Suspects face charges in 5-year-old Idaho boy’s 2021 disappearance

Suspects involved in the disappearance of a 5-year-old Idaho boy will face charges, after a more than four-year search in which the child’s remains have yet to be recovered, the Payette County prosecutor’s office said. 

“We believe we know the individuals involved and are committed to pursuing justice with or without Michael’s recovery,” the prosecutor’s office said Friday in a statement. The prosecutor said that authorities had always hoped to recover the body, but “delays now risk further harm to his loved ones.”

Michael Vaughan was last seen on July 27, 2021, outside his family home in the rural southwestern Idaho town of Fruitland, about 50 miles northwest of Boise. He was wearing a light-blue Minecraft shirt, black boxer briefs and sandals, the Idaho Police said.

In 2022, police arrested a woman in connection with Vaughn’s disappearance. Sarah Wondra, 35, may have had knowledge of the child’s death, CBS affiliate KMTV reported at the time, and she was charged with failing or delaying notification of a death, a felony.  

Investigators had used a tractor and specially-trained cadaver dogs to dig up the backyard of Sarah and Stacy Wondra’s home in Fruitland, not far from Vaughan’s family home, CBS2 reported.  

The couple was named as suspects in the boy’s disappearance more than two years ago by the Fruitland Police, according to CBS2, and a probable cause affidavit was forwarded to the Payette County Prosecutor’s office.

The prosecutor did not name suspects in the statement announcing the charges.