Bemidji Police Renew Search for Missing Teens Kingbird and Jourdain

The Bemidji Police Department renewed its public appeal for information on two missing teenagers, Nevaeh Kingbird and Jeremy Jourdain, as the anniversaries of their disappearances approached. The department reported that hundreds of leads have been received and investigated across the two cases, with no resolution yet for either family.

Jeremy Jourdain was 17 years old when he disappeared on Oct. 31, 2016, last seen near the intersection of Sixth Street Southeast and Wood Avenue Southeast in Bemidji. He was wearing a blue and gray hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, and black and white Air Jordan shoes. Nevaeh Kingbird went missing nearly five years later, on Oct. 22, 2021, at age 15. She was last seen in the area of Washington Avenue South. Investigators believe she was wearing either a black zip-up hooded sweatshirt or a red sweatshirt with a bull logo on the back, along with blue skinny jeans, a white undershirt, and black and red Nike sandals.

"The Bemidji Police Department has received and investigated hundreds of leads in these cases," the department's release stated. "We have interviewed many people, searched numerous vehicles, private properties and public lands."

The scale of the physical search has been extensive. "The Bemidji Police Department has organized and conducted numerous searches by air, land and water," the release continued. "We have utilized airplanes, helicopters, drones, search dogs, boats, canoes, large and small scale ground searches, excavations and drained bodies of water to find answers for their families."

Six agencies have worked alongside Bemidji police: the Beltrami County Sheriff's Office, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Leech Lake Tribal Police, Red Lake Police Department, Cass County Sheriff's Office, and the Minnesota Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office.

With deer season drawing residents out to northern Minnesota's forests and lake country, the department directed a specific appeal toward hunters. "As you head back out to your cabins, hunting lands and deer stands, please take time to search for Jeremy, Nevaeh or any of the clothing they may have been wearing at the time of their disappearance," the release said. Law enforcement also encouraged the public broadly to check their land, abandoned vehicles, and outbuildings.

No arrests, suspects, or persons of interest have been identified in either case. Both investigations remain active.