MEDFORD, Ore.—The body of a missing Oregon boy whose parents died in an apparent murder-suicide is believed to have been found in a remote area of Montana, police said.
Police in Medford, Oregon, said Montana authorities reported finding the body Sunday, July 28, thought to be that of 2-year-old Aiden Salcido, the son of Daniel Salcido and Hannah Janiak.
The family formerly lived in Medford.
Aiden was the subject of an intense search after his parents were found dead Wednesday, July 24, in Kalispell, Montana.
Police stopped them following a chase because they had felony burglary warrants for their arrest.
The body of the 2-year-old boy was found in the same area where Janiak and Salcido were seen several days earlier. Positive identification has not been officially made, Medford police said. An autopsy in Montana has been scheduled.
Witnesses called in tips after seeing the story on the news and were instrumental in helping to locate a remote camp believed to have been occupied by the family, Medford police said in an announcement.
The Jackson County, Oregon, Sheriff’s Office investigated the couple for a burglary in 2018, the FBI said. Both were convicted of the charges. Janiak was to begin serving her sentence at the Jackson County Jail on June 11, the FBI said.
When she failed to show up, felony warrants were issued for the couple’s arrest.
Relatives described Janiak to law enforcement as a good mother who had mental health issues. Relatives also told law enforcement that the family was homeless and would camp along a greenway in Medford.
Investigators searched Janiak’s financial records and found that the last activity was on June 3 and June 4, when two purchases were made at a Walmart in Medford, the FBI said. The purchases of camping equipment were caught on surveillance video, which showed the parents and Aiden together.
Detectives found a receipt in the car from the Kalispell Walmart dated July 25, the same day they died. Salcido and Janiak appeared in the surveillance video, but Aiden did not, Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino told the Flathead Beacon.
The boy’s parents were found dead July 24 after police stopped them following a chase because they had felony burglary warrants for their arrest.
Officers found Janiak dead with a gunshot wound to her head, and Salcido dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the FBI said in a news release. Their child was not in the 1996 GMC Jimmy with Oregon license plates, the FBI said.
Missing Children Reports Drop
The reports of missing persons, and missing children in particular, decreased in 2018, reaching levels unseen since the beginning of available FBI data.
Nearly 613,000 Americans were reported missing in 2018, more than 424,000 of them under the age of 18. That’s a drop of almost 6 and 9 percent respectively from the year prior and the lowest shown in available records going as far back as 1990.
The numbers had dropped precipitously from the high of more than 980,000 reported missing in 1997 to less than 628,000 in 2013, but then started to pick up again—until the drop in 2018.
It’s not clear what exactly is behind the latest decrease.
Part of the long-term downward trend may have to do with technology, said Robert Lowery, vice president for the missing children division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Most of the missing children are runaways between 13 and 17, he said in a phone interview. “A lot of these children now have, frankly, cellphones or smartphones. They’re also using social media. … The point being that parents are able to find their children themselves much quicker than they had been, before they have to engage law enforcement.”
Law enforcement techniques to locate missing children have also improved, he said.
But that doesn’t quite explain the sudden drop in 2018. Smartphones and social media have been popular among youth for more than a decade and there seems to be no indication that law enforcement techniques made a sudden advance in 2018.
“It may have been an anomaly,” Lowery said. “We’re going to continue to watch the trend.”
