On January 25, 1986, 17-year-old Mitchell David Zimny and two friends left Anacortes, Washington, in a borrowed homemade 10-foot white aluminum boat bound for Young Island, about 1.5 miles away. Mitchell was last seen near Fidalgo Island wearing a bright yellow sweatshirt, jeans, white tennis shoes and a red baseball hat; he had a surgical scar on his right knee from an orthopedic nail.

The three high school juniors never returned. Searchers recovered a single oar on the south side of Burrows Island but found no other sign of the boys or the skiff. The United States Coast Guard conducted searches for days before the official search was called off. Skagit County Sheriff’s Office has long presumed the boys drowned, but the boat and occupants were never recovered. The investigation remains open.

If anyone had contact with Mitchell or his friends that day or remembers seeing a small white aluminum skiff in the Anacortes area, please share what is known with the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office.