Account
Jan 28, 2026
Jan 28, 2026
Deward
R. Killion
85
85
5'11 inches
165 lbs
White
Male
In the late summer of 2007, an outing to the mountains of Oregon took a sorrowful turn, leaving a family with unanswered questions that have lingered for years. On the evening of August 15, 2007, 85-year-old Deward R. Killion, a resident of College Place, Washington, vanished from the Target Meadows Campground, located a couple of miles north of Highway 204 in Umatilla, Oregon. He was there camping with his wife and some friends, enjoying the natural beauty of the area. An experienced outdoorsman in good physical condition for his age, Deward embarked on a familiar activity, telling his wife he was going to pick huckleberries at around 2:30 in the afternoon. He was expected to return by early evening, but as the hours passed with no sign of him, a sense of unease settled over the campsite. As daylight began to fade around 5:30 p.m., Deward's wife knew something was wrong and promptly alerted the authorities. This initiated an extensive and exhaustive search of the rugged terrain surrounding the campground. Search and rescue teams, along with tracker dogs, were deployed to scour the area in the hopes of finding any trace of the missing man. Deward was last seen wearing a long-sleeved blue Dickey's shirt, dark blue pants, hiking boots, and a distinctive white straw cowboy hat. It is believed he was also carrying a folding knife and a plastic container with a red lid for the berries he intended to pick. Despite the thorough search efforts, no clues to his whereabouts were ever discovered. The tracking dogs were unable to pick up his scent, adding to the baffling nature of his disappearance. The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into years, yet the mystery of what happened to Deward R. Killion remains unsolved. He was a man who needed medication for diabetes, a fact that added a sense of urgency to the initial search. The complete lack of evidence has left his family and investigators with a painful void and a case that has grown cold with the passage of time. The official classification of his case is "Lost/Injured Missing," a term that encompasses the uncertainty of his fate. The overview of this case is one of a sudden and inexplicable disappearance in a remote, natural setting. An elderly man, in seemingly good health and familiar with the outdoors, went on a short walk to pick berries and was never seen or heard from again, leaving behind a legacy of love and a perplexing mystery that endures.
Aug 15, 2007
Umatilla
Oregon
Umatilla
Umatilla Sheriff's Office
541-966-3651
05/23/2026
