MISSING: Reed Jeppson

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But when I Googled the case, like years ago, there's only a few small articles that came up about this missing boy from the 60s. It wasn't quite like the woven tale I was told, but I could never forget about it. Like it was one of those things like itches my brain, and I kept coming back to it over and over until I had the right resources to really dig in. And digging in is the key to this case in more ways than one. And it turns out what I was told all those years ago seems to be true.

This is the story of Reed Jepson.

For many Salt Lake City, Utah, residents, Sundays are a sacred day reserved for faith and family, especially for the city's largest population of Latter-day Saints. And that's definitely true for the large Jepson clan. So as the morning church sessions come to an end on Sunday, October 11th, 1964, they all gather back at their house. Suzanne, who's among the oldest of the kids in the house, is in the kitchen whipping up the family's Sunday staple of roast beef, mashed potatoes, and gravy, which was my family's Sunday staple as well.

They don't go far. But they end up eating their whole meal, and he doesn't show the entire time. He's not even there later in the day when his family heads out to go visit friends, even though he was planning on going with them. And just to note, it might not have been friends, that's what the police report says, but Reed's brother, John, said in his podcast, Notes from John with a Babble from Bond, that they were actually going to a late afternoon worship service. He says he even remembers thinking like, oh man, like Reed's skipping out on church.

Mom and dad are not going to be happy about that. But whatever the deal is, whatever the plans are, it doesn't sound like anyone's even panicking. yet. So Reed's parents, Edward and Elizabeth, head somewhere. When they come home that evening and he still isn't back, that's when alarm bells start ringing.

And as they call around to his friends to find out if anyone's seen or heard from him, every no just adds this new layer of fear.

But again, what is abnormal is for them to be out this long. So as the family's racking their brains, trying to figure out where he might be, it's the more innocent explanations that they come up with. first. I mean, Salt Lake City is known for its mix of foothills, ravines, mountains, so maybe he fell and hurt himself while he was walking them. He could be trapped somewhere and need help.

Maybe the dogs got trapped too, or maybe they're just staying near him, like good puppets are known to do. The thing that they're thinking is he could be in real danger, because, as beautiful as the October days are, if he's stuck somewhere, the nights can be dangerously cold. So at 12.42 a.m. on Monday, October 12th, Reed's parents call Salt Lake City police. They detail everything from the outfit he was wearing when he walked out the door, blue jeans, white shirt, black and blue parka, gym shoes, to the reasons why they're so concerned.

Because, as they explain, Reed has never done anything like this before. He's responsible, dependable, literally an Eagle Scout whose life revolves around church, school, and football. And he has no reason to run away. This is a kid with lots of good friends and a big, loving family, 10 brothers and sisters, most of them still at home. His dad's a doctor, his mom's a homemaker.

They live very comfortably. And he didn't even have any arguments with his parents or spats with his siblings, and he has never mentioned plans to leave. So the responding officers do like come out, talk to them, take this report. They look around, but they're not necessarily as concerned as his family. They don't see any signs of foul play or a struggle inside or near the dog kennels.

And so they're kind of pretty sure at that point that he's just a teen being a teen.

But, all that being said, according to the initial reports, one of Reed's brothers checked to see if Reed's money was still wherever. he kept it, probably in his room. And he told their mom that Reed's entire stash of $60 disappeared right along with him.

And I guess both Reed and this other boy at the ranch were interested in Jana. And Reed had recently written a letter to the other boy asking for Jana's address. And in late September, the boy responded, sent him the address for her in Kansas City, Missouri. So when police hear that, they're like, oh, okay, you know, here's a girl that he likes. Maybe he grabbed all of his money and took off to go see this girl.

Plus knowing the arrangement that they had, like the family that Reed did everything for the dogs, maybe he worried about them getting taken care of if he was gone. I mean, he was their person.

So even though nothing is maybe the perfect scenario, in their minds, it is still a possibility.

I mean, right. If there's a chance, he's walking, he needs more than just money and dogs.

And at first, they issue a bulletin to Kansas City Police with Reed's description, asking them to check with Janna to see if he's there. But right off the bat, this fizzles. I don't think Kansas City Police ever find Janna. And maybe that's because, at the end of the day, I'm actually not sure if Janna ever lived in Missouri. Because, as far as we could tell, she's in Wyoming while all of this is going down, that same area that the ranch was where Reed worked at.

And Suzanne, Reed's sister, told us that Reed wasn't like in love with this girl. He just like thought she was cute. They weren't dating. There was no love triangle. Janna apparently wasn't even interested in him at all.

