Vanished on New Year’s Eve: The Search for Johnathan Boley
A Holiday Visit Takes a Dark Turn
The morning of December 31, 2025, began like any other festive holiday for one Walker County family. Four-year-old Johnathan Everett Boley was in rural Jasper, Alabama, visiting his father for a special New Year’s holiday reunion. The little boy and his six-year-old brother played outside near the tree line of their father’s property, a place surrounded by thick woods and crisscrossed by old fence lines. It was a crisp, quiet morning – the kind of day where the only sounds were children’s laughter and a dog bounding through dry winter leaves. No one could have imagined how drastically this day would unravel. Around 11:30 a.m., the children’s black Labrador retriever bolted toward the woods, and Johnathan, being an energetic boy who loved to explore, eagerly followed the pup. His older brother watched as Johnathan and the dog slipped beyond a fence and out of sight. At the time, nothing seemed amiss; Johnathan was only a few steps away. But within minutes, the situation turned to panic: the four-year-old did not come back.
At first, Johnathan’s father and brother called out for him, expecting him to reappear from behind a tree or brush with the dog in tow. As the minutes ticked by with no sign of the blonde, blue-eyed boy, the father’s worry escalated. He began searching frantically around the property – checking the yard, the edge of the woods, even the nearby creek bed. Shadows lengthened and a gnawing fear set in. By approximately 1:00 p.m., after about an hour of desperate searching on his own, Johnathan’s father grabbed his phone and dialed 911. The holiday joy of New Year’s Eve abruptly turned into a nightmare. A missing child alert was issued almost immediately, and authorities raced to the scene. Neighbors in the sparse Jasper community were startled by the sudden commotion as sheriff’s deputies and volunteer fire teams spread out to help. What began as a quiet family visit had transformed into every parent’s worst fear.
As daylight waned on New Year’s Eve, the search for Johnathan intensified. Law enforcement officers with the Walker County Sheriff’s Office canvassed the area, calling the boy’s name into the woods. Flashlights and floodlights pierced the early winter dusk as more volunteers arrived, refusing to let darkness halt the effort to find the child. Rumors of the disappearance spread quickly through the small Alabama community. By nightfall, dozens of townspeople had shown up, forming search parties that combed fields, creek banks, and ATV trails in the vicinity. New Year’s Eve – a night usually filled with fireworks and celebration – now saw people tramping through cold, muddy terrain under the beam of flashlights, praying they would find a lost little boy before the clock ushered in the new year.
Meanwhile, miles away in Florida, Johnathan’s mother learned the horrifying news that her son was missing. Angel Boley had moved to Florida a year prior, taking the boys with her after separating from Johnathan’s father. She had sent her sons back to Alabama for a five-day holiday visitation with their dad, expecting them to be returned to her on New Year’s Day. Instead, on New Year’s Eve, she received the phone call no parent ever wants to get. Dropping everything, Angel caught the next flight to Alabama. She arrived in Walker County late that night, heartsick and anxious, ready to do anything to help find her baby boy. When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, there were no celebrations for Johnathan’s family – only the piercing beam of search lights through bare trees and the unwavering hope that the dawn of the new year would bring a miracle.
A Country Boy and His Dog
To those who know him, Johnathan Everett Boley is far more than just a missing poster or an Amber Alert headline – he is a bright, affectionate little boy with a whole life ahead of him. At just four years old, Johnathan is small for his age, around four feet tall and fifty pounds, but bursting with energy and curiosity. He has a mop of light blonde hair that often falls into his big blue eyes, which sparkle whenever he’s outdoors. “He’s a country boy who loves nature, Paw Patrol, and running,” one of his aunts, Kim Smith, shared, painting a picture of a child who feels most alive when he’s playing outside or watching his favorite cartoons. Johnathan spent his early years in Alabama’s countryside, so the woods and fields around his father’s Jasper home were familiar playgrounds to him. Chasing after his dog on a sunny morning would have been second nature – he adores animals and likely thought he was simply embarking on another little adventure.
Johnathan’s family describes him as an inquisitive, playful kid who is friendly to everyone. He’s the boy who would pick wildflowers for his mom and come home with muddy shoes and exciting stories about “exploring the jungle” in the backyard. This Christmas, Johnathan had just reunited with his dad and older brother for the holiday visit. He was probably still bubbling with excitement from recent Christmas gifts and the thrill of seeing his father after months apart. In photos taken shortly before his disappearance, Johnathan grins proudly in a yellow Mickey Mouse t-shirt – the very shirt he was wearing when he went missing. It’s hard not to smile seeing that image: a little boy with a big grin, missing a front baby tooth, showing off his love for Disney characters. That same outfit – the Mickey Mouse shirt, black pants, and his favorite light-up Paw Patrol sneakers – is what searchers have been looking for in the woods, hoping for any glimpse of that bright yellow or the flash of those little shoes.
