FROM THE VAULT: Jeremy Bright

So I did want to go ahead and start by saying that this is one of those cases where there are conflicting accounts left and right.

So as I tell you about the case, I will tell you about both versions, but I am going to emphasize which version I think is most likely from my perspective.

So before we get into the what, Let me tell you about the who.

Jeremy Bright was 14 in the summer of 1986.

He was a young, energetic, athletic, artistic, and popular boy.

So every positive characteristic you can think of.

He loved to draw and sketch, and while, according to an Unsolved Mysteries episode on Jeremy's case that aired January 18, 1989, more on that later, his mother said that Jeremy excelled in multiple sports, his stature definitely made him stand out in one sport in particular.

At only 14, Jeremy already stood a whopping six feet tall.

So yes, Jeremy was a basketball player.

And he even already had a size 13 foot to boot.

So as he was getting ready to start high school, he was looking forward to trying out for the high school basketball team.

But, sleuth hounds, he was also a little bit anxious.

You see, 14-year-old Jeremy and his 9-year-old sister Esty had just moved.

They had moved with their mother from Myrtle Point, Oregon, which is only about 30 minutes inland from the Pacific coast, to a city two hours away to the southeast called Grants Pass, Oregon.

Now, if Grants Pass sounds familiar to you, as it should, it is because I covered a case... on Fauna Frye, who disappeared in June of 2020, and she was from Grants Pass.

So that's why that particular town may sound familiar to you.

Now, why the move? That's the next question.

Jeremy's mother, Diane, was going through a divorce from Jeremy's stepfather, Ollie, in 1986.

And while having raised Jeremy and Esty in Myrtle Point and much of her family still living there, Diane had decided that with her decision to go back to school, to start a new career, with going through this divorce, moving was part of that fresh start.

But there was one element of Jeremy and Esty's childhood that they weren't yet willing to leave behind.

And that was their yearly attendance to the Coos County Fair in Myrtle Point.

It was the highlight of the year and everyone went.

Jeremy and Esty begged to go back to their old hometown to attend this year as well.

And since Diane would be starting her new job and working anyway, and the kids would have been bored out of their wits just sitting around the home if they didn't go, she had agreed.

A decision that now haunts her.

So I did want to go ahead and start by saying that this is one of those cases where there are conflicting accounts left and right.

So as I tell you about the case, I will tell you about both versions, but I am going to emphasize which version I think is most likely from my perspective.

So before we get into the what, Let me tell you about the who.

Jeremy Bright was 14 in the summer of 1986.

He was a young, energetic, athletic, artistic, and popular boy.

So every positive characteristic you can think of.

He loved to draw and sketch, and while, according to an Unsolved Mysteries episode on Jeremy's case that aired January 18, 1989, more on that later, his mother said that Jeremy excelled in multiple sports, his stature definitely made him stand out in one sport in particular.

At only 14, Jeremy already stood a whopping six feet tall.

So yes, Jeremy was a basketball player.

And he even already had a size 13 foot to boot.

So as he was getting ready to start high school, he was looking forward to trying out for the high school basketball team.

But, sleuth hounds, he was also a little bit anxious.

You see, 14-year-old Jeremy and his 9-year-old sister Esty had just moved.

They had moved with their mother from Myrtle Point, Oregon, which is only about 30 minutes inland from the Pacific coast, to a city two hours away to the southeast called Grants Pass, Oregon.

Now, if Grants Pass sounds familiar to you, as it should, it is because I covered a case... on Fauna Frye, who disappeared in June of 2020, and she was from Grants Pass.

So that's why that particular town may sound familiar to you.

Now, why the move? That's the next question.

Jeremy's mother, Diane, was going through a divorce from Jeremy's stepfather, Ollie, in 1986.

And while having raised Jeremy and Esty in Myrtle Point and much of her family still living there, Diane had decided that with her decision to go back to school, to start a new career, with going through this divorce, moving was part of that fresh start.

But there was one element of Jeremy and Esty's childhood that they weren't yet willing to leave behind.

And that was their yearly attendance to the Coos County Fair in Myrtle Point.

It was the highlight of the year and everyone went.

Jeremy and Esty begged to go back to their old hometown to attend this year as well.

And since Diane would be starting her new job and working anyway, and the kids would have been bored out of their wits just sitting around the home if they didn't go, she had agreed.

A decision that now haunts her.