Bob Louis Richard Boyes, known as Bobby, was nine when he vanished from Port Republic, Maryland on December 26, 1968. That afternoon he had been at a neighbor’s house showing Christmas toys with his brothers; his brothers left earlier but Bobby stayed to play. When he left to walk home he was accompanied by his pet deer, Pete. A neighbor’s mother watched them walk down Wash Hance Road until they were out of sight. Pete returned home; Bobby never did.

He was last seen wearing a dark blue coat with a hood, a plaid shirt, dark pants and brown leather boots. He was a white male with brown hair and brown eyes, about four feet tall and 80 pounds, with a scar on his upper lip. The family reported him missing at about 7:30 p.m. and hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement searched the woods by ground and air without finding a trace.

The Maryland State Police led the investigation; leads were exhausted and the case went cold. In 2021 a new detective sergeant at the Prince Frederick Barrack reopened work on the case and authorities call the disappearance suspicious. Does anyone who lived in or near Port Republic in 1968 remember seeing Bobby or his pet deer Pete that afternoon or have information that could help?