David James Phillips was five years old when he vanished with his mother Belinda Cowden, stepfather Richard Cowden, and five-month-old half-sister Melissa during a Labor Day weekend camping trip in the Siskiyou Mountains near Copper, Oregon. The family arrived on August 30, 1974, and on the morning of September 1 David and his stepfather walked to the Copper General Store for milk; that was the last time anyone saw them alive. Their campsite was later found abandoned with the family’s pickup, belongings, and Richard’s wallet and Belinda’s purse left behind.

Seven months later, in April 1975, two prospectors discovered Richard’s body tied to a tree and the other three family members within a cave partially sealed with rocks. Autopsies determined David and his mother were killed by .22 caliber gunshot wounds; the infant died of severe head trauma. The cause of Richard’s death could not be determined from his remains.

No arrests have been made. Law enforcement has long considered convicted murderer Dwain Lee Little a primary suspect; he had been paroled three months before the disappearance and reportedly was in the Copper area that weekend, and a former cellmate later said Little confessed. Little was never charged and the case remains unsolved.

Does anyone have information about the family’s time in the Copper area that Labor Day weekend or remember seeing the Cowdens or a man fitting Little’s description around August 30–September 1, 1974?