CA CA - Jack Phillips, 9, Big Bear Lake, 6 Aug 1995

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georgiagirl

georgiagirl

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The Doe Network:
Case File 1208DMCA
<modsnip>
Left: Phillips, circa 1995; Right: Age-Progressed to age 17 (circa 2003)

Jack Daniel Phillips
Missing since August 6, 1995 from Big Bear Lake, San Bernardino County, California.
Classification: Endangered Missing



Vital Statistics
  • Date Of Birth: June 22, 1986
  • Age at Time of Disappearance: 9 years old
  • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 4'0" (122 cm); 72 lbs (33 kg)
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Brown hair; brown eyes.
  • Marks, Scars: Scar on left cheek, freckles on face.
  • Dentals: Dental X-rays available
  • Clothing: A black tank top, gray shorts with tasmanian devil logo on leg, white socks and white tennis shoes. Gold earring in his left ear.
  • AKA: JD



Circumstances of Disappearance
Jack Phillips was last seen between the hours of 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. near the Aspen Glen Picnic grounds in the city of Big Bear Lake. His mother last saw him that afternoon heading for a nearby park. Another 9-year-old boy told investigators that he saw the boy walking from a picnic area toward the Phillips home about 5:30 p.m. that day. There has been no trace of the boy since. No indications of foul play, no ransom demands, no confirmed sightings.
The closest thing to a possible break occurred several days after the disappearance, when a family friend who lives in Bakersfield said she received an automated phone call asking whether she would accept a collect call. The woman told authorities she thought she heard Jack's voice on the other end when the automated call paused for the caller to announce himself. But when she pressed the phone key pad to accept the call, there no longer was a voice at the other end. The only other person that Jack knows in Bakersfield is his father. But he was in prison at the time.
The boy has lived with his mother and her boyfriend, along with the couple's own 2 1/2-year-old son. The two adults apparently had an argument the day that Jack was last seen and Jack had told a friend that he was tired of the arguing. Jack had never run away from home. A 20-square-mile area around the boy's home was scoured by searchers on foot, on horseback and from the air in the days after he disappeared, with no evidence of him. Foul play is suspected.



Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office
Missing Persons Unit
909-356-9652

Agency Case Number:
169501165

NCIC Number: M-854762197
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Los Angeles Times 1995

Return to the Unexplained Disappearances' Index

 
Bump

Jack has been missing 15 years today.
 
A little NASCAR publicity for his case:

http://rotwnews.com/section/crime/nascar/6688

Fontana, CA - The 1995 cold case involving the disappearance of J.D. (Jack Daniel) Phillips, 9, in Big Bear Lake will be featured artwork on car #87 driven by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie-of-the-Year Kevin Conway during the upcoming Fontana NASCAR race weekend (March 25-27) at Auto Club Speedway.
Click to expand...
 
Authorities dust off 16-year-old case

When J.D. Phillips left his Big Bear Lake house to go play at Aspen Glen campground, he was 9 years old. He hasn&#8217;t been seen since that day: Aug. 6, 1995.

Jack Daniel Phillips is considered a cold case by the San Bernardino County Sheriff&#8217;s Department.

[snip]

No signs of the young boy were ever located. It&#8217;s a case that has left authorities baffled for 16 years. It is hoped that Conway and ExtenZe Racing&#8217;s assistance in this case will help reach that one person who may have the answer in this case.

More: http://www.bigbeargrizzly.net/news/article_82254dfa-54fc-11e0-b349-001cc4c03286.html
 
Quite a few UIDs matching Jack's demographic in Namus but a lot are listed for Los Angeles, CA. Google Maps tells me it's a 2hr drive from where Jack was last seen alive. I emailed the Los Angeles ME regarding one such UID. There's nothing that seems to be able to confirm it's Jack or for that matter rule him out as a match. Hoping the ME is privy to some much better information that is listed on Namus. I'll let you guys know as soon as I get a reply but it's the long shot to end all long shots.
 
Received emails from both LA ME and Daniel Machian, the UID's case manager, and unfortunately it's not JD Phillips. I believe there was a UID matching his description found in Big Bear Lake, however it is listed as "ruled out" on Namus. Probability dictates that the poor boy never made it out of the State Park. Does anyone know if the lake was dredged at the time?
 
