Archer Johnson went a firewood-gathering trip in northwest Pacific County on April 1, 1986 and hasn’t been seen since. His family hasn’t given hope that they may someday learn his fate.

PACIFIC COUNTY — Archer Ray Johnson has been missing since April 1, 1986, after disappearing from near the remote northeast Pacific County logging hamlet of Brooklyn.

After more than 34 years with no breakthroughs in the mind-boggling case, his family hopes a new push to find answers will lead to a breakthrough.

Last moments

At the time of his disappearance, the 42-year-old Archer was living outside of Oakville in the community of Cedarville. He and his wife of one month, Patricia Johnson, lived in a small home nestled in the woods at 208 Langabeer Road that branched off the South Bank Road.

The day Archer went missing, he left his home early in the morning and made a few stops in Oakville before driving over the Oakville Hill via the Brooklyn Road to his brother’s house near Vesta (near the Pacific County and Grays Harbor County line). He and his brother Earl Johnson then left to cut wood at a location along Brooklyn Road.

After cutting wood and loading it into Archer’s pickup, they drove back to Earl’s house and unloaded an estimated half cord of firewood. While there, Archer assisted Earl’s girlfriend, Rosa Butoric, with feeding some cows.

Before leaving to head back home, Archer asked if Earl could loan him $50 for his pickup tabs. Earl agreed to loan him the money but stated he would have to go to Oakville to get money from the bank after the mail arrived.

Archer left Earl’s house at about 11:40 a.m. headed for Oakville via Brooklyn Road. Earl and Rosa followed around 10-15 minutes later along the same path. His family never saw Archer again.

Door wide open and nobody to be seen

According to newspaper articles and Archer’s daughter Niki Johnson and granddaughter Taylor Johnson both of Raymond, Earl and Rosa found Archer’s truck 15 miles down the rural road partially parked in the gravel on top of Oakville Hill. The truck’s driver door was open, a can of beer was sitting on the seat, and the keys were still in the ignition.

Earl and Rosa assumed Archer had gone off into the woods to scout for firewood and would eventually return. They honked and yelled for Archer before Earl pulled his car forward, and Rosa leaned out the window to shut the truck’s door before they continued to Oakville.

Friends of Archer and others who knew him said he often would randomly stop along the road to scout for wood or urinate. “It was common for him to do this,” one friend stated. “It always worried people that he would fall down a hill or something or get lost.” This even though Archer was an experienced outdoorsman.

After leaving the bank and stopping to get gas, Earl and Rosa drove to Archer’s home and left an envelope on the gate that contained the $50 for Archer’s pickup tabs.

The couple spent the next few hours on the road to various locations, from Brady to Elma to McCleary and back to Archer’s home.

When they arrived back at Archer’s place, they found the envelope still on the gate, so they took it, and Earl dropped Rosa off along Garrard Creek Road — which connects to Brooklyn Road — in case his brother drove by while he returned to Oakville to refuel his car.

Earl then picked Rosa up and began driving toward Brooklyn via Oakville Hill, and that’s when they found Archer’s truck still parked in the same spot around 5:30 p.m. They yelled and honked for Archer again and decided to take his truck back with them, assuming he wouldn’t return to it. Earl drove the truck back, and Rosa drove the car back to Vesta.

Search begins

Archer was officially reported missing around 7:15 p.m. that evening after Earl and Rosa spoke with his wife Patricia when she arrived home from work. The Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office was the lead agency after calls to the Oakville Police Department were unsuccessful.

Patricia spent most of that evening searching for her husband along Brooklyn Road, before calling it a night around 11:45 p.m. She went back out on the morning of April 2 to help with search and rescue efforts but found they had not been organized yet.

Investigators were shown the exact spot Earl found the truck. The only item they recovered during a search of the area was a bandana along the roadway believed to have been worn by Archer. Even with an extensive search of the surrounding woods with bloodhounds, they found no helpful clues. No sign of a struggle was found at the scene, either.

The bloodhounds were only able to catch Archer’s scent for a short time but it was determined it was likely scent blown from the truck by the wind. On another search outing in the area, they picked up his scent a quarter mile down the roadway, which baffled investigators.

The case ran cold quickly after that point, according to retired Detective Lane Youmans, who worked the case at the beginning and was tasked with inspecting Archer’s truck and the scene. Detectives Bill Stocks and Doug Smythe headed up the investigative team and conducted interviews and chased the few leads that were available.

Neither Earl nor Rosa were assumed to have been persons of interest or suspects in Archer’s disappearance.

Frustration

Niki and Taylor have spent the last year trying to bring attention to the mysterious disappearance of their beloved father and grandfather but believe after so long with no breakthroughs, their voices have fallen on deaf ears.

“I’m just really frustrated because it seems like nobody cares,” Niki said. “[Even when] the sheriff’s office gets new information. It’s almost like do [they] even know somebody is still missing out there?”

Niki continued, “[When someone called with new information] the sheriff wasn’t even aware of the case. We are in a small town, and there’s not a ton of missing people here. So wouldn’t that be a big deal? Why are [they] being so weird about it or [is it] that just nobody cares. I do; he’s my dad.”

Pull Quote

‘I only wish we could have found out what really happened to him because I know how hard it must be for the family members never knowing what happened. [I want the family to know] we haven’t forgotten this.’

Retired Detective Doug Smythe

Public records requests for the case submitted by both Niki and Taylor, along with the Chinook Observer, have been repeatedly denied and referenced state statute RCW 42.56.240 that categorically exempts any and all records pertaining to an “open and active” investigation.

