Hayden Ian Lee Manis

• Missing Since 08/30/2020
• Missing From Muncie, Indiana
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Male
• Race White
• Date of Birth 05/18/2015 (10)
• Age 5 years old
• Height and Weight 3'4, 50 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, blue eyes.

Details of Disappearance

Hayden's family last saw him at a gathering on Christmas Eve in 2019. Another witness reported seeing him on January 11, 2020. Two witnesses reported seeing him in the spectator stands during a go-kart race at the New Castle Motorsports Park in on August 30, 2020.

This is the last indication of his whereabouts. He lived with his father, Dustin Gary Michael Manis, at the time of his disappearance, and Dustin never reported him missing.

Hayden had originally been removed from Dustin's care after a drug arrest in 2018 and placed with his paternal grandfather, Gary Manis. Hayden had a close relationship with his grandfather. A year and a half later, after Dustin completed probation and drug treatment, a judge ordered his son returned to his custody in spite of Gary's objections.

Dustin took Hayden to visit his grandfather, aunts, uncles and cousins regularly through 2018 and 2019. After Dustin and Gary had an argument, though, the visits got further apart, and stopped altogether after Christmas 2019. Hayden's family members kept texting him inviting him and Hayden to family events, but neither of them ever came.

In 2024, Hayden's two great-mothers realized that both sides of the family had been given different explanations as to what had happened to him. They spoke to Gary, who contacted the authorities and asked them to find Hayden and Dustin. The police were able to find only Dustin.

Dustin claimed that the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) had taken Hayden in 2022 and placed the boy in his mother's custody, but this was untrue; Hayden's mother had no idea where he was. There was also no record of Hayden having ever been enrolled in school anywhere, although he graduated from a Head Start school readiness program in 2018.

A photo of Dustin is posted with this case summary; he is considered the primary person of interest in Hayden's disapppearance. He was arrested at a traffic stop in November 2024, as he was found to be in possession of heroin, methamphetamine and a syringe. He was charged with possession of a narcotic drug, possession of meth and possession of paraphernalia on December 4. Nine days later, while out on bond in the drug case, Dustin fatally overdosed.

Crystal Hall had been Dustin's girlfriend and lived with him, Hayden and her two daughters at the time Hayden was last seen alive, in a house owned by her father. A photo of her is posted with this case summary. Her father, Paul Hall, lived with his wife in the other side of their house, and occasionally babysat Hayden, although he says he spent as little time as possible in his daughter and Dustin's side of the house because he wanted them to have privacy and didn't want to cause conflict.

Paul said Crystal was "a pretty good and effective parent" who had never acted violently towards anyone, but that he had been concerned about Dustin's parenting skills and offered to pay for Dustin to see a professional to learn how to parent better. Paul also stated that while they were all living in the same house he never saw any indications that Hayden was being abused or neglected, but that Dustin and Crystal's side of the house was usually a disgusting mess and his relationship with his daughter became strained because of this.

Paul was one of the witnesses who saw Hayden at the go-kart race in August 2020. Crystal's daughter was racing that day. Paul said Hayden, Dustin and Crystal were all there in the stands watching the race and he didn't note anything unusual about Hayden's disappearance or behavior that day. He said that after Hayden was no longer living in the house (Paul was told that DCS had taken him), Dustin became "a changed human being", Dustin and Crystal stopped paying their bills, and Paul noticed that money and personal items were going missing.

Paul stated he recognized indications of drug use in Dustin and had a talk with both him and Crystal about how they needed to get their lives together and start paying their bills, but they did not change their behavior. Paul then decided to throw Dustin out, but when he went to their side of the house to tell him to leave, he found out Dustin had left only a few minutes earlier. He chased after Dustin in his truck, caught up to him, and hit him with a stick because he felt Dustin had disrespected him.

Paul says he does not believe Crystal was involved in Hayden's disappearance, but he thinks Dustin harmed Hayden.

Crystal, Paul and their family live in Nevada now. Before leaving the state she was interviewed multiple times by police and reportedly told them that Hayden was dead and that she put his body in a trash compactor at the Marion, Indiana truck stop where she worked at the time as co-manager. However, when speaking to the media she denied having told the police this. The police have refused to comment publicly on the matter, although they did confirm that Crystal was a person of interest in Hayden's disappearance.

One of Crystal's coworkers from the truck stop said she was a good employee until she suddenly stopped showing up for work in the summer of 2020. In September or October of that year, the coworker noticed that a particular dumpster at the truck stopped "smelled like death". The odor, she said, was so terrible that you couldn't go to that area for a cigarette break, and the smell lingered for weeks.

Crystal, her coworker said, had returned to work at that truck stop by then, and her coworker noted she seemed very stressed and angry and no longer took care of her appearance like she had before. After Hayden's disappearance was reported, the coworker remembered the terrible smell from the dumpster and believes it could have been from his dead body.

Authorities believe other people who are still living may know what happened to Hayden. Foul play is possible in his case; many of his relatives believe he is dead, as do the police. His case remains unsolved.