Missing 11 year old boy

June 2, 1985 South of Beaumont 1985-025

By John Dew

It was just midnight and I had been asleep about an hour when the phone rang. Virginia answered it as there is an extension on her side of the bed. Those two familiar words was her only response, "It's Walt," and with that she handed me the phone.

I was informed that there was a missing eleven year old boy, out from Breeze Lakes in Beaumont. The Sheriff had attempted to get the Hemet team to respond because of their four wheel drive capability and the flat land in the search area. They were unable to respond because they had another search going on at that time for two little boys in Hemet. Needless to say, we rolled on the mission immediately.

Arriving at our destination near Breeze Lakes (the boy was not from the Breeze Lakes campground) at about 1:00 a.m., we were told of a boy, 11 years old, who had become angry with the other children because he felt that his turn at riding the motorbike was shorter than he thought it should have been. He had last been seen near two old concrete pipes out in the 39 acre field in which they had been riding at about 6:00 p.m. last evening. These pipes were possibly 50 or 60 yards from the house. There were also three lakes (or rather muddy ponds) on the property.

These ponds made a special cause for concern. We did learn that the Sheriff with his 'K-9' in the field, had checked around the pipes and the ponds without finding any trace.

We received our assignments, went out in teams of two and attempted to cover again the area where the boy was said to have been last seen. We tried tracking but all the children and the motorbike had succeeded beautifully in causing that to be an impossible task. We tried calling his name and making noise but that didn't work either. We found no more than the Sheriff and his dog had found.

When we who were in the field returned to Base for new assignments we were greeted by some members from the Hemet team. The boys for whom they were searching had turned up at someone's house and authorities were notified, thus releasing them to join us in our search.

One team of RMRU was across the road trying to following tracks through a wheat field. Could these possibly be those of our subject? All efforts were then concentrated east in and around that field.

Our search continued until about 5:00 a.m. when a report came over the radios for all teams to return to Base as the boy was there and safe.

We learned upon arriving at Base that this child said he was asleep through the searches and our calling and the dog search, very near the "two pipes" of our original effort.

All involved were happy for the search to be over and that the child was safe. I suppose we will never know just exactly what the situation was that night. Apparently he walked back home where base was set up.

We all drove into Banning for breakfast together and then each left for a sleepy ride home.