The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm Ali.
And I'm Eli.
Welcome back everyone.
Just want to do a quick shout out at the top here.
We had some really lovely reviews come in this week.
They were on our website www.coldandmissing.com.
So thank you so much for leaving those.
Even if you can't leave an Apple review podcast, you can do it over on our website.
So check it out.
So today we're on episode 96.
Let's get into it.
And just as a quick content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person.
Today we are talking about the missing person case of Kevin Jay Ayotte.
And this takes place in September of 1982 in Bemidji, Minnesota.
But first, a little bit about Kevin.
Kevin is only three years old in 1982.
He's the youngest of three boys, and early on his mother, Joanne, realized that he was
developing slower than his brothers and peers.
Kevin was partially deaf and wasn't able to speak.
In fact, he wasn't able to make a lot of noise at all.
While Kevin loves following his older brothers around, the family also have a new puppy that
loves to follow Kevin around.
Flash is a black and white springer spaniel that is always at Kevin's side.
Kevin, his brothers, and mother live just outside of the town of Bemidji.
Their house sits in a wooded area.
And now a timeline of events.
On Thursday, September 30, it's around 430 in the afternoon, and Kevin's brothers are
due back any minute from school.
Joanne, Kevin's mom, puts his socks and shoes on so they can walk out to meet his
brothers.
Kevin had a habit of removing his socks and shoes at every opportunity.
Kevin is wearing lace-up shoes, blue jeans, and a checkered shirt.
He also has on a disposable diaper, which he also had a habit of taking off whenever
it was wet.
Once his brothers arrive, Kevin and his mother walk them from the bus stop back to the house.
As the boys run inside, Kevin follows them.
Joanne stays outside.
She told local media that she was working on some windows.
A few minutes later, police say it was about 15 minutes that Joanne was outside.
She heads back in and finds that Kevin is missing.
The boys had been playing upstairs in their mother's room.
Also missing is Flash.
Joanne and her sons begin looking for Kevin.
He and Flash had wandered off into the woods before, but they had always found him quickly.
At three years old, there is only so far that he can get.
However, as the minutes pass, the panic increases.
Joanne and her sons are searching for any sign of Kevin or Flash.
Joanne is hoping to find a shoe, sock, or diaper of Kevin's to help lead her in the
right direction.
However, nothing is found.
After two hours of searching, Joanne calls the police around 7 p.m.
Immediately, the county sheriff starts to send every available officer to the home to
help search.
Around 50 officers search the surrounding woods, bogs, and near the Turtle River for
the toddler and puppy.
Officers are worried if they don't find Kevin tonight.
While still early in the season, the temperature was expected to drop to around 40 degrees.
That's around 4 degrees Celsius.
The fact that Kevin is partially deaf and unable to communicate complicates the search.
Even if rescuers are nearby, Kevin may not be able to call out to them.
Police and families search through the evening for any sign of Flash or Kevin, but they don't
find anything.
No shoes that Kevin loved to take off or diaper that he would shed when wet.
The next day, Friday, October 1st, the police are eager to start searching.
Through word of mouth and announcements over the local radio station, by the afternoon,
over 200 volunteers turned up to help search for Kevin.
Helping the police were also the local forest rangers.
Police launch planes with heat-seeking equipment to try to find Kevin or Flash.
The search is difficult.
Police have trouble keeping a straight line due to the thick brush.
One woman even gets tripped up in barbed wire that was on the ground and she had to be treated
at the local hospital.
However, as the afternoon turns into evening, it starts to rain and temperatures are dropping
again back down to 40 degrees.
The Beltrami County Sheriff, Tom Tolman, calls the search off for the evening.
The sheriff is frustrated that there hasn't been any sign of Kevin or his dog.
Sheriff Tolman says, quote, we have no real fertile ground developing and I don't think
we're going to get any, end quote.
Police are hesitant to call this a possible abduction.
They point out that hunters get lost in these woods all the time.
But when pressed further, the police did note that all of the lost hunters were found within
a few hours.
When asked if the search would continue over the weekend, the sheriff said, quote, it depends.
The next day, police do decide to search again and they're starting to question if maybe
Kevin had been abducted and ask for help from the FBI and the Minnesota Crime Bureau.
When officials are asked why they believe that now, they say, quote, it centers around
the dog.
The dog was with the young boy when he disappeared.
The dog has not been found in the woods.
The dog has not returned home, leading us to believe the dog may not be in the area,
end quote.
One thing that seems to be on everyone's mind is that if Kevin is in the woods, he
likely would not be able to survive this long in cold temperatures and rain.