Closure eludes parents of missing Big Bear Lake boy

The man long suspected of abducting and killing 9-year-old Big Bear Lake resident Jack "J.D." Phillips is dead, but the boy's father can't help but feel conflicted about it.

J.D. was last seen walking home from the Aspen Glen Picnic Area in Big Bear Lake on Aug. 6, 1995. He never returned home and was never seen again.

Convicted serial pedophile and child killer James Crummel, 68, who lived just a few blocks from the Aspen Glen recreation area at the time of J.D.'s disappearance, was found dead in his cell on San Quentin's Death Row on May 27. He had hanged himself with an electrical cord, authorities said.

"It would have been nice to know where my son was, but I'm glad (Crummel's) dead. I'm glad he's gone," said Jack Phillips, J.D.'s father, who now lives in West Virginia. "There can never be any closure. Nothing would've brought my son back."
 
Prayers for the family. So sad.
 
I was following up 'on one thing and it led me to the disappearance of Roderick Cate https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/5085/7/

Roderick Cate (who lived in West Virginia) disappeared 10/12/02 approximately 30 miles away (Twin Peaks, CA) from where Jack Phillips went missing (Big Bear, CA) http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/phillips_jack.html- and it seems Roderick was the boyfriend of Jack's mother and father to his half-brother... http://articles.latimes.com/1995-08-21/news/mn-37423_1_big-bear-lake

I am just baffled that 7 years later his mother's boyfriend goes missing in the same area...

Here are more links
http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/ar/t10121.htm
http://www.bigbeargrizzly.net/news/article_82254dfa-54fc-11e0-b349-001cc4c03286.html

Any ideas or other links? I believe Jack Phillips real father was in prison in Bakersfield at the time of his disappearance, but I don't know if he was out in 2002...
 
arielred said:
I was following up 'on one thing and it led me to the disappearance of Roderick Cate https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/5085/7/

Roderick Cate (who lived in West Virginia) disappeared 10/12/02 approximately 30 miles away (Twin Peaks, CA) from where Jack Phillips went missing (Big Bear, CA) http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/phillips_jack.html- and it seems Roderick was the boyfriend of Jack's mother and father to his half-brother... http://articles.latimes.com/1995-08-21/news/mn-37423_1_big-bear-lake

I am just baffled that 7 years later his mother's boyfriend goes missing in the same area...

Here are more links
http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/ar/t10121.htm
http://www.bigbeargrizzly.net/news/article_82254dfa-54fc-11e0-b349-001cc4c03286.html

Any ideas or other links? I believe Jack Phillips real father was in prison in Bakersfield at the time of his disappearance, but I don't know if he was out in 2002...
Click to expand...

Wow. The more I read the case the more I doubt it will ever be solved. The dramatis personae are getting fewer and fewer. Jack's father could well have been out in 2002 as reports said that he was "in prison at the time, I was devastated to read about the Jack Crummel connection becoming a dead end with his recent suicide. The prosecutor's should have taken the deal (even if it led to a dead end), California are the most half assed state to still have the death penalty and are unlikely to ever execute another inmate. Why allow lingering doubt over the fate of this poor young boy for the sake of having one extra man on a (purely nominal) death row?
 
I may be able to help a little here. I was a good friend of Michele Phillips (JD's mom) until she died on July 30, 2012 of cancer.

About Rod Cate -Rod was Michele's longtime boyfriend. They had a son together who was about 2 yrs old when JD was kidnapped. Rod was with Michele at their home in Big Bear on the evening JD went missing. Rod was accused of having something to do with JD's disapearance at first, but was cleared. Michele never thought Rod had anything to do with JD's disapearance, as Michele and Rod were home TOGETHER at the time JD was kidnapped.

Around 2001, Michele and Rod (and their son) went to West Virginia where Rod's extended family lived. Rod went back to California few months later (by himself) to get the rest of their things. They decided to stay in VW.
While Rod was in California getting their things, he went to the mountains with a friend of theirs. I think Rod and his friend were going camping in the mountains. The friend left the campsite for a few hours, and when he came back he saw that Rod had set up the campsite, but he could not find Rod.