Subsequent requests for clarification on how the investigation is considered “open and active” after 34 years have either been denied or not responded to.

Over two dozen calls have been placed by the Chinook Observer and Niki and Taylor. Only a few calls have been responded to and have resulted in a “phone tag” with Sheriff Rick Scott that has lasted over three months.

Family finds detective notes

While going through a family scrapbook that included the investigation into Archer’s disappearance, Niki and Taylor found detective notes provided to the family during the original investigation. The notes offered more clues to the disappearance while also creating more questions needing to be answered.

A witness, only identified as Jameson, told investigators that he observed Earl driving his car westbound (toward Brooklyn) on the Brooklyn Road on the west side of Oakville Hill between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. He also claimed he saw Earl’s car before spotting Archer’s abandoned truck.

Jameson’s account of the day conflicts with Earl’s statement that he and Rosa drove back over the roadway late that afternoon. Jameson further claimed that when he went back over the road between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., Archer’s truck was gone.

Earl denied being on the roadway anytime before the late afternoon, according to the investigation notes.

Might have been mistaken for someone else

On April 11, 10 days after Archer went missing, both Earl and Rosa asked investigators for a chance to reiterate their statements of what happened on the day Archer went missing. They claimed they feared for their safety because Archer may have been “mistaken for someone else that someone wanted” but did not specify who or why.

The only information in the notes that changed after April 11 was when Earl was questioned about tire tracks that matched his brother’s truck found down a nearby spur where the truck went missing. Earl denied driving the truck down the spur and said his brother told him that he planned to drive down it looking for firewood. Earl later denied stating this information to the investigator, according to the notes.

Random message and theories

After creating a Facebook page about her dad’s disappearance with her daughter’s help, Niki received a message from a woman named “Charli” who heard of Archer’s disappearance from her father and grandfather when she was young.

She spoke with Niki and stated that she had heard three men were drinking at the Brooklyn Tavern, and after seeing Archer drive by, they left and followed behind him. Then, when he pulled over to urinate, they ran him over and eventually threw his body down a well.

Youmans, however, isn’t sure of the claim. “If Archer had gotten out of his truck to relieve himself and was run over, I would have seen the evidence of that,” he said.

Subsequently, while the Observer was conducting one of three interviews with Niki and Taylor, a citizen overheard the conversation about Archer’s disappearance. The citizen, a former North River resident, told a similar story to Charli’s, claiming Archer had been murdered and thrown down a well, but wasn’t sure of where.

Only one other theory has emerged over the past 34 years, which claimed Archer was murdered, and his body was “stumped.” Stumping is a well-known term in the logging community. It’s where a root-ball of a fallen tree entombs a body. The body is placed where the root-ball used to sit. The tree is then cut near the roots (stump), causing the root-ball to fall back into place, entombing the body never to be found.

The stumping claim is only a suggestion tossed around by North River residents, but some believe it might be true. Investigators and residents mention that Archer and Earl weren’t well-liked by some area residents, and someone might have killed Archer.

“Even though there was word that some people didn’t care for Archer and Earl,” Youmans said, “I don’t recall [the other detectives] finding anyone who wanted to do them harm.”

One theory stands out

Sources familiar with the case and Youmans believe what most likely happened is Archer was indeed murdered and possibly dumped down a well.

“I believe that [Retired Detective Bill] Stocks did manage to find a well or two up in that area, but didn’t find anything,” Youmans said.

Youmans and other sources also pointed out that there were no signs of a struggle at the scene and that the door was left open on the truck, suggesting Archer either got out to speak with a passerby and was kidnapped, or was forced to leave the vehicle.

“If, say, it was a chance encounter, and the person asked Archer to jump in to give him a hand with something,” Youmans said, “Archer would have shut his door and probably taken the keys. At least moved his truck further off the roadway.”

Questions have also arisen if Archer wanted to vanish and staged his disappearance to get away from his newlywed wife and children. However, Youmans mentioned that this scenario was highly improbable but was still a consideration.

“If Archer wanted to disappear, he did a good job,” Youmans stated. “I don’t believe he did, but despite my personal feelings, I don’t want to exclude the possibility that he wanted to disappear, as unlikely that might sound to the family.”

Family just wants closure

Niki was only 10 years old when her dad went missing, and Taylor only has the images from a family scrapbook and stories from her mom and grandmother to tell her about her lost grandfather. The family has accepted that they will likely never see justice served on the person or persons who could be responsible for Archer’s disappearance.

All the family wants is to know where he is resting so that they can finally bring him home and say a proper farewell.

“At this point, all we want is to have his remains,” Niki said. “It’s been 34 years of not knowing what happened to my dad, and I just want closure. I want to know he was found. I want to finally bring him home, and all of us get the closure we deserve after all this time.”

Case still haunts original detectives

Youmans wasn’t the only detective on the case in 1986 who has recently talked about the perplexing lack of answers. Although he retired 17 years ago in 2003, Smythe is still haunted by the case and lack of closure for the family too.

“I only wish we could have found out what really happened to him because I know how hard it must be for the family members never knowing what happened,” Smythe said. “[I want the family to know] we haven’t forgotten this. All we can do is pass it onto the people that replace us and maybe new forensic evidence can solve it someday.”

Anyone with information regarding Archer’s disappearance can call the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office at 360-249-3711. You can also reach out to Jeff Clemens, who continues to work on this case at jeffthejournalist@gmail.com.