• Missing Since 12/18/1971
• Missing From Jackson County, Indiana
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Male
• Race White
• Age 17 years old
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male.

Details of Disappearance

Michael disappeared from Jackson County, Indiana on December 18, 1971. He and two friends, 17-year-old Stanley Ray Robison and 19-year-old Jerry Allen Autry, were camping in a makeshift 9-by-15-foot cabin made of railroad ties.

The cabin caught fire sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. and burned to the ground. The remains of Stanley and Jerry were found in the ruins of the cabin. Their bodies had been almost completely incinerated and only a few bones were found; the two boys were identified by their class rings.

Michael was listed as a missing person until June 2023, when authorities announced they'd exhumed Stanley and Jerry's graves and found the remains of three people, not two, inside the two caskets. They have concluded Michael died in the fire with his friends and his remains were not recognized as such as the time.