WA WA - David Adams, 8, Issaquah, 3 May 1968

[Tru Rose]

This is a VERY cold case indeed.

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<mod add>

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/a/adams_david.html

http://www.waspc.org/mp/missing.php?wac=93M0009138

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/4036dmwa.html </mod add>



I'm telling you folks all this for YOUR opinion. I will be happy to answer any questions you might have. I've wanted to write about this for over 30 years now, so I've had LOTS of time to think about it. If anyone else recalls the case, I'd be delighted to hear their thoughts on it.

 

[laini]

Tru Rose,

welcome to websleuths! I see that David Adams isn't listed on doenetwork, charleyproject, or seattlepi website. Is he listed anywhere online that you know of? This happened in state of Washington, correct? Sad story.

 

[Tru Rose]

No, I've not found him listed either, <modsnip>

Even Ann Rule had not heard of this case, and she was into everything in the greater Seattle area from about 68 onwards.

 

[grievousangel]

<modsnip> If we have learned nothing in the ensuing years, it is to immediately begin searching for people as soon as they are missed! I hope we as a society have learned that at least. Good luck on this case...bringing it to light and adding it to the various sites can only be a good thing...if only to highlight a case where perhaps an earlier search may have made a difference...we will never know. :twocents:

 

[docwho3]

Are you certain he was never found? I ask because I am already finding the name "david adams" and the search term "Tiger mountain" on search engines with links to a woodcarver and a pilot club of some sort.

 

[Tru Rose]

No, he was never found, the David Adams you mentioned is not related at all, just an odd thing that can happen

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[sheesher]

TruRose, I am from the same area you are and I also remember the David Adams case. Our family lived down by the elementary school and high school, I seem to remember helicopters flying over the mountain. I was about 12 years old at the time.
I have one of the old newspapers from that time, my mother had saved it. It is not one of the big local papers one of the little newspapers that was being published at that time. It has an article in it about David Adams. I am not sure how much valid information is in the article, it seems it was kind of sensationalized. I do remember that it a strange event all around.

 

[Kat]

http://www.issaquahpress.com/2009/04/06/sheriff%E2%80%99s-office-revives-investigation-of-1968-disappearance/

April 6, 2009

Sheriff&#8217;s office revives investigation of 1968 disappearance

Retired King County Sheriff&#8217;s Office Detective Tom Jensen &#8212; who arrested serial killer Gary Ridgway in November 2001 &#8212; is part of a new, three-member Cold Case Squad formed by the sheriff&#8217;s office and backed by a federal grant. Jensen serves as a civilian analyst.

Investigators will examine 193 homicides and missing-persons cases dating back to 1942. The squad will review the unsolved disappearance of 8-year-old David Adams, who went missing May 3, 1968, while hiking on Tiger Mountain with his brothers and sisters. More than 1,000 searchers combed the mountainside in the days following his disappearance, but David was never found.Residents speculated whether David had fallen down an old coalmine shaft, or if an animal had attacked the boy and dragged him off. Others wondered if David ran away.

 

[Jillpillrn]

Where did you get your information about this case?

 

[Jillpillrn]

Almost nothing but the name is correct in the above posting by TRU ROSE.
David Adams was 8 years old. He was walking home from a friends house. A search began within hours and included literally thousands of people. The characters and conversations listed above are fictional.
The alleged "hero" to my knowledge never existed. If he is an actual person he was one of thousands of volunteer and professional searchers that stayed up all night searching for David.
As for the details given almost nothing is accurate. NOTHING was found of David, no shoe, nothing.
The possible explainations given are laughable. 15-mile creek is a foot deep or less, even with Spring run off. The idea that an 8 year old drowned, was washed away and never found? Doesn't take a slueth to see holes in that theory.
Quicksand? again doesn't take a slueth. Have you EVER heard of a real person swallowed by quicksand while they dozed off on a patch of sand?
Bears, cougars, etc drag people off a few hundred yards at best. They don't completely devour humans including clothing and blood, and they don't burry them so that in forty years they are never found.
I am David's sister. There were 5 siblings that attended Clark elementary beginning in Kindergarden through 6th grade. We all graduated from Issaquah High School, our family never moved back to Bellevue. No such plaque or trees ever existed to our knowledge.
As for some of the questions asked above. My dad was a fighter pilot in the Air Force. He had been reactivated to go to Vietnam when my brother went missing (May 3rd 1968, not March 1969). He was able to return for several weeks during the search (the search was not four days as mentioned) but had to return to his Military duties. Thus perhaps little mention of him in newspaper accounts.
This case has been reopened by a cold case team through the King County cold case task force in Washington State. If you have information reguarding what can only be explained as a child abduction please contact detective Tompkins of the task force.
I will assume that time has fogged the memory of Tru Rose and that the flair for creativity was not meant to be deceiving, however the story recounted by her will not help to solve my brothers disappearance.

