunately, the weather
has been conspiring against us.

And after about
six short passes

over the search area,
the weather socked in,

the clouds came in,
the rains started.

And we weren't able to
fly anymore that day.

I believe the number
that comes to mind

was they had 174 people
up there

from different search
and rescue agencies.

That included search and rescue units from neighboring counties.

Helicopters, search dogs...

The term we use
is "last seen point",

and that's our reference spot

usually from where we start
our search.

Well, this is the area where

Sammy was last seen
on Saturday.

The ridge behind me

with the kind of dirt slope
at the top of that ridge

was where Sammy was
last seen by his father.

It appears that a National Park is within a county,

it really is its very own
sovereign place.

And so,
we received a phone call

that there was
a missing child there.

And we were very anxious
to send searchers.

We were wanting to send
investigators.

And the parks often used
their own staff,

uh, initially.

They are sometimes
an island unto themselves

that it's somewhat
exclusive jurisdiction.

We are over 400 National
Parks in the United States,

which is something that
we're very proud of.

The National Park Service is a unit within the Department of the Interior.

And within
the National Park Service,

there's a Director
of the National Parks,

and the headquarter is
in Washington DC.

And then there are regions
throughout the United States

where they have
responsibility over

a certain number
of the parks.

I don't recall.
I would have...

I would have
regular briefings

on different things
that were going on.

There were significant
national crisis

where the Secretary of Interior
should know.

There's a whole agency
of 23,000 people

that were more involved in
the day to day activity

of any given person,

any given incident,
or any given park.

As somebody who's been
an avidly outdoor person

all my life,

it just is unthinkable to me
that there's no accountability

from our government,

when it's easy
to be accountable,

especially in this
day and age of technology.

Sometimes records
are kept,

and sometimes records
are not kept.

There's no requirement for
the Federal Government to

keep records of people
who go missing

on Federal lands.

Thank you.

In today's day and age,

we should be collecting as much information as we can,

and putting it in a database
that's open,

that's not guarded
by anyone.

If we want to help find
the next lost person,

we can learn a lot by what went right in that previous search,

what went wrong
in that previous search.

What would they have
done differently.

A good record keeping
of a search,

whether it was successful
or not,

needs to be on hand,

so that the next time
we go there,

the search leader can make
informed decisions

and use resources very wisely.

In the work I do
with missing airplanes,

we're always trying to look
at that missing airplane list.

When I was sheriff
of Klamath County,

I could get my hands on
a list of missing people

in a matter of minutes.

If you have areas that you don't even know there's missing people.

If you have
specific jurisdictions

that don't have that data,

it makes it really difficult
going back to re-investigate

when more information comes.

The reality is that if...

say, park authorities
were open about

how many people are missing,

from national parks and public parks and wilderness areas,

then those of us who are going to shove our fear and still go out there,

we can go out
better protected.

That's what I think
authorities should do.

I think they should come clean and say,
"Here's all the information.

Now you know.

We don't know what's going on,

but at least you should
protect yourself.

It's obviously
an unsolved mystery.

Um, it's one of those
things that...

you kind of carry it
in the back of your mind

every time that you go and
visit Crater Lake.

I mean,
it's a tourist destination.

It's a happy place to be.

But you go up there and
you do think

it's a beautiful place,
but it's not without tragedy.

The strongest theory?
While, there's many...

The strongest theory is that
he was in those woods somehow,

and he likely,
in my opinion,

got covered up by snow,

and then, maybe became
victim of an animal later on.

I believe that when
a child goes missing,

that you throw every resource
you have at it initially.

And I would have liked to
have seen that happen

with Sammy that night.

It is the end of month one,

and the search for two-year-old DeOrr Kunz Jr.
Continues.

Many believe DeOrr isn't
on that mountain.

Search and Rescue
and all the townspeople,

everybody went out there.

Everybody went out there.

There's been a lot of people
up there looking. A lot.

A lot of people.

Even after
the search was done,

there's been people.

I think he would have been found if he was...

Don't you?

Several people have mentioned other people that live in Lemhi County.

There's a woman that runs
a restaurant there.

Some people have said that
she may have been involved.

The mother and father
knew that the baby was dead,

so they said,
"Please help us."

They paid her $1,000
to dispose of the body.

