DeOrr Kunz Jr.

Case background and investigation

DeOrr Jay Kunz Jr., born December 30, 2012, was two and a half years old when he disappeared from Timber Creek Campground, a remote site in Lemhi County, Idaho, roughly ten miles from the small town of Leadore and about 125 miles northwest of his family's home in Idaho Falls. He had arrived at the campground on the evening of July 9, 2015, with his mother, Jessica Mitchell; his father, Vernal DeOrr Kunz Sr.; his great-grandfather, Robert Walton; and a family friend, Isaac Reinwand. On the morning of July 10, according to accounts given to investigators, the family ate breakfast and DeOrr played around the campsite in oversized cowboy boots. Around noon his parents drove him to a nearby store, then returned to camp and left to scout a fishing spot, saying they had left DeOrr in his great-grandfather's care. When they returned a short time later, the boy was gone. His mother called 911 at about 2:30 p.m., describing her son as wearing cowboy boots, pajama pants, and a camouflage jacket.

The response was immediate and extensive. Within days, more than 200 volunteers joined coordinated grid searches of the rugged terrain, supported by K9 teams, ATVs, helicopters, divers who searched the adjacent creek and a nearby reservoir, the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office, and the FBI. Searchers dismantled log jams in the creek and combed the mountainsides, but found no sign of the toddler. Items DeOrr reportedly never went anywhere without — his blanket, cup, and toy monkey — had been left behind at the camp, according to the Charley Project.

The investigation shifted sharply in January 2016, when then-Lemhi County Sheriff Lynn Bowerman publicly named both parents as suspects, saying their timelines and statements about the day kept changing and did not match. According to the Charley Project, investigators said both parents failed polygraph examinations, and police came to theorize that DeOrr died, either intentionally or by accident, and that his parents know where his body is — a claim the parents have consistently denied. Kunz Sr.'s attorney has said his client had nothing whatsoever to do with the disappearance. Later sheriffs took a more cautious position: current Sheriff John Bennett and former Sheriff Steve Penner have said they consider all four adults present at the campsite persons of interest rather than suspects. Several private investigators worked the case over the years and reached conflicting conclusions, variously pointing toward the parents, toward an accidental death, or away from the parents entirely.

Physical evidence has repeatedly raised and dashed hopes. Bones found at or near the campsite over the years were examined by anthropologists at Idaho State University, and in one instance by the FBI laboratory in Quantico; all proved to be animal remains. In late 2024, authorities submitted a child's jacket found in the area — manufactured in 2014 or early 2015, the same timeframe as the disappearance — to the Idaho State Police lab for DNA comparison, but according to Sheriff Bennett only a partial, low-level DNA profile was obtained and no conclusion could be drawn.

As of the ten-year anniversary in July 2025, the case remains open and unsolved. No one has ever been arrested or charged, and no trace of DeOrr has been found. His parents have since separated, and his great-grandfather Robert Walton died of cancer in 2019. Investigators say they continue to pursue the case; former Sheriff Penner has returned to the campground an estimated one hundred times. DeOrr is listed with NamUs as case MP29726, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has released age-progressed images of him.