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One last search: A devastating loss scarred the Bordenkircher family. Forty-two years later, they have begun a campaign to find their Jamie.
From: Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, CA) Date: August 25, 2007 More results for: Jamie Bordenkircher
Byline: Art Campos
Aug. 25--One moment he was there. The next moment he was gone.
Jamie Bordenkircher was 2 years old, playing in the backyard of his family's summer cabin in Kings Beach, when he vanished.
The date was June 12, 1965. The time was 1:30 p.m.
The frantic search that day and in the days that followed made national headlines and attracted thousands of volunteers but yielded nothing.
Forty-two years later, the devastating loss that scarred each of the remaining family members has become a cause that binds them together for one last search.
Over the past six months, the Bordenkircher family has initiated a nationwide campaign to find Jamie, offering a $50,000 reward for his "discovery or recovery."
Working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the family has given DNA samples so potential matches can be made if someone comes forward.
A reconstruction artist from the national center made a sketch of what Jamie might look like today at 44 years old.
The Placer County Sheriff's Department, reacting to the family's request, has reopened the case, assigning two detectives to it.
"This was a huge case in 1965," said Undersheriff Steve D'Arcy. "But when the family got in touch with us earlier this year, we knew nothing about it. Everyone who worked here in 1965 is either dead or retired."
In addition, the family is trying to find a national television show to publicize the mystery.
Jamie, whose given name was James, disappeared just after his parents, Jesse and Helen Bordenkircher, arrived at the cabin on Beaver Street near Lake Tahoe from the family's home in Yuba City.
As the parents were unloading the car, Jamie and his older siblings ran to the backyard and began playing on the swing set.
Eventually, all of the older children -- Mike, 16, Jay, 8, and Liz Ann, 6 -- trickled back into the house. Jamie was left unattended for about 10 minutes.
By the time the family missed him, Jamie was gone.
The backyard swing he had been using was still swaying in the brisk wind that was causing whitecaps on Lake Tahoe.
Jay seemed to recall last seeing him in the area of the front porch.
Frantic family members searched for an hour before calling the Placer County Sheriff's Department, which brought dog teams, divers and helicopters.
Over the next five days, rescue teams and volunteers combed the area around the cabin.
They canvassed the woods behind the home and searched in and around Lake Tahoe, which is across the highway from the cabin. Nearby homes were checked.
The searchers found nothing, not even a child's footprint.
What happened to Jamie Bordenkircher?
Did the toddler wander into the woods? Did a bear or other large animal get him? Did he walk across busy Highway 28 and drown in the lake?
If he died, why has the body never been found?
His mother, now 81, still keeps the calendar page where she noted his disappearance.
"There was a lot of guilt in our family over Jamie's disappearance," said Jay Bordenkircher. "We all blamed ourselves for leaving him alone."
Because of that guilt, there was little family discussion of the disappearance over the decades. But prompted early this year by a televised report on missing children, Jay Bordenkircher broached the topic with family members. All were ready to embrace the theory that Jamie was kidnapped.
They suspect Jamie walked to the highway, where he was picked up by a passing driver.
"We don't understand how he could have crossed that road and not have been seen by someone," Helen Bordenkircher said.
His family believes it is possible that Jamie was raised by another family and doesn't know he was kidnapped.
Had he made it across the highway to the lake -- 2,500 feet from the cabin -- and fallen into the water, the body would have been spotted, family members insist.
Jay Bordenkircher, now 50, is a fire captain in Yuba City and has participated in the recovery of drowning victims.
A body would have floated to the surface of the lake after several days, and "someone would have seen it," he said, and a helicopter crew would have had no trouble seeing a body in shallow water.
Max Bennett, 71, a lieutenant for the Placer County Sheriff's Department in 1965, led the search for Jamie. He has never believed Jamie is dead.
"This was the only case in my whole career that I couldn't let go of," said Bennett, who left the Sheriff's Department in 1980. "I think the boy was walking, and a motorist and his wife took him."
Bennett, who later had a 13-year career as a private investigator, said his searchers looked everywhere -- multiple times.
"We looked in the lake, but he couldn't have been there," he said. "The lake was too shallow, and it was clear water. You could see right through it."
And there were no clues in the woods.
"We looked for a sock -- anything," he said. "But, nothing. I doubt that he is dead."
Earlier this year, the family thought it had found Jamie.
A cousin of the Bordenkirchers who lives on the Hawaiian island of Maui began to suspect an acquaintance there might be Jamie.
Facially, the man was nearly identical to the composite sketch of Jamie. The cousin learned that the man had been adopted by a Utah family that also had a cabin at Lake Tahoe.
But the promising lead vanished when DNA samples showed no match between the man and the Bordenkirchers.
The Bordenkircher family realizes that finding Jamie is a long shot, but they desperately want to end the mystery.
They note that Jamie's father, Jesse Bordenkircher, died of cancer in 1984 at age 60 without knowing the fate of his son.
"For years, we never really talked about it. But over the past six months, we've probably talked about it more than we did in the past 42 years."
Marsha Gilmer-Tullis, director of the family advocacy division of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said the pain and guilt suffered by Jamie's family are natural.
"I'm certain there's not a day that goes by where they don't think of (Jamie)," she said. "Closure is just not possible."
Gilmer-Tullis said there were few or possibly no programs available in 1965 to help the family get through its anguish.
"They were dealing with it at a time when resources were very little and very slim," she said. "I imagine they had to deal with it all alone."
She urged the family not to give up hope.
"We can never say that a missing child who is now an adult can never be found," Gilmer-Tullis said. "There are cases where children were taken, and they turned up years later as adults.
"Miracles happen every day. They really do."
