In late October 1998, the Hendrickson family of six vanished from their remote log cabin in the Hiawatha Forest near Munising, Michigan, a small community on the shores of Lake Superior. The family had attended a memorial service at Munising Baptist Church on the evening of October 17th. Witnesses saw them leave at 9:37 p.
m. in a pickup truck owned by landowner Richard Goyer, heading back along the logging road to their cabin deep in the woods. They were never seen again.
The next morning, when the family failed to show up for seasonal work, concern grew. Phone calls went unanswered, and relatives driving to the cabin found it locked and silent. The pickup was gone, and there were no signs of struggle, packing, or disturbance.
Alger County Sheriff Philip Marwick opened a missing persons case for all six individuals.
A search of the cabin and surrounding forest yielded almost nothing. K9 units tracked human scent from the cabin to the main logging road, where the trail abruptly ended, suggesting the family had gotten into a vehicle. A child’s jacket was found miles from the cabin near a shallow lake, and an old burn area was noted, but no other physical evidence emerged.
During interviews, Goyer claimed the family had mentioned going to Wisconsin to visit relatives, but his statements were vague and inconsistent. Another worker, Ray Nolan, appeared evasive when questioned about two utility wells dug on Goyer’s property just weeks before the disappearance. The wells’ locations made no technical sense for drainage, and the sheriff flagged them as anomalies.
However, without probable cause, he could not order excavation.
The investigation stalled. In 2001, the case was transferred to the Michigan State Police Cold Case Unit. For years, it remained dormant.
In 2007, a hunter found a child’s shoe near one of the flagged wells, but funding and legal limitations prevented further analysis.
In 2010, the Cold Case Unit reopened the file to apply new DNA technology. The jacket and shoe were re-examined, and reference DNA samples were collected from surviving relatives. Advanced ground-penetrating radar was identified as a tool that could assess the wells without excavation.
In early summer 2011, the case broke. A logging operation expanding a road near well number one caused the well mouth to collapse, exposing bone fragments and fabric. Forensic analysis confirmed the remains belonged to Caleb Hendrickson, the family’s two-year-old son.
The discovery transformed the missing persons case into a homicide investigation.
Investigators re-examined old records and found that Goyer had purchased tarps, rope, and a large quantity of quick lime shortly before the disappearance. Soil analysis suggested the lime was used to mask decomposition. Ray Nolan, tracked down in 2011, finally provided a statement.
He said Goyer had forced Hendrickson to help dig the well, and on the night of the disappearance, Nolan heard loud arguing near the well followed by a heavy thud. He had remained silent out of fear of Goyer.
A new sonar scan of a nearby shallow lake located Goyer’s pickup, sunk in the mud. Fibers from the truck bed matched clothing fragments found in well number one, and soil samples linked the vehicle to the burial site. The truck had been deliberately disposed of to erase evidence.
With Goyer dead since 2009, attention turned to his assistant, Joseph Mallard. A recovered forestry GPS device showed Mallard had been at the well location on the night of the disappearance during the critical time window. His statements were inconsistent, and he was arrested on charges of tampering with evidence, improper disposal of a body, and obstruction of justice.
At trial in early 2012, the prosecution presented a chain of evidence linking the well, the pickup, and Mallard’s presence at the scene. The defense argued the GPS data was unreliable and the fiber evidence inconclusive, but the jury found Mallard guilty on three of the four charges. He was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison.
The case concluded with a partial truth. Caleb Hendrickson’s body had been found and his death confirmed as homicide. Mallard was held accountable for his role in the cover-up.
But the remains of the other five family members were never located. Well number two, dug at the same time and showing similar signs of disturbance, was considered a likely burial site but could not be excavated safely with available technology.
The Hendrickson case remains partially open. The nature of the crime has been proven, and one person has been brought to justice, but the fate of the rest of the family still lies hidden in the Hiawatha Forest, waiting for the day when technology can finally bring them home.