Police have cleared her.

There's... I mean, there's
so many theories out there.

People, you know, owe...

You know, the parents did
something to him.

Or it was an accident.

They said the boy was up there
to use that as a ruse

to say that he's missing.

But he was never up there
to begin with.

Oh, he was there.

I've seen him trying to play
in the campfire.

He was playing with his dad.

Several people have said there's sex offenders that live in town,

and that maybe they knew this
little boy was up there,

so they concocted this plan
to go up there and take him.

We're thinking more like
somebody kidnapped him.

They'd followed him back
to the door

and caught me when I wasn't looking and snatched him.

I've heard everything from
"Big Foot took DeOrr,"

to maybe a trucker
picked him up.

To maybe he's a child
sex slave in Canada.

A lot of Facebook groups
have been set up

where any time, any sort
of update on DeOrr is out,

they'll post the link and
a hundred people will comment.

There's probably
a dozen different

Facebook pages out there
that people have started.

And there's a lot of it that's positive support for the family,

but there's a lot of it
that's just condemning.

Called them murderers,
said they're neglectful parents.

That they should never
have kids.

Social media has its upside,

but terrible downside, as well.

People jumping to conclusions,
spreading rumors.

And that just complicates
the grief so much more.

The parents are having
to defend themselves

at the same time as
they're trying to grieve,

and trying to wrap their arms around the fact that their child is missing.

The family's been
accused of drug use,

and of sleeping with
certain people.

Everything from their looks,
to their demeanor,

to how they speak.

In fact, I even told them,
stay off social media.

I said, you want
the broadcast media,

the print media to
be on your side.

Whatever comes out,

the social media
may misinterpret that

and say some things that
are cruel or not true.

But don't even pay
attention to them.

And it may be that people have
become fixated with this case,

and they're craving something.

They want some sort of
nugget of news,

or new information.

And when they don't get that,
they speculate.

And then it spreads,
and you can't control it.

Every time somebody
would come around

who was part of the media,

they would say,
"What blank blank are they doing here?

Why are they here?"

And that bothered me as to why would they not want coverage.

I knew that they were offered
Nancy Grace for an hour.

Good Morning America
called them,

and they wouldn't go.

It can only help.
It can't hurt.

And at this point,

having his face plastered everywhere is how we're gonna find him.

You know, every time somebody
goes to Walmart,

wherever they're at,
or get out of their car,

I want DeOrr's face to
be in their mind.

I'm not aware of any manual
of how you're supposed to act

if your child goes missing.

You know, so, um...

It's extremely stressful
for them.

And then, when you
have people,

you know, trying to
make assumptions

and judgments without
a lot of information,

it's gotta be very difficult.

Hi, this is Jessica.

Leave me a message and
I'll get right back to you.

I asked DeOrr why she was
freaking out on me

when you told me it was okay.

He says, "I told Jess and
she doesn't like the idea."

This is the strangest
case that I've worked.

Everybody else,
they plead for television coverage.

They plead for radio coverage,
newspaper coverage.

They plead for this.

That's what's so strange.

Why are they acting this way?

Are they
concealing something?

It-- It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter who thinks
you're a murderer.

It doesn't matter who thinks
you did what to your son.

It matters that we need
to find your son.

Basically I notified
them in writing

that because they didn't
want to cooperate with

the broadcast media
or print media

that I was gonna
back out of the case

and I withdrew my $20,000
offer of a reward.

One of them
didn't really care.

The other one said,
"Thanks for giving up on our son."

Brantley. Brantley.

- Come here.
- Go see mom.

Oh! I have that boy.

What did you buy mommy?

What are you
watching on YouTube?

She's not a people person.

She's like... Oh, look.

Yeah?
Are you gonna tell them, mm?

Anything for you.

Like I said... They just...
They...

I don't know.

I think they cope
with it different,

and maybe they have
different ideas

of what is a good idea to help
find their son.

Is that them?

That's DeOrr.

What the
is going on?

Dude, I called...

You didn't do
anything, I know.

You're fine.

- I just wanted to help.
- You're fine.

She's just
going through shit.

I'm Edna,
Keith's mother.

I was visiting my parents
in Ritter, Oregon,

and it was Easter time,
Easter came early that year.

So there was snow
on the grounds.