So Suzanne is adamant that this whole Janna lead somehow over time has just gotten way overhyped, overblown, over everything.

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But John maintains that he is totally in the dark, like the rest of the family. And he finally gets fed up and says, You know what? Bring me to the station. Give me the polygraph, because I don't know anything about this. But it's all a bluff and it doesn't work.

So the detective doesn't take him to the station. There's no polygraph. He just takes him home. Now, when John really thinks about that weird interaction, he realizes that his parents must have given police the green light to interrogate him like that. And he's mad.

Like, he feels betrayed and frustrated. So, for what he says is the first time in his life, he confronts his parents. And they explain to him that investigators wanted to take that approach. Like, it was their idea. And they just went along with it out of sheer desperation because they had nothing at this point, even though police chased leads through multiple states.

For instance, at one point, they had heard Reed might be in Colorado with two other boys who ran away from home. But when detectives check that out, there's no sign of Reed. The boys have no idea who he is. Then, in November, they learn about a teen who'd registered at a motel about 50 miles south of Salt Lake. But according to the Deseret News, when they compare this kid's handwriting samples to Reed's, they say it's not him.

They get some tips, mostly random potential sightings of Reed and or the dogs. But investigators can't confirm any of them. Although at some point, they hear something from a family friend that starts to change the whole narrative around Reed's disappearance, or at least the timeline of it. This friend says that he saw Reed Sunday, October 11th, around 1 or 1.30, which would have been after he left the house to take care of his dogs. This person says that he was near a Catholic girls' school called St.

Mary's of Wasatch, which is right at the base of the east foothills of the Wasatch Mountains.

But the police at the time seemed to take this and run with it, maybe because they don't have much else. And by February of 1965, police are really targeting that area surrounding St. Mary's for searches. Investigators tell the Salt Lake Tribune that they want hikers and hunters to be on the lookout for unusual earth mounds and piles of stone, just in case he did meet with foul play and someone buried him. And they also tell them to keep their eyes peeled for fallen trees, clumps of shrubs, crevices, and other formations where he might've gotten trapped accidentally.

Meanwhile, according to Deseret News reporter Lois M. Collins, the family rallies. during this time. Reed's oldest brother, who's a pilot, conducts aerial searches. One of his sisters takes a leave of absence from college to help out, and everyone hands out flyers and does what they can to keep efforts going.

And then, a few months in, in the middle of all of these efforts, police in Kansas City call Utah. They say they found Reed. In fact, they say he's right there with them at the station. But when they hand the phone over to a boy they have in custody, as soon as Reed's dad starts talking to him, he knows it's not Reed. And he's right.

It turns out to just be another blonde teen just around the same age.

Like when it comes time to search the nearby foothills and ravines, there were hundreds of volunteers who came out to help. But it seems like everyone has an opinion or a theory about where Reed is. And the predominant one among the locals is that, oh, he just left on his own. They start speculating that the Jepsons must have done something to cause it. Something that would drive their son, their brother, away.

And that makes an already horrible situation even worse, especially given how close the family is. And that heartbreak takes a toll on everyone. Like Reed's dad. Usually he's someone who always had the answers. Like you got a problem, he'll know how to solve it.

But he can't fix this. And John says that his dad felt like he was losing his good name. And that his wife and kids would basically be better off without him. So in December of 1965, this is just a week before Christmas, he takes his own life. This is more than one family should ever have to bear.

But this is the ripple effect of crime that we have touched on before. It doesn't just happen to the one person. It happens to every life that they touch. And then the lives that they go on to touch. Now, psychology and mental health experts say that suicide is rarely the result of a single cause or event.

And we'll have links in our show notes to this source, plus more for those who may be seeking support. But all that to say, I'm not able to say like. he did this because Reed disappeared. And Susan even told us that he had been taking heart medication that might have affected his mood. But there's no doubt that having a missing child is undeniably one of the most stressful and devastating experiences that can happen to a person.

So to say that it wasn't a large contributor would be ignoring how this family was just irrevocably changed by Reed's disappearance. Ultimately, their mom is left to hold everything together. According to John's YouTube video, she tells them that they have to remember the good times. It's tough to do, but they move forward as a family and they never stop looking for Reed, like literally everywhere they go. But with a lack of new leads and developments, police end up classifying Reed as a runaway juvenile and they close his case in June of 1966..