 

[raindrops300]

Hi, thanks for the update and details. Has his information been entered on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's (NCMEC) site? and DoeNetwork.org ? Those are good places to start to get his picture and information out there.
There are many good sleuthers on here. I mostly read, but one of them will pop in and know where to start.
I'm sorry your family has gone through this. Maybe some answers will come.

 

[Jillpillrn]

I doubt the info has been listed there as this case was "cold" long before the sites where available

 

[rpipergirl]

He is in fact listed on the Doe Network with precious little info. Here is a link to his profile. http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/4036dmwa.html

My prayers go out for you and your family, Jillpillrn.

 

[Lyn1001]

Bumping to see if any sluthers that are more experienced than myself have any ideas to try to help out Jillpillrn.

 

[sheesher]

Jillpillrn, First of all, I am still this many years later, so sorry about your brother. And thank you for posting your message about your brother.

The plaque(s) and trees Trurose mentioned in her post were planted at Clark Elementary in memory of a boy named David Duke who would have been in the graduating class of 1973 at Issaquah High School. David Duke drowned while attending Camp Waskowitz in about 1962-63, not positive on the date.

I hope this helps to further clear up details about your brother. Thank you again for your posting.

 

[rainbow]

The Doe Network states that he was hiking with his brothers and sisters when he went missing but his sister said he was walking home from a friend's house. Would that minor detail need to be corrected with Doe?

 

[SarahR]

JillPillrn can you explain why the media reports and doe network all say he was on the mountain if he was walking home from school? I hope you and yours will have some closure soon

 

[gaia227]

With all those people out searching for him so quickly and not finding any trace of him makes me think foul play. So from what I gather - David was not out on Tiger Mt - he was walking home from a friends house?

Jill - does your family think he was abducted off the street or maybe he cut through the woods to get home quicker and got injured? It is hard to believe that a little boy can go into the woods and never come back but it has happened. I can think of two - can't remember either of their names - one was out with his boy scout troop, was slacking behind and disappeared. The other I can think of was out with his grandfather and father and wandered to go take some pictures. They found his camera and food wrappers but they never found him.

I am sorry your family has had to go through all these years not knowing. I am so glad to hear they are reopening the case. After all these years someone might pipe up with some new info.

 

[Robkillian]

I am glad to have read David's sister's response to Trurose. I was David's desk partner in May, 1968. We were in the third grade, Mrs. Collingsworth's class. I was seven when he went missing. Thousands of people joined in this search both law enforcement, the fathers in our church; many women cooked and fed these searchers and the Adams' family. The hunt was nationwide and the news media was involved as well. I wonder today if with our advanced technology if answers would more readily be available today than they were in 1968. I remember sitting by the phone hours at a time waiting for news that David had been found; praying fervently for his safety and our fathers' and brothers and neighbors who were in the woods night and day trying to find any clues.

I have been thinking a lot about him lately and so googled his name and realized that King County had reopened his case in April, 2009; I am very happy to hear this.


I had played with David in the woods near his home. He was not 'unfamiliar' with the area. He went to my church. We were at each others' birthday parties...

This loss was very traumatic to his family and to us who knew him, us kids his age. The fear that he had been taken and killed was very trying and as the years go by, the unanswered questions continue to haunt me. There was so much rumor back then.

It is nice to see that people still remember and care. David, wherever you are, you are not forgotten.

 

[Robkillian]

Rainbow: as far as I remember, he was coming home from a friend's home just a few yards away and it was through the woods that he had to travel. But, one can see this house from the Adams' house.