There was a search, but Rod was never found. Michele told me she thought Rod had went off to find firewood and possibly fell into a crevasse. She really didn't know what happened to Rod, he was never seen again.
There was a forest fire in that area sometime after Rod went missing, so any evidence of his body (clothes, jewelry, glasses) will probably never be found.

Michele stayed in Virginia with her son and raised him there.

Eventually, Jack (who is JD Phillips dad) came out to Virginia and lived with Michele and helped her raise her son.
Michele always thought it was ironic that Rod raised Jac'ks son, and Jack raised Rod's son. I'm glad Jack was there for her, and Michele was glad too. She had been through so much, and she was such a sweet and kind person.

I agree, it sounds odd that Michele lost her son, and years later she lost her longtime boyfriend. The two cases are not connected in any way.

Michele's son was 18 when Michele died last year. He is living with Jack in Virginia now. He did graduate High School, and he wants to go into the Military. Poor kid, he lost his entire family in 18 years! His brother JD, his dad Rod, and he lost his mom last year. It's so sad.

I don't have any answers, but I thought I would at least shed some light on the two cases, because it does sound a little "funny" if you don't know Michele or her sad story.

Michele told me she DID think Crummel was the one who kidnapped JD. She never had any evidence or proof it was Crummel, but she really thought he did it. JD had a babysitter in Big Bear, and Crummel was a friend of the babysitter. Although Michele never met Crummel, she thought JD met Crummel at the babysitters house. She thought if JD was familiar with Crummel, he may have accepted a ride from him on the evening he was kidnapped. Of course, Michele never really knew what happened to JD, but this was her strongest theory.

She did know that Crummel killed himself in prison. It happened just before Michele died. At least she died knowing Crummel would never be let out of prison and he would never be able to hurt another child.

Also, JD's dad (Jack) was definitely IN prison when JD was kidnapped. There was no way he could have had anything to do with his son's dissapearance.
Jack is a very nice and kind man. He loved his son, as did Michele and Rod.

Please keep looking for JD. Michele never gave up looking for him and she died never really knowing what happened to her son. Of course, JD's dad Jack would love some closure on this case.
 
Here is a webpage I made that has all of the info we know about JD's disappearance. I made this page before JD's mom, Michele, died in 2012. She and JD's dad Jack both approved of this page and all of the info I included.

With Michele's help, I made a map showing the Aspen Glen park where JD was last seen, and the path that Michele thinks JD would have taken to walk home that evening.


https://sites.google.com/site/findjdphillips/
 
mountainbreeze said:
I may be able to help a little here. I was a good friend of Michele Phillips (JD's mom) until she died on July 30, 2012 of cancer.

About Rod Cate -Rod was Michele's longtime boyfriend. They had a son together who was about 2 yrs old when JD was kidnapped. Rod was with Michele at their home in Big Bear on the evening JD went missing. Rod was accused of having something to do with JD's disapearance at first, but was cleared. Michele never thought Rod had anything to do with JD's disapearance, as Michele and Rod were home TOGETHER at the time JD was kidnapped.

Around 2001, Michele and Rod (and their son) went to West Virginia where Rod's extended family lived. Rod went back to California few months later (by himself) to get the rest of their things. They decided to stay in VW.
While Rod was in California getting their things, he went to the mountains with a friend of theirs. I think Rod and his friend were going camping in the mountains. The friend left the campsite for a few hours, and when he came back he saw that Rod had set up the campsite, but he could not find Rod.

There was a search, but Rod was never found. Michele told me she thought Rod had went off to find firewood and possibly fell into a crevasse. She really didn't know what happened to Rod, he was never seen again.
There was a forest fire in that area sometime after Rod went missing, so any evidence of his body (clothes, jewelry, glasses) will probably never be found.

Michele stayed in Virginia with her son and raised him there.

Eventually, Jack (who is JD Phillips dad) came out to Virginia and lived with Michele and helped her raise her son.
Michele always thought it was ironic that Rod raised Jac'ks son, and Jack raised Rod's son. I'm glad Jack was there for her, and Michele was glad too. She had been through so much, and she was such a sweet and kind person.