And that's how his case stayed for nearly half a century, until March 2nd, 2010,, when hikers looking for antlers just north of Mill Creek Canyon find a human skull. instead. Police descend on this area looking for more bones and they find enough to form nearly an entire human skeleton. In April, they tell Deseret News reporter Pat Revy that the remains are from a white male, 17 to 22 years old, who would have been between 5'7", 6'1", and they think that the bones have been there for at least 10 years.

But Detective Logie is still going to see what he can do about it. So he checks their missing person database. And he's surprised to see that there is nothing in their system about Reed. What? And he's never heard of the disappearance either, even though he's been on the force for years.

So he's like, OK, let me just like dig into this a little more. He asked the records department to find out if they have anything. And that is when they come across Reed's long forgotten case file.

There's again, if you've got stuff handwritten that has never been digitized, how would you know? And the way that, like generationally, detectives like come and go, something from the 60s, like how many detectives have been in there since then? This is why I always tell families it's so important to keep in touch with police, even after years or decades, like you have to stay front of mind, because can you imagine what if a tip or tips had come in over the years about Reed and someone looked it up, someone who wasn't as diligent and was like,

Because by now, Reed has been missing for almost 46 years.

But with all the advancements in forensic science, everyone is hopeful that something is gonna shake loose, like something soon it has to.

And from everything I saw online, like Daniel loved hiking, there were no signs of foul play. So it sounds like his death had something to do with, I don't know if he got stuck in the elements or whatever, but that's, I think, what they ruled it as. But to go back to Reed's case, even though those bones weren't his, there is now this renewed investigation. And it's really validating for his family, because they've been listening to people judge and blame Reed for supposedly running away for years. And now, finally, police and the community are listening to them.

And at the very least, even if they don't want to listen, even if they still have their own theories, people are paying attention. And they know this because when the case is highlighted for National Missing Children's Day, there is this flurry of media coverage. Pat Revy reports that the department even launches a new section on their website, dedicated slowly to missing people, featuring a brand new, age-enhanced image of Reed created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And this just goes to show what some fresh eyeballs and the power of the press can do. Because the very next day, Wednesday, May 26th, police get a call from a woman.

Let's call her Miranda. And Miranda has quite a story to tell. One that, honestly, you're not gonna believe.

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And that's when she had this, oh, sh** moment. Because you see, the year before, in August, this would have been 2009, Miranda and her husband were re-landscaping their backyard and they were letting their son make this like airsoft battlefield for him and his friends to use. So her son is like digging these trenches in their yard with a backhoe when he stumbles upon what appeared to be the remains of two dogs. And, Brit, they weren't just buried like you would do if the family dog passed away. Both dogs had been surgically dismembered, like the bones had been sawed through with precision, and they were in multiple plastic trash bags and like five to six feet deep in the ground.

What the f**k? Now the family could tell when they first found these, that these were dog bones. It's not like they had any question that, oh, is this human or anything like that. But they were still like startled by the find. Like.

the circumstances around this are weird. They even show the bones to a neighbor who's a doctor just to like get a second opinion. And Miranda says she wanted to call the police because to her it was just all too weird. But her husband was like, for what? Like?

we're going to tell the police. we found dog bones?

Probably because this was so unsettling. But they photographed everything that they had found before they tossed it. And they still had the pictures a year later. So they turned them over to investigators, who promptly passed them along to bone experts at the University of Utah's medical examiner's office. And then on June 12th, while they're waiting for answers, police scour Miranda's property with ground penetrating radar.

I mean, they bring out excavation equipment and five cadaver dogs, thinking that, I mean, this has to be it. The dogs and Reed have always been together in people's minds. If those were his dogs, the dogs, then Reed should be nearby. But they do all this digging and penetrating radar and dogs, and they don't find anything. Now, in late July, the experts tell police that, as far as they can tell from the photos, the bones are from two dogs.

One that is fully grown and one that is a puppy.

The house that Miranda's family would eventually live in. While he's building it, he and his family lived just a few blocks away. And Suzanne remembers him visiting the site frequently, like once or twice a week, to check on the progress. Now, police say they moved into the home a few months after Reed went missing. That's when, I guess, everything was done.

And this doctor and his family lived in that house, the house that was a neighbor to the Jepsons, for about 40 years. Now, Dr. Hill during this time wasn't particularly close with the Jepsons. Suzanne says that one of the Jepson girls was friends with one of Dr. Hill's daughters.

She remembers her mom, like, bringing Dr. Hill a casserole when his wife died by suicide in the 1980s. So, again, acquaintances, like, neighbor stuff. And as far as I know, he didn't even talk about Reed's case with them. Like, Suzanne doesn't remember him being particularly friendly, but they also weren't suspicious of this guy at all.

