Rancher, sheriff recount incredible rescue of missing Boise girls
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EUREKA COUNTY — By the time 29-year-old Joshua Dundon walked up to Vera and Jim Baumann’s Nevada ranch house Monday night, they were already on alert.
KTVB reports they had seen news of an Amber Alert for Dundon’s two young daughters, 6-year-old Jaylynn and 7-year-old Madison, and were aware of Dundon’s burned-out pickup truck that had been discovered days earlier.
Investigators say Dundon, who shared joint custody of Jaylynn and Madison with their mother, checked the girls out of their Boise elementary school Wednesday, telling people he was taking them on a camping trip.
Instead, he and the girls vanished.
Vera Baumann told KTVB her dog barking first alerted her to the man walking toward the house barefoot.
“We knew that this guy and his little girls were in our area, or had been in our area,” she said. “We let him walk into the back porch, and my husband went out to talk with him and recognized him.”
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Dundon was wearing only sweatpants cut off into shorts and was cold, hungry, thirsty and “could barely walk,” according to Baumann.
Dundon offered Baumann’s husband $400 – $500 to help him, she said, while she called 911.
Authorities arrived within minutes and Baumann said Dundon told authorities his daughters were still on the mountain.
“He said he left them behind,” Baumann told KTVB. “He knew they were not going to make it, so he walked in for help.”
Sheriff Keith Logan said Dundon, who was suffering from hypothermia, couldn’t tell deputies exactly where he left his daughters. It was raining and would be dark soon.
Baumann called her son-in-law, who showed up with horses, and her son, who came with a side-by-side UTV. The volunteer fire department, a county commissioner, EMS and other residents turned out too.
“My small community of 2,000 people – I started requesting some assistance and I had folks from all walks of life and all different parts, on four-wheelers and horseback and everything else, and they responded in the middle of the rain,” Logan told KTVB. “They did their job and they did it very well.”
After several hours of “exhaustive” searching, the sheriff said, rescuers found Jaylynn and Madison about a mile away from the Baumanns’ home. The girls and their father had been out in the elements since Dundon torched his truck four days earlier, Logan said.
The girls were taken to a hospital to get treatment for exposure, but are expected to make a full recovery.
“They are resilient, strong little young ladies that are doing amazing,” Logan said.
Dundon is also receiving treatment, and will be extradited to Ada County to face two felony charges of custodial interference. His bond has been set at $5 million.
Authorities connected Dundon and the missing children to Eureka County after resident Kathy Porter and her husband came across him Thursday during a hike in a rural part of the county.
Porter told KTVB that Dundon’s Chevrolet Silverado passed on them on their hike. As her husband reached the top the hill, they heard Dundon talking to a small child, she said.
The couple then noticed the cab of the pickup truck was on fire. They approached the burning vehicle, but no one was inside.
“My husband just hollered ‘Hey, are you OK?'” she said. “This guy just kind of popped up out of the bushes and said, ‘Yeah, I’m OK.'”
Porter said she knew something was wrong so they went back to their vehicle to call 911.
“As I turned to leave, I could hear a little kid start to cry softly, and he said, ‘Shhh, it’s OK,” Porter recalled.
By the time the sheriff’s office reached the area, Dundon and his girls were gone. It was not until Monday morning that a VIN number from the burned truck confirmed it was connected to the missing girls and their father.