Patches of snow
on the ground.

It was a cattle,
cattle area.

And my parents
were ranchers.

And the neighbors were
pretty much also.

He was a happy child,
a very happy child.

He and his older brothers
had gone to the barn

to see a new calf.

And it was lunch time.

And so I called the boys
and the older two came,

and Keith didn't.

And so I said,
"Where's your brother?"

He said, "Oh, he went
around the barn."

And so, we went to find him,

and he wasn't there.

We were able to start a search
immediately for him.

It was long before Search
and Rescue was organized

like it is today,

but they knew how to search.

And so they went within speaking distance of each other

so that they were
able to communicate.

Everyone was just marvelous.

We felt that there was
about 200 people there.

And they searched through
the night.

I didn't know until much later

that he had gone through
this herd of cattle.

But they
found his footprints.

Even as the crow flies,

his journey from his house

to where his tracks
were found,

is three miles.

And then, his body is found
way over here.

Five miles away.

Eight miles in total.

He was stiff, too.

His little body
couldn't move.

He was found face down
in the snow, and...

his little face was scratched
pretty bad when we found him.

It was at lunch time
when he had disappeared.

And it was about
seven o'clock the next morning

when he was found.

Eight miles.
That's as the crow flies.

It's impossible to walk
out here as a crow would fly.

In a span of
less than 24 hours,

you'd have to believe that
this two-year-old

covered perhaps as many
as twelve miles.

As it was...

his clothing was found ripped,

and we figure it's likely
from barbwire fences.

Either going through them
or under them.

And even with
a full moon tonight,

I can't see anything
going through this bush.

So if I'm
a two-year-old child,

and I've got to walk through this,
or crawl through this,

I get to this time of night...

I can't see Keith
going anywhere.

I can't go anywhere.

How a two-year-old
could travel

the topography
I'm traveling now...

Little shoes and it was
freezing temperatures.

Even if he was a kid
full of energy.

This is roughly the area
the searchers found him.

His father was about
100 yards that way.

And he's found here.

Face down in the snow.

Hat and coat beside him.

Searcher finds him. Father one,
maybe 200 yards away.

Runs over, picks him up,

and he's alive.

Over the years,
in the Ritter area,

when we'd go visit there,

someone would
come visit and say,

"Oh, yeah. I remember
we looked for you.

Thank goodness
you were found."

And I'd say, "Oh, that's great
and thank you for looking."

This is the cap that I wore.

It's got little
earmuffs on 'em.

This is my little cap.

And this here's
one of my shoes

that I had on.

This is my jacket that
I was carrying with me.

I took it off for
whatever reason,

and I was carrying my cap
in my coat, in my hand,

I had alongside me as I was
laying prone on the ground.

I had that in my hand.

This here is my shirt
that I had.

And then, as you can see,
on my bib overalls,

you can see the tears

on them where I caught it
in the fence,

trying to go through
the fence and stuff.

And it tore the...

and caught the...
I got a tear in the back

where the barbwires
caught it.

And, uh...

tore it.

Those are the clothes
my mom kept

for all these years.

We just
never gave up hope.

And he was found.

Although he'd suffered frostbite on his hands and feet,

we were just fortunate that
he was found when he was.

We never made a big issue
of him being lost,

because we didn't want
to frighten him,

and to make him
afraid of dark,

or to be frightened.

I felt he'd gone through that.

No nightmares
about it at all.

I don't recall at all
anything about it.

They asked me what happened
and I told them I didn't know.

I didn't know what happened
and they asked me.

I had quite a few scratches on my face and hands.

Someone asked me how I got those and
I told them the cat had scratched me.

So, I had no recollection

of what had happened to me.

It's the kind of baffling case
that has you sit back and go,

nothing that I can
put my finger on

in a normal set of circumstances in the wilderness

makes any sense
to this case whatsoever.

It's something other.

Very quiet now.

'Cause that's not
usual for him.

You get all kinds of little motor noises coming out of there from him,

and he's just
with his cars.

It's very quiet.

Usually you're
stepping on Hot Wheels,

or Legos, or something.

The whole house
is the same way.

The whole house
is very quiet now.

It's just...
It's not anywhere at home.

You go with it day by day hoping you can get your life back.