I agree, it sounds odd that Michele lost her son, and years later she lost her longtime boyfriend. The two cases are not connected in any way.

Michele's son was 18 when Michele died last year. He is living with Jack in Virginia now. He did graduate High School, and he wants to go into the Military. Poor kid, he lost his entire family in 18 years! His brother JD, his dad Rod, and he lost his mom last year. It's so sad.

I don't have any answers, but I thought I would at least shed some light on the two cases, because it does sound a little "funny" if you don't know Michele or her sad story.

Michele told me she DID think Crummel was the one who kidnapped JD. She never had any evidence or proof it was Crummel, but she really thought he did it. JD had a babysitter in Big Bear, and Crummel was a friend of the babysitter. Although Michele never met Crummel, she thought JD met Crummel at the babysitters house. She thought if JD was familiar with Crummel, he may have accepted a ride from him on the evening he was kidnapped. Of course, Michele never really knew what happened to JD, but this was her strongest theory.

She did know that Crummel killed himself in prison. It happened just before Michele died. At least she died knowing Crummel would never be let out of prison and he would never be able to hurt another child.

Also, JD's dad (Jack) was definitely IN prison when JD was kidnapped. There was no way he could have had anything to do with his son's dissapearance.
Jack is a very nice and kind man. He loved his son, as did Michele and Rod.

Please keep looking for JD. Michele never gave up looking for him and she died never really knowing what happened to her son. Of course, JD's dad Jack would love some closure on this case.
Click to expand...


Wow, mountainbreeze. Thank you for your great post.
 
mountainbreeze said:
Here is a webpage I made that has all of the info we know about JD's disappearance. I made this page before JD's mom, Michele, died in 2012. She and JD's dad Jack both approved of this page and all of the info I included.

With Michele's help, I made a map showing the Aspen Glen park where JD was last seen, and the path that Michele thinks JD would have taken to walk home that evening.


https://sites.google.com/site/findjdphillips/
Click to expand...

I just found your site. Thank you for all the information. Do you know if Aspen Glen Park still exists, as I can't find it? Is there a street name I could look up instead?
 
It may be of interest in the case of JD's stepfather, that extensive searches have been taking place in the Twin Peaks area, for missing hiker Alois Krost. That's around the pinnacle trail though, and I'm not sure if it's anywhere near where Rod disappeared.
 
zwiebel said:
I just found your site. Thank you for all the information. Do you know if Aspen Glen Park still exists, as I can't find it? Is there a street name I could look up instead?
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure if Aspen Glen Park still exists. I think it was a small area with picnic tables and not much else back then. There may have been an area there for camping, and there may have been a small playground there.

Looking at Google maps, I can find the area by following HWY 18 into Big Bear, and head south on Mill Creek Rd.
Mill Creek Rd is a block or so west of the big parking lot for the Alpine Slide. (the Alpine Slide is easy to see on Google Maps)

Following Mill Creek Rd south, the road makes a big curve and then goes back up to Hwy 18.
At the very south part of the curve on Mill Creek Rd, before the road goes back up, I see Coldbrook Campground rd.
I am almost positive the area where Coldbrook Campground rd is is the area referred to as Aspen Glen Park.

I hope I didn't confuse you with my directions! I haven't been to that area in 10 years or so.
 
zwiebel said:
It may be of interest in the case of JD's stepfather, that extensive searches have been taking place in the Twin Peaks area, for missing hiker Alois Krost. That's around the pinnacle trail though, and I'm not sure if it's anywhere near where Rod disappeared.
Click to expand...

This is very interesting. Now I am wondering how often hikers go missing in the Twin Peaks area?
I don't know exactly where in Twin Peaks Rod was last seen. I'll try to find out if I can. At one time, Rod and Michele lived in Twin Peaks. I'm not sure if Rod was camping at a "real" camping area or if he was camping somewhere that he found on his own. I sure wish Michele was still here so I could ask her some of these questions.
If I find out any info, I'll post again
Thanks!
 
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