Ronald and Jill Newton lived in Manchester, Maine, with their two children, Kimberly and kurt newton. Kimberly was six years old, and Kurt was four. On August 29, 1975, during the Labor Day weekend, Ronald and Jill went camping with their children. They were accompanied by three other families from their hometown. They camped at Natanis Campground in Chain of Ponds, Coburn Gore, Maine, which is six miles from the Canadian border.
Kurt and his family spent the weekend fishing, swimming, and making bonfires. On the morning of Sunday, August 31, it was very cold and foggy. Kimberly was playing, Jill was washing the children’s dirty shoes, and Ronald was getting firewood in his truck. Kurt quietly followed his father on his tricycle.
At that moment, no one noticed Kurt’s disappearance. When Ronald returned, and everyone realized Kurt was neither with his father nor in the camping area, they became very frightened and started searching for him. About half a mile down the road from the campground, the road forked, with a small dump on the left and a heavily wooded forest on the right. Kurt’s bike was found near the dump by Jack Hanson, a campground volunteer. It was believed the bike was deliberately thrown onto the trash pile.
Kurt was last seen on August 31, 1975, between 10:30 and 11:00 AM on a woods road about 0.4 miles from Natanis Campground in Chain of Ponds Township, Maine. He was last seen by Lou Ellen Hanson, an 11-year-old from Wilton, Maine. Kurt’s description was as follows: white male, light brown/blond medium-length hair, wearing a blue jacket, a blue sweatshirt with “Manchester” written on the front, brown pants, and blue ankle-high shoes.
Search Activity
On August 31, 1975, Forest Warden LeMont was notified. When he arrived at the location where the child had disappeared, he searched the entire area and the surrounding regions but found no trace of Kurt.
On September 1, 1975, larger teams (about 200 searchers) systematically searched the woods and roads around the dump. Corporal Tappan arrived with a bloodhound, but the dog could not pick up any scent.
On September 2, 1975, the scope of the search was expanded, involving 900 people by September 6, and a thorough search was conducted again. The search areas included roads, woods, shorelines, and underwater areas.
On September 10, a systematic search was carried out, but no evidence about Kurt was found, and it could not be determined where Kurt was.
The search for the four-year-old child turned into the most intensive search in Maine’s history, involving 3,000 people within 13 days, but no trace of Kurt was found.
Jill and Ronald did not give up and made their home’s basement the hub for the search. They received some leads in Kurt’s case, but to this day, they have not found any information about their son, and Kurt’s case has become a cold case.