Twenty two month old Aaron Anderson is the son of Steve and Paulette Anderson. They lived in a rural house in Pine City, Minnesota. At around 4pm on April 7, 1989, Paulette was making dinner when Aaron asked if he could go outside. She agreed to let him play in the backyard but told him to stay where she could see him. Every few minutes, she looked out the kitchen window and checked on him. At one point, she saw him playing on a snowmobile a few feet from the house near his dog. At around 4:30pm, she looked outside, but he was not there.
Paulette went into the backyard and searched for Aaron and his dog. His dog came running around to the front of the house after she called for him. She also went around the house and down the driveway. At around 5:10pm, she called the police and reported Aaron missing. Hundreds of officers and volunteers participated in an extensive search of the surrounding farms and woods. However, no trace of him was found.
Aaron’s family’s house bordered the Snake River, which was swollen and fast-moving at the time with spring runoff. In fact, it had risen to the level of their backyard. On that day, he was playing about 150 feet from it. A bloodhound was walked in a large semi-circle through the yard, never once tracking a scent. The bloodhound was led back to the snowmobile to sniff Aarons scent once again and then pulled the leash tight and walked up the side of the yard into the neighbors driveway and then continued down the dirt road.
Authorities believe Aaron may have fallen into the river and drowned. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension seemed to agree with this conclusion. A helicopter, divers, and dredging equipment were used to search the river and the surrounding area. A search dog specifically trained to “sniff through” ice or water was also used. However, no trace of Aaron was found in the river or along its banks. Authorities tossed a dummy the same size and weight as him into the river to test the currents. It was recovered about 200 yards downstream.
At first, Steve believed that Aaron had drowned. However, he and Paulette now both believe that Aaron was abducted. They have criticized the police investigation into his disappearance. Investigators admitted they focused on the drowning theory and ignored over twenty leads pointing to other possibilities. One investigator noted that since no trace of Aaron was found, he does not rule out the possibility of foul play. Steve claims the bloodhound tracked Aaron’s scent out to a road in front of their house. He says it also went across the adjoining property, up their driveway, and down a dirt road.
Following Aaron’s disappearance, his parents contacted several state and national advocacy groups for families of missing children. One group issued missing posters for him, saying “foul play was suspected.” However, officials of the group never spoke with investigators about the likelihood of foul play in his case. They hired their own private investigator to help separate fact from fiction and after his thorough investigation, signed statements from the dog handler, conversations with the sheriffs department and BCA, determined Aaron was most likely a child of abduction.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) also listed Aaron’s case as a “stranger abduction.” However, officials from the organization said they were unfamiliar with the police investigation. They said they relied primarily on Steve’s account.
Aaron’s parents believe that a neighbor couple in their sixties and the couple’s daughter were responsible for his abduction. However, they have not provided any specific evidence to support their theory, other than their belief that the neighbors did not like them. At one point, Steve placed a sign on his lawn facing the neighbor’s backyard, demanding that they “Bring Aaron Back Now!!!”
The neighbors said they felt harassed and threatened. They said whenever they went outside, Steve would start target shooting in his backyard. He said he did this to intimidate them since “they kidnapped my son.” The neighbors have since moved out of their home. Lt. Robert Johnson, the chief investigator on the case, does not believe they had anything to do with it. He notes that they did not have the means nor motive to take Aaron and therefore never questioned or investigated the neighbors or their daughter. He also does not suspect foul play; he believes Aaron went into the river.
There have been hundreds of reported sightings of boys resembling Aaron. The most promising one occurred in September 1990, when an Oklahoma boy with a striking resemblance to Aaron was reported to authorities by his foster mother after she saw a flier with Aaron’s picture.
The boy was abandoned and underweight. Social services could not find a birth certificate for him to support the claim that he was the son of a Tulsa woman. He was also the right age and had birthmarks and other physical characteristics that matched Aaron’s. After viewing the boy, Paulette thought he could be Aaron, but Steve was not sure. DNA tests eventually determined that the boy was not Aaron.
In November 1990, Aaron’s parents were part of a panel discussion that was part of the first “National Conference on Abducted Children”, sponsored by the Jacob Wetterling Foundation. Jacob’s parents were also part of the panel. Aaron’s parents also signed an advocacy agreement with the foundation, allowing it to “promote the cause of finding Aaron.” His parents later cut ties with the foundation, claiming that its funds were being unequally distributed among cases. Jacob’s parents denied the claims. They noted that the foundation centers on education about child safety and abduction prevention; it does not focus on finding children.
Aaron’s parents later moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, and had three more children. They have since divorced. In 2019, Paulette signed up for Ancestry.com and submitted her DNA in the hopes that Aaron has done the same. They still continue to search for him and hope that he is alive.
