Case file · Anomaly hotspot
Tommy Bowman, Arroyo Seco
An 8-year-old boy ran ahead of his family on a trail in the Arroyo Seco above Altadena on 23 March 1957 and was gone when they reached the car.
1957 CE · 34.22, -118.18 · status: unexplained
The account
Tommy Bowman was hiking with relatives in the canyon north of Pasadena, a place Missing 411 and local lore call 'the forest of disappearing children'. A week-long search by about 400 people found no clue. In 2007 the Los Angeles police examined whether Mack Ray Edwards, a convicted child murderer, could have been responsible, after a writer noted a resemblance to a sketch; no charge was ever brought. The case remains open.
The sceptical view
Investigators treat the case as a possible abduction rather than a wilderness mystery.