ID ID - Christopher Holverson, 18, Madison County, 16 May 1998

Chris Holverson has been missing for over 17 years. He was camping with some friends when he reportedly left the campsite without explanation and never returned. A search of the area turned up no clues on what could have happened to him. His missing status is usually listed as "lost or injured" but some people believe that the other individuals from that night may be withholding crucial information that could explain his disappearance. Some believe that he may have left on his own accord. Multiple theories exist but none have emerged as a definite explanation and his case remains unsolved.

NamUs

Charley Project

Idaho's Cold Case File

May 16, 1998 marks the disappearance of 18-year old Christopher “Chris” Holverson of Idaho Falls. Chris and a mix of friends and other adults went camping at Table Rock Campground, near the border of Madison and Bonneville County. Chris was wearing a dark blue track suit with white stripes down the legs and across the front, sneakers and wire-rimmed glasses. His fellow campers claim he left the campsite without explanation and never returned. Ground searches over a large grid area were unsuccessful.

His disappearance has been a point of contention amongst many in the area. Some believe he walked away to start a new life. Others think he got lost and succumbed to the elements. A growing number of people say those who went with him on the trip are not telling the truth. Did something go wrong at that campsite? Were there drugs or alcohol involved, as some deny — yet others insist?

If you have information about the disappearance of Christopher Lynn Holverson in 1998, contact a Detective at the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, 208-356-5426. You can also report information anonymously to Crime Stoppers Idaho Falls – Bonneville County and they will pass the information along to authorities in Madison County.

Gone without a Trace - June 11, 2015

Footprints in the mud. That was all that was found the night after Christopher L. Holverson disappeared May 16, 1998.

And those footprints never were conclusively identified as belonging to the then 18-year-old.

Seventeen years later, what happened to Holverson remains a mystery

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The night of his disappearance, Holverson was camping with eight friends, one other adult and seven teens.

At an elevation of 6,400 feet, snow remained on the ground at the campground. At the turn-off to Table Rock, numerous people were partying that night, but authorities said none of them remembered seeing Holverson.

Cars drove up and down Forest Road 218 throughout the night, Stoddard said, and one driver reported seeing a male walking along the road that night who seemed to match Holverson’s description.

As for some type of accidental death or medical issue or foul play, Stoddard said no evidence ever was found to support any of those scenarios.

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So sad Gone Without a Trace: Family Looks for Answers in Son's Disappearance

RIRIE • Footprints in the mud. That was all that was found the night after Christopher L. Holverson disappeared May 16, 1998.

And those footprints never were conclusively identified as belonging to the then-18-year-old.

Seventeen years later, what happened to Holverson remains a mystery. Holverson of Idaho Falls was a 1997 graduate of Skyline High School.


Did he walk away from the Table Rock Campground in the Targhee National Forest and find a new life somewhere else?

Did some harm come to him?

No one knows. No trace of Holverson ever turned up.

Detective Dave Stoddard of the Madison County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation into Holverson’s disappearance remains active. The case is revisited about once a year, he said, but so far, the mystery has endured.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) estimates up to 90,000 people are listed as missing with law enforcement across the United States. Holverson is among them.

His father, Terry Holverson, still waits for an answer.

“There’s nothing ever definitive that you ever get your hands on,” he said.

Rumors, no evidence
The night of his disappearance, Holverson was camping with eight friends, one other adult and seven teens.

At an elevation of 6,400 feet, snow remained on the ground at the campground. At the turn-off to Table Rock, numerous people were partying that night, but authorities said none of them remembered seeing Holverson.

Cars drove up and down Forest Road 218 throughout the night, Stoddard said, and one driver reported seeing a male walking along the road that night who seemed to match Holverson’s description.

As for some type of accidental death or medical issue or foul play, Stoddard said no evidence ever was found to support any of those scenarios.

Stoddard refused to allow the Post Register to review the investigative report, citing the active investigation, and instead read excerpts from it.

Madison County Sheriff Roy Klingler said it is the office’s policy not to release investigative reports that remain active, regardless of how old the case is.

