Deputies say the tip points to a 1980s killing near Chester, but no remains have been found.
CHESTER, AR — A reported deathbed confession has led Crawford County deputies, divers and K-9 handlers to a pond near Chester, where investigators are searching for the remains of a 13-year-old boy allegedly killed in the 1980s.
The search has opened a cold case with few fixed facts. Sheriff Daniel Perry said investigators do not know the boy’s name, where he lived or whether anyone reported him missing. The tip describes a killing during a camping trip and a body pushed into a pond on private land near Interstate 49.
Perry said the report came through a woman who said her brother confessed while he was dying. According to the sheriff, the man said he killed a 13-year-old boy sometime in the 1980s. The account placed the two together while camping near Chester. Perry said the man described hitting the boy in the head with a rock and pushing him into the water. “I’m pretty confident there is a body in the pond after the dogs alerted the way they did,” Perry said. The sheriff said the time frame remains broad because the reported confession only placed the death in the 1980s, not on a specific date.
The pond sits on private land in rural Crawford County, not far from Interstate 49. Perry said the area may have looked different when the death allegedly happened, and the interstate may not have been built at the time. Investigators brought in the Missouri-based 3R K-9 Search Foundation after receiving the tip. Hugh Murray, who works with the group, said trained dogs were used to search for the scent of human remains. The dogs alerted to a specific part of the pond, which led divers to enter the water. Murray said the search was the group’s 27th of 2026 and that most of its work this year has been in Arkansas.
Divers had not located human remains as of the latest public update. Perry said the work is difficult because any body in the pond could have been there for 30 to 40 years. He said silt, mud and time could leave little visible evidence. Investigators also face a records problem. Perry said deputies have checked old newspaper articles at the library, contacted the FBI and reached out to other agencies in the region. He said they have not found a missing-person report that matches the tip. The sheriff said the boy may have been from another area, which could make local records incomplete.
The case also reaches back to a period before several modern missing-child systems existed. Perry said many records from the 1980s were handwritten and may not have been entered into databases now used by law enforcement. He noted that resources now familiar in child disappearance cases were not available then. That leaves deputies comparing a new account against scattered older records, agency files and public archives. The sheriff has not released the name of the man who reportedly confessed or the sister who relayed the account. Officials also have not said whether the man gave any details about the boy’s family, hometown or clothing.
No charges have been announced. The man described as the source of the confession is dead, and investigators have not named any other possible suspect. Perry said the search of the pond will continue until crews are confident there are no human remains there. If anything is recovered, investigators would likely move to identification, including forensic testing and a review of missing-child records from Arkansas and nearby states. For now, the case remains in an evidence-gathering stage, with deputies trying to confirm whether the confession matches a real disappearance and whether the pond contains remains.
The search has drawn attention because it began with a statement made at the end of a man’s life, but Perry said every lead has to be treated seriously. The sheriff said the K-9 alerts gave investigators reason to keep working the site. Murray said dogs trained for human remains can separate that odor from animal remains and other smells in a search area. Still, the water search presents limits. Mud, depth, poor visibility and the passage of decades can slow divers and make the recovery of small or buried remains difficult.
The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office remains focused on the pond near Chester and on old records that could identify the boy. The next milestone is whether divers or search teams recover physical evidence that can confirm the reported confession.
Author note: Last updated Sunday, May 17, 2026.