On a whim, parents Vernal Kunz and Jessica Mitchell decide to take their 2-year-old DeOrr camping outside Leadore, Idaho. Mitchell invites along her grandfather, Robert Walton and a friend of Walton’s, Isaac Reinwand. The group arrives to Timber Creek campground after dark, and sleeps in the next morning. Kunz, Mitchell, and DeOrr go into town for gas and a few groceries, returning to camp around 1 p.m.
By that time, DeOrr should be settling in for a nap, but his parents want to explore the campground. Reinwand is off fishing up stream, so Grandpa Walton agrees to watch DeOrr while Mitchell and Kunz take a walk downstream. Kunz walks back to camp a few minutes later to show the toddler a school of minnows. However, there's no sign of the 2-year-old. Walton says DeOrr started following them on their walk and thought they had him. After a few minutes of searching, both Mitchell and Kunz call 911.
Investigators quickly rule out the possibility of a kidnapping, as the campers would have seen a car exiting the camp ground and focus on searching the Timber Creek Campground. Both Lemhi and Bonneville County Sheriffs, alongside hundreds of volunteers, search for days. Dive teams spend hours combing the creek running along the campsite and Stone reservoir, a shallow body of water feeding the creek. Foot searchers spread out over a three-mile radius, even checking animal dens, but find no sign of little DeOrr.
Just over a year into the investigation, parents Jessica Mitchell and Vernal Kunz are named as suspects in their son's disappearance, and presumed death.
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