Missing Iowa teen Jade Colvin case: investigators say key clues solved years later
Jade Colvin vanished in 2016 after running from a youth shelter. Investigators say cellphone evidence and deleted messages helped lead to a murder conviction—and her body is still not found.
The Jade Colvin case has moved from a long, painful disappearance into a criminal conviction—but the family’s central question remains unanswered: where is she now?
Jade Colvin. a teenager from Iowa. was 14 when she was reported missing in June 2016. after she ran away from a local shelter for young people.. For years. the search relied on a mix of traditional investigation and the painstaking work of tracking how a person’s life leaves traces behind—friends. family. and the digital footprints that can either fade or abruptly disappear.
Cheryl Nablo. a detective with the Des Moines Police Department who has focused on missing children cases. described what makes these investigations so hard to sustain over time.. When someone is missing. especially a runaway. investigators are often chasing a moving target—someone who may not want to be found. someone who may be changing routines. locations. and identities to stay out of view.. In Jade’s case, that challenge intensified as years passed and her digital trail went quiet.
By the time the U.S.. Marshals Service and a state-focused initiative known as Operation Homecoming took on Jade’s cold case. she had been missing for more than four years.. The effort drew in a team that included Nablo, Deputy U.S.. Marshal Justin Wallace, Detective Chris Wuebker, and Special Agent Jon Turbett.. Their work centered on building a clear timeline: who Jade was. where she was last known to be. and how her family’s struggles and state involvement shaped the path that led her to vanish.
Jade’s childhood included instability and foster placements after her mother lost custody.. Her parents struggled with substance abuse. and those disruptions mattered—not as background color. but as real-world context that shaped custody decisions. access to Jade. and the options available to everyone around her.. Investigators also described a pattern common in some runaway situations: barriers between caregivers and the system. limited access to a child. and repeated attempts by Jade to avoid being placed in a home where she would be under someone else’s control.
As the investigation deepened. investigators said they discovered that Jade had been staying in Arizona for months after running away from the shelter—information that emerged from reviewing social media and messages.. From there. the case narrowed toward a small rural Iowa town. Decorah. and a relationship that played a critical role in how Jade’s story intersected with one specific property.
Investigators learned that Jade’s mother, LaDawn, had been involved in a relationship with a man living in Decorah.. In the team’s view. those ties were more than personal—they created an environment where a runaway teenager could be hidden away. away from the visibility that often keeps missing kids from slipping into the margins of the system.. Investigators said they found accounts. messages. and voice communications that suggested a plan for Jade to stay on the property until she could be out of the system.. What followed, according to investigators, was a silence that became harder and harder to explain.
A turning point came through what Nablo and others described as relentless follow-through on leads, including tips spanning multiple states.. One major clue. investigators said. emerged not from a dramatic discovery at first. but from the long arc of how details accumulate—especially when family and friends keep searching online year after year.. Eventually. investigators said they identified a key location where Jade had last been placed and where her presence would later become central to questioning.
Then, nearly years later, investigators say a cellphone—left behind and later found—helped change the direction of the case.. They described photographs on that device showing Jade on the property with her mother at the time of her drop-off. and another set of images connected to the last period when she was seen with one of the sons.. Investigators also pointed to timing: they said the final days of digital communication mattered. including the fact that Jade’s messages stopped abruptly and her online presence did not resume the way investigators believed it would.
The case became even more complex when investigators said they found deleted messages on the cellphone—messages that included attempts by family members. including Jade’s mother. to reach her.. In a situation where the physical location of a missing teenager is unknown. deleted communication is more than a technical detail; it can suggest someone is trying to remove evidence of concern. remove contact attempts. or prevent responses that would trigger further searches.
Investigators later focused on photos they said showed unusual conditions inside the home around the time Jade disappeared—most notably. a kitchen and bedroom that appeared unusually clean compared with what was described as the property’s typical state.. Investigators argued those images. combined with the lack of continued digital activity from Jade and the pattern of silence afterward. helped form a picture that no longer resembled a simple runaway.
By 2024, James Bachmurski Sr.. was charged with murder in the second degree, and the case later went to trial.. Prosecutors argued that the evidence pointed toward involvement in Jade’s death even without her body being recovered.. That missing body is not a minor detail in murder cases; it becomes part of the legal weight. shaping how juries evaluate whether a crime occurred and whether the missing person was taken against her will.
Defense arguments emphasized the absence of a recovered body and the lack of certain physical evidence. while the prosecution leaned on the digital and behavioral record: the alleged steps taken around the time Jade vanished. the cellphone contents. the communications history. and the reasoning that a teenager who had been present on social platforms would not simply disappear without trace.
After deliberations. the jury returned a guilty verdict for murder in the second degree. and Bachmurski was sentenced to 50 years in prison.. For Jade’s family, the verdict brought a measure of closure—but also sharpened the pain.. The central facts of the case. investigators say. do not offer the certainty families need to fully grieve: Jade’s remains have not been found.
That unresolved reality is why investigators involved in the case have said they believe their work cannot end with the conviction.. Even after a criminal outcome. missing persons cases often continue to depend on information that only the passage of time can unlock—someone deciding to come forward. a new review of old evidence. or a lead that becomes searchable years later.
There is also a broader lesson embedded in how this case unfolded.. Jade Colvin’s disappearance shows how quickly a missing child investigation can stall when the search relies on human contact alone—and how modern investigations often pivot to digital evidence. where timing and absence can speak as loudly as what is found.. It also underscores how social instability. foster systems. and family disruption can collide in ways that leave young people exposed to harm.
For those who loved Jade, the case is still personal, not procedural.. Her aunt. Tandra Brus. described a grief that is now inseparable from the hope of finding her for a proper burial.. Friends and family have kept her memory alive. refusing to let the years erase her identity or turn her story into a closed chapter.
Investigators say they remain focused on finding answers and continuing the search for where Jade ended up.. In a case that began with a teenager running away and ended with a conviction tied to cellphone clues. the unresolved question still carries the heaviest weight: if the system can identify what happened. what it cannot explain yet is where she is.
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