Sheriff Tolman says, quote, the boy has no food, no comfort, no shelter, and we're not
getting anywhere in the search, end quote.
Police continue to search the woods over the next few days and the FBI do get involved
to try to determine if Kevin had been abducted.
But day after day, there is still no sign of Kevin.
Finally on Tuesday, October 5th, Kevin has been missing for five days.
After searching 9,000 acres on foot and having helicopters and planes search over 60 square
miles, the ground search is called off for Kevin.
However, later that evening in a field across the street from Kevin's house, flash is spotted.
Kevin's family sees the dog first.
Flash is in good condition.
He was taken to a vet to be examined to make sure he's okay and to see if he can offer
any clues as to where Kevin may be.
The vet will also pump his stomach to see what the contents are.
It appears that his last few meals had consisted of swamp grass.
Other than that, his paws and coat were relatively clean.
Officials said, quote, he was dry and fairly clean.
His fur wasn't matted and it looks like he had plenty of water but perhaps had not been
eating since Thursday night, end quote.
While flash is getting checked out at the vet, the family and police search the field
for any sign of Kevin until it gets dark.
The next day, Wednesday, October 6th, the search is back on.
Police put a tracker on flash's collar and launch a helicopter to keep an eye on him.
Police take him back to the field to see if he will lead them to Kevin.
They take him to different spots, hoping that he'll lead them to the little boy.
However, each time they do it, investigators say that flash would make a few turns and
then start running back to the Ayotte house.
Please try this for two days and every time flash heads back home.
The press asked police if flash found his way home so easily, why did it take him four
days to appear?
Sheriff Tomlin responds with, quote, until we can answer that question, our investigation
will be relentless, end quote.
By the end of Thursday, it's been a week now that Kevin has been missing.
And after flash failed to lead investigators to him, Sheriff Tomlin told the local paper
that Joanne said to him, quote, Tom, I'm satisfied.
The boy is just not here, end quote.
Police do seem certain that flash had not been in the area when they were searching
the days after Kevin's disappearance, as there had been no sign of him.
No one had heard any barking.
There was no heat signature, nothing.
The FBI are still helping out with the case, but at this point, Kevin's case is not classified
as an abduction.
In April of 1983, so Kevin has been missing for seven months, police conduct a search
of a thickly wooded area just northwest of Bemidji.
When asked if they're launching another search, police say no, but that they'll continue
to do searches as the weather improves.
The next time Kevin's case really hits the news again is in February of 1985.
So it's been over two years that Kevin has been missing.
And he is one of the first children featured as a missing child on a milk carton.
Most people know that Johnny Gosh was one of the first children featured, but he was
first of four.
Kevin, Johnny, Richard Udon from Wyoming, and Jackie Boyer of California.
Just a few months after the milk carton campaign launched, in April of 1985, Joanne sits down
with the local newspaper for an interview.
She said, quote, it's like this every day.
I wonder where is he?
How is he?
Who has him?
Is he all right?
I don't know how anyone could do this to another human being.
End quote.
It's also at this time that it's revealed that back when Kevin first went missing in
1982, while police were searching the woods, the FBI investigated Joanne's ex-husband
as a possible suspect.
However, he's quickly ruled out when he passed a polygraph and had a strong alibi.
Joanne still believes that her son is alive out there.
She says, quote, yes, I believe he's still alive.
And I hope and pray that somebody's taking well care of him.
I mean, how could he be dead?
Whoever did this didn't hurt the dog.
Why would they hurt my baby?
End quote.
One thing has become clear.
The case is now labeled as a non-parental abduction with law enforcement.
Over the years, it seems like Kevin's case goes cold.
There's not much mention of him in the media.
But in 2016, his case gets some attention again.
A man in Michigan was accused of stealing Kevin's identity.
He was using his name, birthdate, and social security number.
Police and federal investigators pay the man a visit, and they're able to determine that
it's not Kevin.
But that is all we know about the disappearance of Kevin Ayotte.
So if you know anything about Kevin's disappearance or his whereabouts today, please call the
Beltrami County Sheriff's Office at 218-751-9111.
So that is the case of Kevin Ayotte.
I feel like this is one of those cases where, yes, it is a missing case, but it feels as
if Kevin vanished as opposed to just missing.
As I was listening to you, all I kept thinking was that it was like he disappeared out of
thin air.
That was my overwhelming response from the beginning.
Yeah, there's a lot of mystery around what happened to Kevin, obviously.
It seemed like a short period of time and that he should have been inside with his brothers.
I would be curious to know what his older brothers told police at that time about those
15 minutes, like what happened exactly.
I would be curious to know what their perspective was and if they heard anything, did they see
anything?
What was their experience in this at that time?
