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LEADORE, Idaho — The Lemhi County Sheriff's Office is officially scaling back search efforts in the Timber Creek/Stone Reservoir area for missing Idaho Falls toddler Deorr Kunz Jr.
"After 10 days of searching, diving and scouring the hillsides, the Sheriff's Office has decided to redirect the investigation," Sheriff Lynn Bowerman said in a Monday news release. "The Sheriff's Office will keep a presence in the Timber Creek area, continuing to search for clues, and has not ruled out abduction by strangers or wild animals."
Bowerman said Deorr's family has cooperated with law enforcement and has volunteered to take polygraphs. He said the parents are not considered suspects and "this is a routine procedure."
Deorr was camping with his parents, great-grandfather and a friend of the grandfather when he disappeared on July 10.
Crews have spent dozens of hours focusing on the Stone Reservoir after cadaver dogs indicated there may be something there. On July 17, Bowerman told HLN his office learned someone had been dumping human cremains in the reservoir, and that could be the smell the dogs picked up on.
Numerous resources, including helicopters with FLIR (forward looking infrared radiometer), divers, side scan sonar, scent dogs, cadaver dogs, horses, ATVs, and over 300 people, were used with absolutely no sign of the victim.
–Sheriff Lynn Bowerman, Lemhi County, Idaho
"It's pretty disappointing," Bowerman said during the HLN interview. "Someone was depositing human cremains up there while we're searching the area. It contaminates the reservoir and the entire area."
Several agencies — including the Lemhi County Sheriff's Office, Salmon Search and Rescue, Bonneville County Sheriff's Office and Idaho Fish and Game — have spent over a week searching for the boy.
"Numerous resources, including helicopters with FLIR (forward looking infrared radiometer), divers, side scan sonar, scent dogs, cadaver dogs, horses, ATVs, and over 300 people, were used," Bowerman said, "with absolutely no sign of the victim."
In Monday's news release, Bowerman didn't say what steps the sheriff's office will now take in the investigation.
The Lemhi County Sheriff's office is asking the public to continue to report any information to the Idaho Fusion Center at 208-846-7676, or to the Lemhi County Sheriff's Office at 208-756-8980.