He was just Dr. Hill. And the fact that the Jepsons didn't know much about him doesn't even mean he was like a reclusive person. I mean, like, you got to think about, their minds were elsewhere during this time, because he moves in after Reed goes missing. So who can blame them for not, you know, going out of their way to forge new friendships?

But it also means, because their minds were elsewhere, that they weren't necessarily keeping up on the neighborhood gossip. None of that matters when you have a loved one that is missing. So they didn't start hearing the stories about Dr. Hill that were circulating back in the day. Stories that Dr.

Hill had a reputation for sexual abuse against minors, including some that were his patients, many of whom were teenage boys. Now, from what our team was able to put together, this was kind of like an open secret. But, like I said, the Jepsons were in a fog of grief, totally focused on Reed's disappearance and everything that came after. So the stories didn't even mentally register with them that it could be, like, connected.

However, only one person ever filed a police report and the statute of limitations was up so he couldn't be charged for that specific crime. And the law that removed the statute of limitations for sex crimes against minors was only passed in 2013.. And what you really have to think about, again, like why this isn't being connected in 1964, potentially, is because it was 1964.. We're not having the same conversations back then about abuse. In fact, I don't think we were having any conversations about it really at all.

People did not want to talk about it. And in not talking about it, that's why I don't think connections were being made that someone who sexually abuses children might also have the capacity to kill them.

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And another interesting thing is, I know it's probably hard to imagine, but plastic trash bags weren't a commonly used household item, actually back in 1964..

Hill, who is alive at the time and living in a city about four hours south of Salt Lake. He tells police that he doesn't know anything about the bones buried in his old backyard.

Hill says that he didn't even know Reed. Didn't have anything to do with his disappearance. In fact, according to coverage from ABC4 Utah, reporter Marcos Ortiz, which in this article, he also doesn't identify Dr. Hill by name, but Dr. Hill had told investigators that he'd appreciate if they found out who killed Reed.

Hill ultimately agrees to take a voice stress test, which he does right at his home. Now, it's not clear if he outright fails or if the results are inconclusive, but it's actually not a surprise because, bizarrely, Dr. Hill seems to be playing games, deliberately lying to basic control questions. Like, for instance, if investigators point to a green wall and say, what color is the wall? Dr.

Hill says it's blue or red or whatever, like just screwing around with the people who are administering the test.

So it's not like police lost interest in this guy once he passes that second voice stress test. At some point, they even take the cadaver dogs over to his old house, the one that he and his family lived in while their home by the Jepsons was being built. But even this time, they don't find anything.

Like, in late September of 2012,, after police got a tip about a gully that's just a block or so from the Jepson's house near a middle school. Whoever called in the tip mentioned something about kids hanging out there back in the day, said that some quote-unquote weird stuff happened there, although it's not clear what the weird stuff was. But I know that they brought out a cadaver dog that did show some interest in the area, so investigators did a full-on search, shovels, backhoe, you name it. According to Michael McFall's reporting for the Salt Lake Tribune, I mean, they dig as deep as eight feet. But then when they like, it's like the farther they dig, the dogs stopped indicating.

He was playing football. He was a strong, fit teenage boy.

Not the type to keep big secrets from them. This one for me, I'm not so willing to rule this out. Again, I go back to 1964..

But he is still considered a person of interest in Reed's case. Reed's surviving siblings will always grieve for him. They wonder where life would have taken Reed, who he would have married, what his kids would have been like, what he would have done for a living. Those are things that they'll never know. And they try and keep his memory alive by spending time together at monthly dinners.

And they even put a headstone for him at their family's plot. But what they really want is to lay him to rest beside their father and their mother, who died in 1994, never knowing what happened to her son. They also want answers too. Answers that they have been waiting for for far too long. So if you have any information about Reed Jepson, please contact Salt Lake City Police at 801-799-3000..

And I think there's another important thing to mention. I think there's more information that can be gathered about this. Dr. Hill. Again, this isn't his real name.

I can't give you a ton of identifying information. But if you grew up in Salt Lake in the 1960s and you had an encounter with an orthopedic doctor, even if it's too late to press charges, even if you don't want to press charges, I would encourage you to come forward and speak with police, because there could be additional information gathered that actually helps Reed. If Reed is alive today, he would be 74 years old. He's white, with medium blonde hair and blue eyes. At the time of his disappearance, he was five foot six and 140 pounds and had braces on his top and bottom teeth.

You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com.

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