Belinda June Cowden, 22, disappeared with her husband Richard, 28, and their two children, David, 5, and Melissa, 5 months, after a Labor Day weekend camping trip near Carberry Creek in the Siskiyou Mountains near Copper, Oregon. On the morning of September 1, 1974, Richard and David walked to the Copper General Store; that was the last time any family member was seen alive. Their truck, Belinda’s purse, Richard’s wallet, and a half-full container of milk were left at an otherwise abandoned campsite; the family’s Basset Hound, Droopy, was found the next morning at the door of the store.

A large search involving law enforcement, the National Guard, and volunteers turned up no sign of the family until April 1975, when two prospectors found human remains about seven miles from the campsite.

Investigators focused on a convicted killer, Dwain Lee Little, who had been paroled three months before the disappearance and was known to have been in the area that weekend. An inmate later said Little confessed and Little’s girlfriend reported seeing him with a .22 caliber gun at the time; Little has not been charged in the Cowden case. Who killed Belinda June Cowden and her family remains officially unsolved — did anyone in the area remember seeing the Cowdens that Labor Day weekend?