Hoping he's okay, because

this ain't it.

This sucks.

Little man.

Everyday I was happy,
because I got to spend it with him.

I could go to work and
take him to work with me

and still have
that time with him.

And then, we'd come home
and make dinner

and give him his bath,

and put jammies on,

and watch a little TV
and play,

and then read him a story
or sing him a song

to put him to sleep,

and give him about
ten million hugs

before I could
leave the room.

And I miss those days.

A lot.

Um, what was it?

- About a month?
- Three...

Yeah, it was like a month.

Three weeks to a month
after he went missing.

Is when they brought
the FBI in.

The FBI originally called
Lemhi County and said,

"We heard about this case.

Do you guys need
any assistance?

We'll help you out."

And they said,
"Yeah, can you handle, like,

the forensic part of this?"

Right off he showed you
inside his truck.

It's an old beat up truck.

There was still the light,
the dome light.

It was covered with
FBI evidence tape.

That's one thing they
hadn't taped down.

So he did let them
swab their truck.

We were told that a report should come out within six to eight weeks.

And we're at
the eight week mark now,

with still no answers.

They're coming up with any sort of theory,
or any sort of hypothesis

as to what could have
happened with DeOrr Kunz.

We want them to come back and say we have reason to believe

because of this and this
that he was abducted.

So we're now...

We're looking at tis individual.
We're looking here... We're doing...

It gives us more
of a direction to go in.

Some people are, like,
they're afraid of the FBI.

No, we are not.
I have nothing to hide.

I have no--
I didn't do anything wrong.

Bob's friend Issac stayed
in his own tent.

Bob stayed in the camper.

Jessica, I and little DeOrr
stayed in Bob's Suburban.

I got out of the Suburban
that morning

and they were actually...
Her and my son were

already up and out.

And they were just getting ready to start breakfast.

So we decided, okay, well,
"Bob, what's the plan?"

Him and Issac were gonna
go fishing.

And I said we're gonna
go down to Leadore,

get a few things and
we'll come back up.

And he says, "Well,
be back here by 1:00 if you can."

Got our groceries and Jessica
went to the restroom.

I loaded little DeOrr in
the truck with the groceries,

and she came out and
we headed back up.

It's 45 minutes up.

And Bob and Issac were just
coming back into camp,

'cause they were fishing down the
creek right by where we were camping.

And Jessica got
little DeOrr out.

And we parked where
that jeep is right now.

My grandpa was sitting in
a chair right here.

And we had our double chair
right about in here.

And I handed my grandpa
the candy that we bought him.

Issac and my grandpa were talking about how they went fishing

in the creek and caught fish.

Just down... up in there.

And we decided that we were
gonna go up and

look to see if there was
fish in the creek.

After were decided that
we're gonna go up there,

I asked my grandpa if it was okay if we could leave little man with him.

And he said, "Yeah, he's fine.

He wants candy anyways."

And he was about ready
due for a nap, anyway,

and you could tell he was
getting pretty tired.

Se we were gonna leave
him with Bob,

instead of making him
walk and all that.

So we headed up
this road right here.

Right about where that
smaller tree is.

We stopped and noticed that
little man was following us.

So DeOrr asked him,

"Do you wanna go with us,
or do you wanna stay with Grandpa Bob?"

And he said, "No, yeah."

And turned around and started
walking back towards my grandpa.

So we realized he was gonna go back to camp with my grandpa,

so we headed up.

I figured he was with
my grandpa, he was fine.

And we walked up
to the creek,

and Issac said, "Right here,
right here is where we

were fishing
and caught fish."

And he turned around and
walked back towards this way.

DeOrr and I stayed up
by the creek and kinda just

looked in the water and looked to see if we could see any fish.

I started getting my
fishing gear ready,

'cause I figured this is kind
of a good spot to fish.

And there was one spot
that had minnows in it.

And they were
just stuck there.

They couldn't get out
from the low level.

And I thought, "God, this will
be neat for him to see."

Jessica stayed at the creek,

and I walked up the bank

and got back up on the bank
and went towards camp

and I yelled to Bob
where's little DeOrr.

I could hear voices
up in the camping area.

And you can actually,
where I'm standing right now,

you can actually see
the table,

the picnic table that's
in our campground.

But I could hear DeOrr's voice.

