Three-year-old Kevin Jay Ayotte disappeared from his family’s summer home in the rural Sugarbush area of Beltrami County, Minnesota, on the afternoon of September 30, 1982. Kevin, described as a blond, blue-eyed toddler with a hearing impairment, limited speech and a distinctive scar on the right side of his chin, was playing upstairs with his older brother while his mother stepped outside; when she returned he was gone. He was believed to be wearing a checkered shirt, blue jeans and sneakers and the family’s six-month-old Springer Spaniel puppy, Flash, was also missing at the time.

A two-hour local search preceded a formal nine-day effort involving hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement combing dense woods and boggy terrain, but no trace of Kevin was found. Flash returned alone five days later; veterinarians found only swamp grass in the dog’s stomach and the puppy repeatedly came back to the family home when fitted with a tracking collar. Investigators noted Kevin’s history of wandering as one possible explanation, but the absence of any clothing or other physical evidence led authorities to classify the disappearance as a non-family abduction.

In 2011 someone in Michigan was found using Kevin’s identity for financial purposes; that lead was investigated and ruled to be identity theft unrelated to his disappearance. Kevin’s case remains unsolved. If anyone knew Kevin, the family, or was in the Sugarbush area on September 30, 1982, can you share what you remember?