Five years ago, a child went missing in Indiana, but his family is only now realizing it

A massive search is underway in Indiana for a 9-year-old boy whose family only recently realized he had been missing for more than five years, writes New York Post.

Photo: Annika Erixon | Dreamstime.com

Hayden Manis' relatives, including his grandparents and aunts, believed the child was with his father, who had been granted custody despite their strong objections because the man was a long-time drug addict.

However, late last year they finally reported the child missing after realising none of them had seen the boy since Christmas Eve 2019, when he was just 4 years old.

On the subject: A child was kidnapped in Washington: after 4 years, the girl was found in Mexico

Relatives fear that the father may have killed the child - especially considering that he himself died of a drug overdose in November 2024, shortly after he was questioned about his missing son.

"I can't remember anything like it," Delaware County District Attorney Eric Hoffman said of the search in the Muncie area, about 80 miles northeast of Indianapolis. "It haunts me every day."

When Hayden was an infant, his parents lost custody of him because of drug-related arrests, and the boy went to live with his grandfather, Gary Manis, whom he called "Pap-Pap," relatives said.

The boy's father, Dustin Manis, eventually completed a court-ordered rehabilitation program and probation, after which he regained custody of his son, despite the grandfather's vehement protests.

“He’s a drug addict,” Gary Manis said of his troubled son. “I told them, I begged them not to give the kid back. But it was out of my hands. I wasn’t even allowed to speak in court. He did what they asked of him, and they gave him Hayden back.”

After returning to his father, the boy continued to communicate with other family members for some time, but after Christmas Eve 2019, the meetings stopped, and Dustin did not indicate that something was wrong.

"At least once a month I would write to him and say, 'We're going to do this. Can you come?'" said his great-great-aunt Barbara Phillips.

"We wanted him to know that we were waiting for them and wanted to be a part of their lives," added another great-aunt, Shelley Sewell.

"We'd invite them, 'Would you and Hayden come to dinner with us?' And he'd say, 'We'll try. I'll try. We're fine. Hayden's fine. We'll try to come.' But he never showed up. They never showed up."

Text messages showed that Dustin moved out of town in 2021. Soon after, he stopped responding altogether, leading family members to believe he was either too busy or no longer wanted to communicate.

After years of no contact, the family finally realized something was wrong last year when two of Hayden's great-grandmothers ran into each other at a grocery store. One of them recalled Dustin telling her years ago that he had lost custody of his son again.

"She came straight home and called Grandpa Gary and said, 'Something's wrong, something doesn't add up,'" Shelley said.

The family immediately contacted child protective services and the police, who soon found Dustin - but not Hayden.

Dustin told police that in 2022, child protection services took his son away from him and handed him over to his mother. However, an investigation revealed that this was a lie and that the child had gone missing in 2020.

"To say that it complicated the case is an understatement," said Attorney Hoffman. "To have information in 2024 that a child has not been seen since 2020 is a huge challenge."

In November, Dustin was questioned and then arrested for heroin and methamphetamine. He was released on bail but died shortly afterward from a drug overdose.

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Hayden has never been found and the family fears the worst.

"I don't believe he's alive," said his great-aunt Shelley, and the rest of the family agreed. "The police have been looking into it since September, but there's no lead yet."

Hayden, who would now be almost 10 years old, has been added to the national registry of missing and exploited children.

“There’s hardly a day that goes by that I don’t come into the office and think about Hayden Manis,” said Attorney Hoffman. “This case is on our minds, and it’s on the top of our minds as investigators. We’re not going to stop until we find the answer. We want the truth.”

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