I just couldn't make out
what he was saying.

I hollered to him,
"Where's my son?"

And he says, "I don't know."

And I said,
"Bob, where's my son?"

And he said, "He headed up
that way towards you guys."

I saw somebody walking

in between these trees
right here.

Realized that it was Issac,

with the fishing stuff
in his hand.

And he was walking
towards the creek.

And then, by that time,

I looked back at the creek
for a split,

like, maybe ten seconds.

And by then,
I heard DeOrr yelling.

And I turned around
and looked

straight across from me,

and he was right there,
saying...

"Little man's gone.
He's not in the campground.

We can't find him."

We came up this way,

asking where my grandpa...

Where he had gone
last time he saw him.

And he saw him right next to
that pine tree,

kinda sitting down.

He said he was either
playing with the dirt,

or playing with his shoes.

Once I knew that he
was missing, that was like,

what really made me panic

is, like, I don't
want him to drown.

He's not in the camper,
he's not right in this area.

And she started
searching by the creek,

and I'm up and around.

We search for about
20 minutes or so.

And I didn't hear him.
I didn't...

We were panicking,
we didn't hear him.

So we decided we needed to call,
to summon Search and Rescue.

A lot of what happened
just doesn't make sense.

'Cause he would've...
I think he would've screamed,

or tried to say, "Mama."

Within the hour of him
being going missing,

it rained and then it
got really hot.

So he would've taken
his jacket off.

And we didn't find anything.
That place was scoured.

The only thing that I'm sure of is that Jessica that day was with me.

She was with me
and I was with her.

So the only thing that
I'm sure of is that

she had nothing to do with it,
I had nothing to do with it.

'Cause we were with
each other.

And I was searching the creek,

and in the water
the whole time up until

Ray, um, Stevens got here
with Search and Rescue.

And he asked me to come up
and sit in the campground.

That as a parent is
one of the hardest things

when you have all these
professionals telling you

stay at the camp, and they
have reasonings for that.

Because if they find...
If they found my son,

then they gotta go
looking for me.

And...

Or they didn't want
us to react, you know,

and go after somebody
that we thought

had something to do with it.

When your child goes missing,

you're a number one suspect.

It's sad, but it's true.

You got grieving parents
that are already riled up,

and you know,
you've gone through

literally the most living hell
any parent can think of.

And you get hooked up
to a machine and...

The fact is...

It's hard.
There was no problems,

but they called a...

Something pass.

Inconclusive pass.

You're scared to death,
you're riled up, you're...

scared for your child,

you're scared for your family.
Your...

Your mind's going in
a million different directions.

- And nothing is ever...
- Nothing makes sense.

But you don't get any answers out of
any of those directions you're going in.

And so, you get hooked up
to a machine like that,

and everybody's thinks,
"Hook 'em up to a polygraph." Go ahead.

Go right on ahead.
I have nothing to hide.

But just know that they're
not very useful.

Well, we still have
a missing child.

You know, I believe
he's still out there.

We just haven't found him yet.

You know, everybody
wants an answer.

Hopefully some day we'll
come up with one.

Working on a documentary

about a little kid that went missing in Leadore.

You know about the case?

Everything I said,
and no matter what I did,

you're dammed if you do,
dammed if you don't.

I did not want...

I wanted the media
to be on my son,

not on me, not on Jessica.

'Cause that doesn't
help find him.

Everything I would say
would be twisted.

Yeah, we were actually...

The whole reason why we haven't
been on the news a lot,

and doing this stuff is because

we're actually out there.

Like, I don't even know
how many times we...

How many hours,
how many days,

how many weekends,
how much money,

our money that we have spent
just going up there

to search for him.

But all these people
saying their hearsay stuff,

and saying that, you know,
there's something wrong,

because we're not on the news
and this and this and this.

No, we're doing something
for our son.

You're right.
I didn't wanna spend all this time in front of the public every day

and pet the pride
of everybody

to let them know that
I didn't do anything.

Because I know I
didn't do anything.

I know she didn't
do anything.

I had one job
and I still have that job.

Find that little boy.

He knew his name was
DeOrr Jay Kunz.

And he knew his mama's name
was Jessica Mitchell.

I just pray that if someone
does see him,

you know, that they ask,
"What is your name?"