Yeah, I echo that same interest in just to know what was said of his siblings, of his
brothers.
And also, I'm curious to know the layout of the house.
I'm curious to know where he was exactly and how it related to the back entrance of the
house or the front, just how he got out.
My mind instantly started building the structure of the house to figure that out.
I totally agree.
I would be interested to know the layout of the home as well.
I just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone of the time, it being 1982.
This was even before I was born.
So I imagine, like it was for me, for my mother to step away, hang some laundry or work on
something while my siblings were surrounding me.
That's something that would have been very normal in my home and I think a lot of my
neighboring homes at the time.
The behavior of everything to me seems very normal of how a family would be acting in
the middle of the day.
Absolutely.
And Joanne had walked to the bus stop to pick up her other children and walk them back.
So she was like a very thoughtful mother and I'm sure she did think that her home was safe.
They were inside, they were safe.
I really was just left with a lot of questions as I was listening to you.
So jumping to when his dog was found, I was kind of shocked that they found him at all
and that he seemed fine.
And that to me immediately said that that dog was being held somewhere and perhaps Kevin
as well.
Yeah, the dog returning raises a lot of questions for me.
A big thing about what made the search for Kevin difficult was rain.
It started raining the night he went missing.
It rained the next day.
It kept raining and when the dog returned he was clean, not really muddy from any reports
that I read.
Nobody mentioned that the dog was muddy, his fur was not matted.
He was a clean dog.
They said his paws were clean and if the dog had been out in the woods for days in the
rain I would suspect to see mud, especially on this kind of dog.
I looked it up and it's a long haired dog.
Yeah, you and I have one fluffy dog and one day of rain and he steps out and he's a muddy
mop so it would have been very noticeable if that dog had been battling the elements
and to me as a dog parent he definitely was not.
He was being taken care of at least somewhat.
Yeah, the timing of the dog showing up is also suspect.
Police don't find any signs of the dog in the woods and that's when they start kind
of changing their story or their investigation track of maybe he was abducted because there
was no sign of the dog.
For them to announce that and then after that the dog is found seemingly well taken care
of like he at least had some kind of shelter and maybe access to clean water.
It definitely raises a lot of questions.
My next question was I can't remember who it was.
I think maybe stepdad or her ex-husband.
I just wanted to know more if there was information why was he a suspect.
Yes, this was Joanne's ex-husband and I do believe that it was Kevin's biological father.
He is referred to as his father in a couple articles but I think that the FBI needed to
rule him out since so many times with missing children you know it is somebody that they
know and parental kidnappings are the most common so I think it's you know like when
somebody goes missing you have to look at like the spouse first or the boyfriend or
girlfriend or their partner.
So I think it's just like one of those things it's like they need to rule the dad out before
they can really move on to the next person.
Those were really all of the questions I had.
I was surprised that there was so much information that like they really did investigate and
comb that area and I so deeply want to be on his mom's side and believe that he's still
out there somewhere but to also think about that is that he's just a few years older than
us.
I mean it's a lifetime to continue to exist and to not be with your family like I so deeply
want answers for her and her other sons too.
I'm sure there is a huge feeling of consistent loss in their life that like destabilizes
their family dynamic I just can't imagine and because of the time period I am hopeful
that something will turn up somewhere or that someone knows something which is usually the
case when information does come out later in cases like this.
Absolutely.
I really hope that his family gets answers that they're looking for and yeah like you
said like it's a lifetime to be you know missing from your family and they deserve a homecoming.
The whole family deserves a reunion so hopefully those answers will come out.
Again if you know anything about the disappearance of Kevin or his whereabouts today please call
the Beltrami County Sheriff.
At 218-751-9111.
We will have a photo of Kevin on our Instagram at Cold and Missing.
There's also an age progress photo that shows what he would look like now so we'll also
be sharing that as well if you're not following us please find us on there you'll get lots
of updates about our podcast.
I know I mentioned it at the top of the show but if you could rate and review we would
appreciate it so much it really helps cases get traction and for people to find the podcast
to know about these cases.
And also as I mentioned you can review at our website www.coldandmissing.com where we
also have transcripts so if you or someone you love is hard of hearing you can follow
along with the episode there.
Also as we approach our 100th episode I can't believe we've been doing this for that long
in that my wife has been at the helm of this amazing project but we have a full backlog
of all of our episodes if you're new to the podcast we encourage you to go back listen
we have we have plenty of backlog plenty of cases that still need attention and to circle
around again to resurface so if you if you're new here go ahead take a look back and have
a listen.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host Allie and I'm your co-host Eli.
Have a good week and stay safe y'all.
Stay safe y'all.