“I know people will call it a cold case, but it’s still open and we still take it very seriously,” Klingler said.

Stoddard was not involved in the initial investigation and the detective who led it at the time, since has died.

There was a “rampant rumor mill,” Stoddard said. “(But) when you followed up with it, it didn’t pan out. Some of it was so impossible to follow up with.”

Stories circulated that Holverson was killed as part of a gang dispute or the result of a drug deal gone bad. Nothing panned out.

None of the eight people who were with Holverson that night ever were charged with any crime. Stoddard refused to release their names.

A girl at the campsite that night told deputies that Holverson got into an argument over her not paying attention to him, Stoddard said.

“She said, ‘Chris is the type of person to just leave, but he usually comes back,’” said Stoddard, reading from the report.

A few days into the search for Holverson an unidentified witness, not known to anyone at the camp, reported seeing someone walking along Forest Road 218 who closely resembled Holverson.





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The witness saw a young man walking with his head down and said he was wearing a blue jacket with a white stripe on the side.

“That’s the one piece of evidence, it’s a pretty accurate description of what he was wearing,” Stoddard said. “Anything could probably be possible with this case.”

A father’s suspicions
For Terry Holverson, nothing about his son’s disappearance adds up.

“An 18-year-old boy that walked out of a camp around midnight, in a sleet storm with just his coat on — it just didn’t make any sense,” Terry Holverson said.

After his son disappeared, he said he found drug paraphernalia in his son’s room. He believes one or more of the campers may have harmed his son that night.

While one of the campers did admit to smoking marijuana, Stoddard said no definitive links ever were drawn between drug use and Holverson’s disappearance.


Abandoned truck
Holverson’s cousin, Felicia Wallace, said Holverson visited her mother’s Ririe home the day of the camping trip. He left his Chevrolet truck at the residence.

“He wasn’t standoffish or anything,” Wallace said. “It wasn’t like, well, ‘Oh, he ran away.’ Not without his vehicle.”

In the months before Holverson’s disappearance, his father and mother, Marie, were going through a divorce. Wallace said it wasn’t easy on Holverson, but he didn’t appear to resent either of his parents over the breakup.

“Yes, he was a teenage kid angry at his parents for getting divorced. He was a teenager, he had lots of things to be angry about,” Wallace said.

No clues emerge
When the other campers were interviewed about what happened that night, Stoddard said each told the same story.

They all remembered Holverson stepping out of his tent and tripping.

“They teased him ‘How was your trip, see you next fall,’ Chris laughed and that was the last they saw of him,” Stoddard said.

Some of the other campers said they went out into the night to look for Holverson when he didn’t come back. And when he didn’t show up the next day, they reported him missing.

“These weren’t killers, they were just normal kids,” Stoddard said. “If I was them and I knew something, I don’t think I could live with myself.”

Still not at peace
Terry Holverson brings flowers to the Table Rock Campground each year on the anniversary of his son’s disappearance. He doesn’t want to leave a more permanent marker there, he said, because he fears it would be vandalized.

The elder Holverson remains haunted by the mystery.

“It never goes a way,” he said. “I’ve learned to start compartmentalizing stuff, to put it where it is and you realize what you can do and what you can’t do.”

He remains convinced that some harm came to his son that night. He longs for closure.

“At this point in time, you just hope that someone is going to break,” he said.”That someone will say something and there will be a (resolution) to whatever (happened).”

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I don't know how I stumbled across his case then found this. If you google map his last sighting at the camp it is on a direct path of about an hours walk to the river, where further down stream these skeletal parts where found 2 years later , it hasn't been ruled out on his page yet. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Bumping for 25 years...

His page and the skeletal remains page are both down. If it turns out they where his how could you miss it. We found some remains, who's gone missing nearby?

Laura Avery said:

His page and the skeletal remains page are both down. If it turns out they where his how could you miss it. We found some remains, who's gone missing nearby?

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His page is working for me?

mkl9514 said:

His page is working for me?

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I see, it seems the last two Charley project and Idaho cold case links are not working. The namus one takes me to a different website . This link works The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Just wanted to post a few photos of Christopher

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Holverson, circa 1998