Jeremy Coots was 4 when he disappeared from Atchison, Kansas, on February 18, 1977. He had a severe hearing impairment and was playing outside at his babysitter’s home with the sitter’s son; this was the first time he had been allowed outdoors without constant supervision and he wandered off heading east.

Search teams tracked his scent to the banks of the Missouri River during a five-day effort, and authorities have long considered accidental drowning the prevailing theory. Jeremy’s body was never recovered. At the time he vanished he wore a blue coat with patches, light-colored pants and cowboy boots, and used a Maico hearing aid. His family held a memorial service shortly after his disappearance, and the case remains classified as lost/injured missing with no conclusive evidence of what happened.

Does anyone remember seeing a young boy near the river in Atchison that February?