Bobby Panknin — Vanished From Deep Lake
Six‑year‑old Bobby Panknin vanished while on holiday with his family at the now‑closed Deep Lake Resort in northern Stevens County, Washington. The family had arrived on August 1, 1963. Bobby was there with his parents, Edna and Howard, and his three older brothers: Ted, Jim, and Bill. In a photo taken shortly before he disappeared, the boys stand together — Ted, Bobby, Jim, and Bill. Not long after that picture, Bobby was gone.
The day Bobby disappeared
On August 3, 1963, the family hiked into Canada via Rossland to Castlegar and then returned to Deep Lake Resort. After they got back, Howard went fishing with his eldest son, Ted. Edna, Bobby, Bill, and Jim decided to take a short hike west along Deep Lake on a logging road.
Sometime between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. (the exact time is unclear), Bill heard a waterfall that reminded him of Laughing Brook from the Thornton Burgess children’s stories the family often read. Curious, he went to investigate.
Edna followed Bill toward the sound of the water but told Jim to stay with Bobby on the logging road. Jim didn’t listen — a decision he would regret for the rest of his life. Instead, he followed his mother and brother about 150 yards off the road toward the waterfall.
This was the point of separation.
They were gone no more than five minutes.
When they returned to the logging road, Bobby was gone.
He had been wearing only blue swim trunks. No shoes. No shirt. No tracks indicated where he had gone.
The search for Bobby
By 3:30 p.m. that Saturday, campers and local residents were already searching. Within hours, the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office was notified, and an organised search began before dusk.
Over the next few days:
- Bloodhounds were brought in and scented off Bobby’s shoes.
- The dogs followed his trail for several miles — twice, with different dogs — and lost the scent in the same place each time.
- By this point, around 500 people were involved in the search.
On Friday, August 9, the search widened to include Deep Creek, and riders on horseback were sent into bear country. On August 10–11, searchers re‑covered previously searched areas. Flyers were prepared, wages nets were checked, and hunters looked for any sign that a predator, such as a bear, might have taken Bobby.
Nothing was found.
By the end of Sunday, August 11, 1963, Sheriff Albert “Dutch” Holter officially called off the search. Holter reportedly kept Bobby’s picture behind glass on his desk until the day he retired.
To this day, no trace of Bobby has ever been found.
Vanished.us Says
The details that are missing here are as disturbing as the ones we have.
We don’t know exactly which logging road the family was on. We don’t know precisely where the bloodhounds lost the scent. We don’t know what, if anything, was unusual about that location. What we do know is that Bobby was barefoot, lightly dressed, and gone within minutes — with no tracks and no sign of struggle.
Where there is a point of separation in these cases, there is often a complete lack of physical evidence. It’s as if the person stepped off the road and through a hole in reality.
I don’t buy the mountain lion theory. A predator attack would almost certainly leave blood, drag marks, or signs of a struggle. Bobby would have screamed. Someone would have heard something.
This case echoes others we’ve profiled:
- Bryce Florian — Disappeared from the Shi Shi Beach Trail
- Terrence Woods — Vanished from Penman Mine
- Sammy Boehlke — Missing from Cleetwood Cove, Crater Lake
The pattern is familiar: a brief separation, a child or young adult alone for only a moment, and then nothing.