Thanks for confirming
@Satch, I did wonder if I was way off, but I suppose I'm just exploring every angle. It makes sense they would have a huge property with such a large family!
I just managed to watch the Youtube video of Jon Jeppson again and properly concentrated on it. You are right, there is some discrepancy over the memories of that day. Jon seems to remember that Reed had lunch with the family first and THEN went to feed the dogs, while Suzanne seems to say he disappeared before lunch. You would have thought they would have discussed this as a family and know what happened. This means that there are 2 potential timelines of possible events that day. The main significance of this would be that if Jon's recollection is correct then there is
no way that Reed could have eaten lunch AND been seen at the stated time of 1pm up at the St Mary of Wasatch Church. Jon also said that they were meant to be returning to Sunday school after their lunch, and then later at 4pm there would be another "Sacrament Meeting" (It seems that the morning meeting was not Sunday school at all (as is always reported) but a "Priesthood meeting"). If this is the case, it makes me question whether Reed would even take the dogs that far, knowing he is meant to be in Sunday school very soon. I doubt he could have gotten there and back in time safely to avoid being late and it doesn't sound like him to be knowingly late.
This really does make me question the sighting up at the church. Either the timing was way off or the sighting was just wrong. Again, I wish we knew who actually made the sighting. A "friend" would obviously know it was Reed. On the other hand, if the sighting was correct then how did Reed get there so quickly? Could someone have driven him?
I must say again, I was slightly surprised that when Reed didn't show up for two church meetings or at all later in the evening Jon never mentioned that there was any real concern, just that they thought it was out of character and he fully expected Reed to be in the bed next to him the next morning. I do wonder if this wasn't the first time that Reed had maybe stayed out somewhere later than he should have, in which case, where/with whom?
Regarding the Detective who suspected Jon knew something. I can't really work out if LE had a lead that made them suspect Jon, or whether they were just guessing he may know something. According to Jon the detective took him in the car to talk to a friend of Reed. Then the following conversation happened in the car:
LE: OK Jon, where is he
Jon: I don't know
LE: You do know and you've caused incredible heartache to your parents. You're hiding him, you're doing something in connection with his disappearance. It's time to stop the games and tell us where he is
Jon: I don't know where he is
LE: If you don't tell me you're gonna be taken to the station and we're gonna do a polygraph
Who was the friend they were going to talk to and why? What did they know, had they suggested Jon might be involved? Was it the friend who saw Reed? Jon says after that conversation he guessed the police eventually believed him. But I just don't know.
Jon's remembers this conversation Word-for-Word with crystal clear clarity and yet he originally got the year of Reed's disappearance wrong and also may be confused over the events of the day. Interesting, and I wonder what a psychologist would say about that ...repressed memory or something?
So from the video it seems that Dr Jeppson went up to Rotary Park and took his life. He had been feeling more and more depressed and that morning he had asked several of the kids if they wanted to play squash, none of them could, he felt useless and took himself up into the mountains and took his life. There is a "Rotary Glen Park" which is very close to the last sighting place of Reed and also a "Rotary Park" which is up in the mountains about 30 minutes from the last sighting. I'm not sure which he was referring to. It doesn't say how he killed himself.
The way Jon describes what his father was going through he basically thinks he lost faith and couldn't take it anymore. I am not sure, I still can't understand leaving your loving family when you don't even know 100% that your son is not still alive somewhere, instead of never stopping to look for him... but I am less suspicious of Dr Jeppson since watching somehow. Jon on the other hand...I don't know, something seems deceptive and doesn't seem to fit with the way he describes things.
One other thing I took from watching was about the dogs. Jon never mentions that Reed was raising the dogs to hunt birds, he says he was raising them for a "Merit Badge". A google search showed me that this is one of the eagle scout merit badges, so that fits in with Reed being an eagle scout. I am not sure where the Bird hunting reference originally came from. Anyway, one of the requirements is:
For two months, keep and care for your dog and a detailed diary had to be kept (the full text is in the link below). I am not sure if the requirements have changed since 1964, but if this was the case then it seems significant that one of the dogs had disappeared for a couple of weeks earlier...Reed would have failed to care for them and would not have been able to attain his merit badge. Is it possible that someone was playing tricks on Reed, or maybe they were jealous of him and his achievements? Is it possible he was being bullied? Was there something in Reed's life that was not as happy as everyone believed? If that is the case, could his disappearance be a prank that went tragically wrong?
And finally, I recently read on a blog about the case (so maybe not reliable) that there were several sightings of Reed in the weeks following his disappearance, but investigations led nowhere. I have never read anyway about these other sightings...does anyone know where they were? Or was the information wrong?
Sorry again for the long post...I just have to get out what's going through my head and invariably when I start typing I think of something else. You are right
@Satch , this case is now so old and with so few people left alive from that time that we probably aren't going to get a resolution unless Reed's remains are found. He is out there somewhere, people don't just vanish and I do believe that one day he will be found and identified. I am still strongly of the opinion that if we could just see the Case Files on this then someone might see something that has been missed, you know "fresh pair of eyes" and all that, and they might contain something that isn't public knowledge. Does LE ever release case files? Is it possible to do a FOI request for these? Would that work here?