James Howell was nine when he vanished from the front yard of his Sterling, Illinois home on West 13th Street on May 28, 1969. He and his sister Debra were gathering wood to build a cage for an injured pigeon he was caring for; Debra went inside briefly for a hammer and nails and returned to find Jimmy gone. The pieces of wood were left scattered in the street. He was wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes.

A search of wooded areas, gravel pits and the banks of Elkhorn Creek and the Rock River involved about 400 people including police and volunteers, but produced no sign of the boy. His dog disappeared soon afterward. In later years there were unverified sightings, a reported incident where a dark car followed Debra and a friend, and a 1975 phone call to a neighbor from someone claiming to be Jimmy who never appeared. Family members passed polygraph tests in 1998.

The case remains the oldest active missing child case in Illinois. Does anyone who lived in Sterling around 1969 remember unusual activity near West 13th Street or the Elkhorn Creek that could shed light on Jimmy’s disappearance?