Jade Marie Colvin

• Missing Since 03/30/2017
• Missing From Des Moines, Iowa
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 03/16/2002 (24)
• Age 15 years old
• Height and Weight 5'4, 135 - 150 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics White female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Jade may dye her hair. She may spell her last name "Calvin" and use the alias first names Cara, Jenny and/or Samantha, possibly together with the alias last names Hollis, Murphy and/or Stevens. She may wear eyeglasses for reading.

Details of Disappearance

Jade was reported missing by law enforcement from Des Moines, Iowa on June 10, 2016, after she ran away from a shelter for troubled youth. She had been located by U.S. Marshals just two days earlier at a Des Moines gas station after previously running away and was placed in the shelter, from which she ran away again.

She kept in touch with her loved ones after she ran away. The last time she had contact with them was nine months later, on March 30, 2017.

Jade was taken into foster care at age 13, as her parents had substance abuse issues and were unable to care for her. She ran away repeatedly from foster care homes and different foster home facilities. Every time she ran, it was because she wanted to be with her mother, LaDawn Colvin. Sometimes LaDawn would try to hide her from the authorities.

According to information obtained from Jade and LaDawn's social media accounts, Jade spent several months in Arizona with relatives after running away from the Iowa shelter, then contacted her mother. LaDawn brought her back to Iowa and sent her to live on the remote 400-acre farm of James David Bachmurski Sr., who lived on Skyline Drive south of Decorah, Iowa. He and LaDawn had dated for several months and LaDawn, who lived three hours away, would go and stay with him occasionally.

Jade was supposed to stay at the farm until she turned 18 and would be legally free to make her own decisions about where to live, or until LaDawn could regain legal custody of her. James bought her new clothes and undergarments at Walmart. But within days, she disappeared from his farm.

Her phone didn't have service, so she used Bachmurski's phone to send text messages. Before her disappearance, Jade had been texting James's son, Bryan Bachmurski. She told him James was going to take her somewhere else to stay and that she would get a new identity, and promised to text Bryan when she got where she was going. She never did; she just vanished. Her last text to him was at 12:15 a.m., while Bryan was on his break during a shift at his job at Walmart in Decorah.

After Jade disappeared, Bryan said, his father gave him several different explanations, including that she had moved to Tennessee and that she was a "cam girl" or pornographic actress. One of James's sons noticed Jade's suitcase was still at the farm. James left the farm a year after her disappearance and ultimately sold it. He moved to Georgia, where he went by an alias name, Bob Sage.

James told people that Jade left his home after her last text and he did not know her whereabouts, and that he didn't report her missing because he didn't want to admit to having harbored a runaway. Police, however, believe he killed her on the same day as her last text.

In August 2024, James was charged with second-degree murder in Jade's case.  A photo of him is posted with this case summary. He has a criminal record; he pleaded guilty to harassment, assault and child endangerment in 2012 and admitted he had abused his children, at one point tying a teenager to a chair and shocking them with a cattle prod, and that he had threatened his children's lives with guns. He had a metal chair with a battery hooked up to it, and forced his children to sit in it and get shocked when they misbehaved.

Bryan testified against his father at the trial and said James told so many stories they were hard to keep straight, and that he was not sure whether or not his father had killed Jade.

In September 2025, James was convicted of second-degree murder in Jade's case. In October, he was sentenced to the maximum term of 50 years in prison. He must serve at least 35 years before he becomes eligible for parole, and as he was 66 years old at the time of his conviction, it's unlikely he will live long enough to be released. He will be 100 years old by the time he is eligible to be released in 2059.

Jade has ties to the Iowa cities of Des Moines and Dubuque, and to Phoenix, Arizona, and she had lived in Texas prior to moving to Iowa. LaDawn died several years after her disappearance. James's farmhouse has also burned down.

Foul play is suspected in Jade's case due to the circumstances involved.