Boy, 8, Vanished 19 Years Ago After Running into the Woods at National Park

The search for a boy who disappeared after running into the woods in Oregon has been renewed.

Samuel Boehlke was just 8 years old when he was last seen at about 4 p.m. local time on Oct. 14, 2006, in the Crater Lake National Park, according to a bulletin from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Samuel, who also went by Sammie, was walking with his dad near the Cleetwood Cove trailhead “when the boy suddenly ran into the woods,” the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

The boy’s dad called out to his son, asking him to stop, but the sheriff’s office said “the boy continued to run, and ultimately disappeared.”

Several searches for Samuel have been conducted since October 2006. Now, nearly two decades later, the search for Samuel is back on. 

The sheriff’s office said it was one of several agencies that searched for Samuel around Crater Lake over the weekend of Sept. 20.

PEOPLE has reached out to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office for comment on Thursday, Sept. 25.

Kirsten Becker, Samuel’s mom, told USA Today that her son has autism. She also said she has remained in contact with many of the “glorious” people who originally searched for her son, some of whom now lead the agencies still searching for the missing boy.

“It should have been easy, and we should have been able to find him, and that’s frustrating to them,” Becker explained.

And she does not blame her ex-husband for what unfolded, sharing that he did everything he could to try and find him.

“He was absolutely devastated by this,” she said. 

Kenneth Boehlke, Samuel’s dad, separately told the newspaper that he and the FBI believe his son thought running into the woods “was just a game.”

The dad also said his son was interested in finding yellow pummice stones, or “gold” as his son called them, at Crater Lake. 

A snowstorm hampered the initial search for Samuel, according to the sheriff’s office. Despite their attempts to find Samuel, the boy still has not been found.

“Anything they can do to find something related to him so we can put him to rest would be great,” Kenneth told USA Today. “We still wonder exactly what happened.”

Becker believes her son has died, but still hopes her son can be found someday. “You just always want evidence,” she explained to the newspaper.

Samuel was last seen wearing a long-sleeved black-and-green striped shirt, cargo pants, a blue winter coat and red suede shoes, according to authorities.

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“We are proud of our Search and Rescue volunteers for the dedication and diligence they demonstrate during both urgent rescue operations and decades-old missing persons cases,” the sheriff’s office said.

Anyone with information about Samuel’s disappearance is asked to contact the Klamath County Sheriff’s Office at 1-541-883-7479.