Jonathan Edward Hagans

• Missing Since 06/11/1968
• Missing From Jacksonville Beach, Florida
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Male
• Race White
• Date of Birth 05/03/1965 (60)
• Age 3 years old
• Height and Weight 3'2, 35 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description Blue swim trunks with a red stripe.
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Blond hair, blue eyes. Jonathan has previously fractured his femur.

Details of Disappearance

Jonathan was last seen during a family gathering at Jacksonville Beach in Florida on June 11, 1968. He has never been heard from again. Although the police believed the child drowned, witnesses saw him follow his father to a snack bar and trying to open the door there.

His mother believes he was abducted by a man and a woman standing outside the establishment. She saw her husband walk inside the snack bar and saw a woman and two men standing outside the door. One of the men bent down, then all three of them left. Jonathan didn't go inside the snack bar and hasn't been seen since.

Eight days after Jonathan's disappearance, a wheelchair, an ice chest, clothing and a child's tricycle were found on the banks of the St. Johns River. A man named John Gilbert called the police and said he knew who owned the wheelchair and would come to the station to identify it. But only hours later, before going to the police station, Gilbert was killed in a car accident along with his wife.

Police stated Gilbert had been seen with Jonathan before he was killed, and had also been seen with an unidentified woman who may have been the wheelchair user. Authorities stated they were looking for a blonde woman between 25 and 35, who was driving a faded white 1960 Ford and traveling with a young girl about four years old and a young boy. She may have been from Michigan. It's not clear whether they were ever able to find this woman or whether they were able to clear Gilbert in Jonathan's disappearance.

In 1989, a man named David Bonnabel claimed he might be Jonathan. Bonnabel said he'd been kidnapped as a young child and was raised in isolation by a woman in rural Louisiana. He claimed to have memories of his childhood that matched the details of Jonathan's life.

DNA testing in August that year proved he wasn't Jonathan, however, and authorities determined Bonnabel was a con artist who made up the kidnap story. He was actually a Mexican national who had come to the United States illegally and wanted to find an American family to adopt him so he could become a U.S. citizen. No charges were pressed against him; Jonathan's mother said the police told her "it is not against the law to break a heart."

Jonathan's family believes Jonathan was kidnapped and is still alive. His disappearance remains unsolved.