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The original was posted on /r/unresolvedmysteries by /u/Buckykattlove on 2024-01-24 06:11:53+00:00.
This is my first write-up. I am hoping to add at least some of the children and youths from the Charley Project that don't have any write-ups on reddit.
Hickle Harley Ware (nicknamed Punky) was the third son of Richard Sr (chief of police) and Lois Ware. He and his family resided in Bungo Township, Minnesota. He was four years old when he went missing on June 11, 1938. On that day he had followed his two older brothers Richard Jr (13) and Bob (10) when they went out to the meadow. They told him to stay put while they gathered some stray cows. The boys said they had only been gone a few minutes, but when they had returned Hickle was gone.
This was not the first time that Hickle had wandered off, but in the past he had always been found after a brief period of time, sometimes fast asleep by a building. His parents searched all afternoon but when they couldn't find him, they called in the sheriff at 6 a.m. the next day. At least 1,500 people searched the thick woods and swamp for about a week, for the boy. Some of these people included the national guardsman and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Search dogs and an airplane were even brought in. The Brainerd Dispatch called it "the greatest manhunt ever staged in northern Minnesota." Unfortunately it rained on June 13th, washing away potential clues to Hickle's whereabouts.
Some of the searchers claimed to have heard a "faint pitiful cry like that of a child" at one point and to have found fresh bear tracks. Others reported fresh tracks (presumably human), however this was later reported to be erroneous. The sheriff believed that Hickle probably died the same day that he had disappeared. Despite this, Richard Sr held out hope that he was still alive. The article is rather confusing about Lois however -- first claiming that she too believed her son to be dead but later reporting that she held out hope he would return because he knew the woods well and knew to drink fresh water and to eat berries to keep up his strength.
As often happens when a child goes missing, rumors started circling that the Hickle had been kidnapped. A neighbor reported seeing two strange men in the immediate vicinity. A famer claimed to see a truck the day Hickle went missing with a little boy crying in it. Letters from "spiritualists" and "cranks" poured in. A fortune teller even claimed that Hickle was living deep in the swamp with a hermit. The hermit, it was claimed, had found Hickle wandering around, but without communication with the outside world, he was just waiting for someone to come claim Hickle. (It would seem that the hermit hadn't thought to go to the police in this scenario.) Interestingly, a man was found living in the area described, but law enforcement didn't find Hickle. A rumor claimed that Hickle had been buried in the concrete under a barn that had been built shortly after his disappearance. Even his family was not safe from any pointing fingers.
However, law enforcement largely dismissed the kidnapping theory. The meadow where Hickle went missing was not easily accessible to outsiders, and how would anyone know that he was going to be there alone at just that day and time? The Brainerd Dispatch does include an event that occured two years before Hickle's disappearance. The Young family visited the same field from where Hickle later disappeared one afternoon and happened to eat poisonous mushrooms resulting in the death of five of the family members. However, the newspaper article posits that this is likely a coincidence and had nothing to do with Hickle's disappearance.
Hickle's father was shot in the line of duty when he was 51 in 1953. Lois later remarried and died in 1983. All four of Hickle's siblings are dead. However, his niece Connie -- the daughter of his sister Arlone -- was still alive as of 2022 and hopes to find answers in his case, though she is certain that he is dead. (I inferred this to mean that she hopes his remains would be found.)
Hickle is not listed in NAmus, NCMEC, or the doenetwork, but he is listed on the Charley Project. I am 100% certain that Hickle wandered off and died, either from exposure or an animal attack. It is possible that he even ate some poisonous mushrooms before wandering off and died from that. Neither the Charleyproject, nor the Brainerd Dispatch mentioned anything about his siblings leaving DNA samples, so, unfortunately, even if his remains have been or may be found, I don't see his case ever being officially solved. What are your thoughts?