Chester Ralph Wetmore was 14 when he left his family’s home in Bradenton, Florida, and disappeared. He was last seen the evening of May 26, 1986, wearing jeans, a blue checkered shirt, and boots. For decades the case was treated as an endangered runaway and the trail went cold with no body ever recovered.

In 2012 a man on death row, James P. Barnes, told a documentary filmmaker he had killed Chester, saying he encountered him in 1988, helped him hide, then shot and buried him after the boy stole from him. Barnes later provided a letter with more details and also claimed another unsolved murder. The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Barnes but did not find corroborating evidence; he did not lead investigators to a body and was never charged in Chester’s death.

Chester’s remains have not been found and the case remains unsolved. Does anyone have information about Chester’s movements in Bradenton in 1986 or contacts who might remember him after May 26?