Missing: Samuel Boehlke
Sammy Boehlke was an 8-year-old boy, who was with his father, Kenneth, on October 14th, 2006. Around 4 pm they were near the Cleetwood Cove area at Crater Lake National Park.
Sammy ran up a cinder slope into the woods and vanished, never to be seen again.
Crater Lake
Crater Lake National Park is located in southern Oregon and was established in 1902. The park includes Crater Lake, and the surrounding hills and forests. It is 183,224 acres in size.
Crater Lake partly fills a nearly 2,148-foot caldera that was formed around 7,700 years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. There are no rivers flowing into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by rain and snowfall at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 250 years. With a depth of 1,949 feet, the lake is the deepest in the United States. In the world, it ranks ninth for maximum depth and third for mean (average) depth.
Crater Lake has two small islands. Wizard Island, located near the western shore of the lake is approximately 316 acres in size, and Phantom Ship, a natural rock pillar, is located near the southern shore. Since the lake has no inlets or tributaries, the waters are some of the purest in the world because of the absence of pollutants. It has relatively high levels of dissolved salts.
Crater Lake is also known for the "Old Man of the Lake", a full-sized tree that is now a log that has been bobbing vertically in the lake for over a century. The low temperature of the water in the lake has slowed the decomposition of the wood.
Sammy Boehlke
Sammy had a passionate personality. He also had a mild form of autism, which manifested itself in a fear of loud noises and bright lights.
Sammy was 4 feet, 11 inches tall, weighed about 85 pounds and had brown eyes and short brown hair. He was last seen wearing a long-sleeved black and green T-shirt, cargo pants, a blue winter coat and red, suede slip-on shoes with rubber soles.
The boy had camping experience but given his age, he had no formal training in wilderness survival.
The Disappearance
The Boehlkes had stopped at a pullout at 4pm about 500 yards east of the Cleetwood Cove parking lot and were walking on the north side of Rim Drive.
The cinder slope at Crater Lake National Park where Sammy as last seen.
The boy and his father had stopped to play tag (hide and seek) on a cinder slope where Sammy saw some yellow he hoped might be gold. As darkness approached and his dad walked a short distance to the car so the two could return to their rented cabin near Diamond Lake, Sammy stayed on the slope, refusing to come down.
Kenneth Boehlke chased up after him, but Sammy, likely thinking it was a game, stayed 50 feet ahead. Ultimately he never caught up to him and lost him over the other side of the slope.
The Search
The search quickly increased to more than 200 people combing an area of about 6 square miles. For a week, searchers scoured the area with dogs, helicopters, and heat-sensing cameras, but no trace of the boy was ever found. Officials said a helicopter crew spotted some tracks, but they turned out to be from wildlife.
Intermittent searching continued after this despite heavy snowfalls in the area. The park, at 7,000 feet, averages more than 500 inches of snow a year. Technical crews searched the slopes leading from the rim of the caldera down to the water, a drop of 700 to 1,000 feet, even though it was unlikely Sammy would have fallen into the lake because of obstacles on the slope.
Search teams included those from Jackson, Klamath and Deschutes counties, National Park search experts from California, Washington and Oregon, including specialty rescue teams from Mount Hood and Mount Rainier, and local U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management employees.
Conclusion
While many have came up with their own conclusions and theories, this story is odd on the surface simply because Sammy's mild autism. Things that normally would be strange to other families were normal for this family. They were simply trying to make their boy happy during their camping trip. We could all agree that maybe it wasn't the best time in October to take an 8-year-old with aspergers to a heavy forested wilderness. However kids are unpredictable and no one could of predicted or wanted this to ever happen to their boy.
For tips or more information contact the Klamath County Sheriff's Office @ 541-883-5130
