‘We don’t give up.’ Could Idaho toddler who went missing in 1983 still be alive?

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — On March 16, 1983, 2-year-old Jason Keith Cannon went missing from his home in Boise’s North End.

Boise police are now asking for the public’s assistance in hopes of solving the 41-year-old cold case.

Wearing blue overalls and a yellow and blue shirt, Jason was last seen around 2 p.m. on the front porch of his apartment complex at 939 N. 32nd St., according to previous Idaho Statesman reporting. His mother had gone inside to get his jacket, but when she returned, he was gone.

Police, neighbors and volunteers did an extensive search of the surrounding neighborhood in the weeks that followed, including combing a small canal called Sand Creek that ran behind the apartment complex as well as portions of the Boise River.

But Jason was never found.

Boise police last year solved the cold homicide case of 65-year-old Joyce Casper using a new technique that involves genealogy. Detectives were able to compare DNA found at the crime scene with what was available on popular ancestry websites and build a family tree, according to previous Statesman reporting.

Boise Police Department Violent Crime Unit Det. Paul Jagosh, who was assigned to look into Jason’s case again in 2020, told the Idaho Statesman he plans to use the same investigative technique in this case.

Jagosh said he’s tracked down and re-interviewed several people from 1983, including Jason’s parents, who now live out of the state. Police are working with Jason’s parents to submit their DNA samples to GEDmatch, which houses DNA samples from several genealogy sites like Ancestry or 23andMe, so long as someone opts in.

“We’re going to investigate everything. … At the Boise Police Department, we don’t give up on these cases,” Jagosh said.

When Jason initially went missing, authorities thought he may have fallen into the canal near his home.

“A toy bucket, identified by two of Jason’s friends as belonging to the boy, was found west of Stilson Road near the Boise River, about a third of a mile away from his home,” a police spokesman at the search site told the Statesman in 1983.

But Jagosh said other factors, like the fact that Jason was afraid of water, that his older brother was headed home from school and that his mother had brownies in the oven, made him skeptical that Jason wandered off. Jagosh said Jason may still be alive, and police are currently investigating the case as an abduction.

“We’re trying to keep it alive, keep it in people’s minds,” Jagosh said, adding they’ve analyzed most of their leads, but any new details can help. “If you lived in that immediate area, and remember the case, reach out if you have any information at all — because even just the slightest lead could be a breakthrough.”

Anyone with information about the case can contact dispatch at 208-377-6790 or 208-343-2677.