Sammie Boehlke is pictured.
Searchers look for signs of Sammie Boehlke, who went missing at Crater Lake in Oregon in 2006, during a renewed search in September 2025.
Authorities gather as part of a renewed search for Sammie Boehlke, who went missing at Crater Lake National Park in 2006.
Crater Lake is pictured on Sept. 23, 2024 in Oregon.

It's been 19 years since 8-year-old Samuel Boehlke ran into the woods at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon never to be seen again, but search and rescuers haven't given up looking for him.

Agencies from Oregon and California fanned out on the trails, hillsides and woods at the massive lake over the weekend, hopeful that they could help bring closure to Sam's grief-stricken family. Like so many times over the years, they didn't find any clues.

Sam was last seen during a hike with his dad on Oct. 14, 2006. His father, Kenneth Boehlke, told investigators that Sam suddenly ran into the woods, eventually setting off a massive rescue effort as a snowstorm struck later in the day.

Reached by USA TODAY on Wednesday, Sept. 24, Boehlke said he appreciates that authorities haven't forgotten about his only child.

"Anything they can do to find something related to him so we can put him to rest would be great," he said. "We still wonder exactly what happened."

Sam's mother, Kirsten Becker, told USA TODAY that she has kept in touch with a lot of the original rescuers over the years and that some of them now run the agencies conducting today's searches.

"They're absolutely glorious human beings and a blessing to this world," she said, adding that her son's disappearance was so much more than just a search operation to the men and women looking for him.

"It should have been easy, and we should have been able to find him, and that's frustrating to them," she said. "It's also an innocent boy, a boy that was autistic ... I think for them it’s the one that haunts them."

Here's what else to know about the case.

More about Sam Boehlke's disappearance

Kenneth Boehlke and his son had been staying in the region at Diamond Lake and were at Crater Lake for a day hike on Oct. 14, 2006, he told investigators at the time. At some point, Boehlke said Sam ran off into the woods up a hill and that the boy didn't respond to his increasingly frantic calls, he said.

"He was pretty fearless," Boehlke told USA TODAY. "I think, and so did the FBI, that to him it was just a game. I don't think he understood the dangers involved in it."

Becker elaborated on what happened that day, explaining that her son was obsessed with finding "gold," or yellow pummice stones, at Crater Lake. And when it was time to leave, he wanted to keep looking for the stones.

Sam ran off, scaling up a slope of pummice, which Becker described as similar to running up a sand dune with meatball-sized rocks. The terrain made it difficult for Boehlke to catch up with Sam.

"I know my son and I know he just ran away and decided to hide someplace, and Ken probably just went right past him," she said. "Sam probably tried to double back and just got lost."

Unable to find his son, Boehlke flagged down a car for help and rescue efforts began that day.

More about the search efforts to find Sam Boehlke

The search for Sam Boehlke made national headlines in 2006 as helicopters, dogs and rescuers combed the area looking for him.

Disaster struck on the first day of the search as a snowstorm hit the area and hampered rescue efforts, including the ability of helicopters to assist in the search until the weather had calmed two days later.

Three nights after Sam went missing, rescuers told reporters that they thought the boy could still be alive despite subfreezing temperatures and about 7 inches of snow on the ground, according to an archived story by the Associated Press. He had been dressed in cargo pants, a long-sleeve T-shirt and a winter jacket.

Rescuers told the AP that they were looking under rocks and logs and in small hiding places in case the boy had tried to take shelter during the storm. "We are holding out hope he might be in a place like that, where he might have sheltered for a few days," National Park Service spokesman Rudy Evenson told AP at the time, adding that it was unlikely the boy fell into the lake because of obstacles on the slope that would have stopped a descent.

Many days later, they still could find no trace of him.

David Brennan, chief ranger at the park, told reporters that "there's absolutely nothing to indicate foul play or criminal activity."

Over the years, rescuers have returned to the area to look for signs of Sam. They also get much-needed training in steep, rugged terrain.

Among the crews who searched at the lake over the weekend was the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office of northern California. The agency posted about their efforts on Facebook on Wednesday.

"We are proud of our Search and Rescue volunteers for the dedication and diligence they demonstrate during both urgent rescue operations and decades-old missing persons cases," the post said. "Often, these evidence searches can bring closure to families years later, and our SAR team is determined to continue assisting our Oregon counterparts in their mission to find Sammie."

Becker said she's so appreciative of their efforts.

"He died there. I know that," she said. "You just always want evidence. I love that they go back and look and come up with different ideas of where to go and where to look but I think that as miraculous as it might seem, I don't know that they ever will find a part of Sam."

She also knows that her ex-husband, Boehlke, did everything he could that day.

"He was absolutely devastated by this," she said. "I do not blame him at all. He loved his son."

A ray of hope

Sam's parents couldn't save him that day at Crater Lake, but Becker said that two years after his disappearance, she came up with a way to help other children with autism.

She created a group called Autism Anchoring Dogs, which has paired mostly Newfoundland dogs with 38 children with autism.

"I needed a purpose after Sam," she said, adding that she came across a study that showed how animals can benefit children with autism. "They can hold an anchoring position so the child doesn't elope (run off). We've had a 100% success rate. Not one of these children have died and none of them have escaped to elope when using their anchoring dog."

She added: "I might have lost my son but I saved 38 other children."

More about Crater Lake

Crater Lake is the only national park in Oregon. Located in southern Oregon about 100 miles southwest of Bend, it's the deepest lake in the U.S. and among the deepest in the world, at about 2,000 feet.

It has long fascinated scientists and laymen alike both for the way it was formed and the way it exists to this day.

Nearly 8,000 years ago, a volcano known as Mount Mazama collapsed after erupting, creating a massive depression that allowed the lake to form, according to the National Park Service.

No rivers connect to the lake, with its 5 trillion gallons of water made up entirely of snow and rain.

Crater Lake saw just a little over 500,000 visitors in 2024, numbers that have been declining partially because of the park's remoteness. That's compared to busier parks in neighboring states like Mount Rainier in Washington and Yosemite in California, which saw 1.6 million and 4.1 million visitors in 2024, respectively, according to federal statistics.

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rescuers renew search for 8-year-old boy who disappeared at Crater Lake 2 decades ago

Reporting by Amanda Lee Myers, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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