Because I believe that he
will still be able to tell you.

When individuals
aren't found

on a Search and Rescue,

I can tell you that

it's something that you
think about regularly.

You revisit in your mind.

There's times you go out
and look yourself.

And some of those cases
will haunt you forever.

Throughout my tenure
as a sheriff,

there was nothing
more important

than keeping
communication open

with the family.

There's only one case in
their mind that still exists.

And it makes it
incredibly important

to make sure that they feel that you haven't forgotten that.

That somebody's still
looking at it.

I don't come up here
that often.

I feel guilty, because
I feel like,

you know, what if my son were
up here at the time, you know,

I didn't know what happened,
where he was.

I felt guilty not coming up
here at the same time.

It was just too painful.

It was hard comprehending that that was it.

You know...

I was going down the mountain and I was going home without my son.

It was the hardest thing

I think I've ever done
in my life,

drive off this mountain.

The Big South Trail, right here.
I've never been up here with snow on the trail.

When you come up here
and you see the beauty

and you think,

"Did my son lose
his life up here?"

I think to myself,

"Gee, Jaryd, you sure picked
a beautiful place to hang out."

I don't comprehend

an animal getting...

It's too painful.

I mean, I visualize
many times...

I visualize him
walking down the trail

and some stupid cat
jumps in...

I visualize that
a lot of times.

But at the same time,
I never believe it either.

But I still visualize it,

because that was something that was constantly thrown at me.

I can also imagine that
it haunts them

for the rest of their lives.

Just the weird circumstances,

and the fact that they will
probably never

have an answer to
what really happened.

I think
the natural inclination

for all parents
and all relatives

is they want closure.

It's an unknown what
happened to these people.

And it extends far beyond
just kids.

We're at 1600 cases,
and with every month,

there's a new case that
comes across my desk

that's an exact match for
what we've talked about.

There's not going to
be any one particular person

that can shed light onto a lot of the phenomenon that's going on.

We're talking about
a very large,

even a worldwide collective
of information here.

Certainly authorities,
National Park authorities,

law enforcement
authorities...

They often have their
fingers tapped onto

the knowledge that we need.

But whether or not we can acquire it from them is another story.

When you look at
some of these cases,

you have to consider

possibilities with which
we are really uncomfortable.

You know,
it's a rational society.

We're uncomfortable thinking about what else could be out there.

But some of these
situations are so unusual,

you have to think beyond
the bounds of what's normal.

What's a normal
explanation for this.

I think
one of the most impressive

was a search in South Dakota.

It was for a little toddler

that had wandered away.

And this was... I forget,
it was January, February.

It was cold weather.

And we could not get any
clues on the little toddler.

It had been like three days.

So we knew it was probably
not gonna be a good result.

Anyway, we were...
To make a log story short,

coming through some willows,

and it was all foggy,
and the dogs were alerting.

But we could not come
to any conclusion.

And all of a sudden,

my dog turned around
and just let out

a real startled howl,
you know.

It was scared.

And we turned around and here was this little toddler,

walking out of the fog,

with just absolutely
no clothes on at all.

And it scared all of us.

I mean, the other handler and I
both went "Whoa!"

You know,
just startled us, too.

Just like the little thing appeared out of nowhere out of the mist.

We suspect because of just the way...
dirty and everything,

that probably she had
been with an animal.

Had curled up
with a coyote, or...

We don't know for sure.
And we'll never know.

The ultimate possibility

is the most disturbing of all.

That it's been here as
long as humans have been here.

Sometimes we can
see the remains

and sometimes we never get
an answer at all.

He had monster trucks

and semis.

I think the boots he was
wearing were like sixes,

or five-and-a-halves.

But every time he wore this,

he said he was super fast
and he would run everywhere.

We deserve to know
what happened.

But that little boy at least deserves to come home or have closure.

I owe at least that much
to my little boy,

is to at least give him
his life back, or his closure.

* Would you walk

* A thousand miles

* Along cliffs

* Cliffs made of shell

* Would you abandon

* Your father

* Along, along, along
Along the trail *

* 'Cause there's a road

* Leads through mountains

* And that'll cut

* Cut through you home

* And there's a lake

* Carved by glaciers

* Moving through stone

* Moving through

* Hey, you