Remains found on Warm Springs Reservation late last year confirmed to be teen who disappeared in 2022

WARM SPRINGS, Ore. (KTVZ) – Nearly 18 months after an 18-year-old disappeared on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, prompting police to seek information from the public, the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office has confirmed that remains found late last year were those of the missing teen, police said.

The Warm Springs Police Department received a report on Dec. 17, 2022 of a missing person, LeBron Boise, who was reported to have walked away from his house the previous afternoon and did not return home.

Officers were able to get a ping location of the last place his phone was active, on a hillside on Jackson Trail, police said, but several days of searching the area turned up no new leads to his whereabouts.

A “missing” poster for Boise noted he might still be in the area or might have traveled to Portland, and “may be in need of medical attention.”

Just over a year later, on Dec. 22, 2023, a group checking trap lines on Jackson Trail called Warm Springs dispatchers to say they believed they found human remains.

Police responded and found the remains near a cliff face. They were sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office, which worked with the Bone Technology Lab to identify the remains through DNA testing.

Last Tuesday, the lab confirmed the remains were those of LeBron Boise, Warm Springs Police said in a Facebook post Friday evening.

“Although this is not the outcome we were all hoping for, we are thankful that Mr. Boise’s family is now able to lay their loved ones to rest,” the police release stated. “Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family as they navigate this difficult loss.”