Johnathan is deeply loved by his family. At home in Florida, he has a bedroom full of toy trucks and dinosaurs waiting for him, and a neighborhood preschool where his cheerful personality made him many friends. He just spent the holidays away from his mom for the first time since moving – a sign of growing up and trying to keep both parents in his life despite their separation. This makes his disappearance all the more heartbreaking: he should have been returning to his mother on New Year’s Day, full of stories about Christmas presents and playing with Dad. Instead, his mother and father and the entire community are living a nightmare, not knowing where he is or if he’s safe. The innocence of Johnathan’s young life – his love of muddy outdoor adventures, cartoons, and his loyal dog – now drives everyone’s determination to find him. Every volunteer trudging through the woods isn’t just looking for any missing child; they’re looking for a beloved little boy with an infectious laugh and an endless curiosity, a child who means the world to his family and whose absence has left a hole in many hearts.
An Unexpected and Dangerous Twist
As the search for Johnathan stretched into New Year’s Day, what was already a desperate situation took a shocking turn. In the early morning hours of January 1, 2026, volunteers gathered at a local church to organize a massive daylight search effort. Over 160 community volunteers and more than 120 first responders assembled at dawn, fueled by hope and cups of coffee, ready to scour the woods and hollows for any sign of the missing boy. Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith coordinated the deployment: teams of volunteers were assigned grids to search, tracking dogs were brought in, and even divers prepared to examine nearby ponds and creeks. A helicopter from the state law enforcement agency circled overhead, using thermal imaging to scan the forest canopy for a small body or a heat signature that could be Johnathan. It was one of the largest search operations the county had ever seen – a testament to how Johnathan’s plight had galvanized the entire community. They were determined that if Johnathan was out there in those woods, alive and perhaps scared, they would find him and bring him home.
However, as morning turned to afternoon, the unthinkable happened. A group of civilian searchers trudging through a brushy area near Johnathan’s father’s house stumbled upon something bizarre – a cluster of suspicious devices partially hidden on the property. These objects looked like improvised explosive devices, crudely assembled with sections of PVC pipe and wires. The volunteers who found them quickly backed away and raised the alarm. Word spread like wildfire through the search teams: explosives had been found in the area. Immediately, Sheriff Smith ordered all civilian volunteers to halt their search and evacuate the area for safety. What had started as a rescue mission was now also a bomb scene. Law enforcement officers carefully marked the locations of each suspected device and called in the bomb squad and agents from the FBI for assistance. The atmosphere, already tense, became one of palpable fear and disbelief. Volunteers who moments before were combing for footprints or pieces of fabric now found themselves rushing back to the church base camp, anxiously counting heads to ensure no one had been hurt. It was a terrifying twist – not only was a child missing, but the very ground the community was searching had been laced with potential booby traps.
Investigators focused on Johnathan’s father’s property, since the devices were found in and around the area he owned. As bomb technicians gingerly inspected the suspicious items, more details emerged. The father, 40-year-old Jameson Kyle Boley, was a former military serviceman. Neighbors would later report that over the past several weeks, they’d heard frequent explosions coming from the direction of his house – loud booms that rattled windows, sometimes even in the early hours of the morning. In fact, one neighbor recalled hearing an enormous bang around 4:00 a.m. on the very morning Johnathan disappeared. At the time, they had no idea what it was; they assumed perhaps someone was shooting off fireworks early or testing ammunition. Now it appeared Jameson Boley might have been detonating homemade bombs on his land.
By midday on January 1st, law enforcement had enough evidence to confront Johnathan’s father directly. Sheriff Smith and his deputies approached Jameson Boley, who had remained on the property during the initial search for his son. They placed him under arrest as the investigation took a dual track – one team continuing to search for Johnathan, and another securing the home and grounds as a potential crime scene. Investigators executing a search warrant inside the house made a disturbing discovery: materials and components consistent with manufacturing explosives. Pipes, chemicals, perhaps trigger mechanisms – while the exact details remain sealed in the investigation, the sheriff later confirmed that there was evidence of bomb-making in the home. Jameson Boley was promptly charged with unlawful manufacture of a destructive device, a serious felony. In other words, while hundreds of people were out desperately searching for his missing child, the boy’s father allegedly had a house full of bomb materials.