Donald Caldwell was 12 when he disappeared from a supervised camping trip in Bass River State Forest. On the evening of April 3, 1972, he and a 16-year-old friend, Steven Soden, vanished from a group of eighteen children and four adults from a Paterson, New Jersey orphanage; both boys were last seen that night and never heard from again. An initial search of the Pine Barrens turned up no clues, and the investigation grew cold as decades passed.

Bones and a sneaker fragment were found in April 2000 in Bass River State Park; the remains could not initially be identified. In 2013 DNA matched those remains to Steven Soden, but Donald Caldwell has not been found and his fate remains unknown. The New Jersey State Police continue to seek information about Donald’s disappearance.

If anyone has information about Donald Caldwell, his movements around April 3, 1972, or that camping trip, please come forward.