State Police Offer $5,000 Reward in 25-Year Cold Case of Missing Luray Boy
JONESTOWN, Pa. — Pennsylvania State Police are offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who can help solve the decades-old case of a missing Virginia boy.
Twelve-year-old Eric Wayne Pyles had been living with his half-sister, Maria in central Pennsylvania since 1999, after a Luray court awarded custody of him to Maria and her then-husband (last name “Custer”). The couple was also awarded custody of Eric’s younger brother, Tom.
After the move north, Pyles began attending counseling sessions arranged by his sister, who had also sought placement for him in a residential treatment center due to behavioral struggles. He frequently ran away, but always returned when it got dark.
Pyles was last seen shortly after stepping off of a school bus near Awol Road in Jonestown, Lebanon County, on December 12, 2000.
He was wearing light blue painter’s pants, black sneakers, a gray sweatshirt with a picture of a deer on it, and a blue flannel jacket. He was also carrying a Washington Redskins bookbag.
Instead of heading toward his house, investigators said he walked south through the backyard of a nearby residence on Silvertown Road. Someone saw a boy with a bookbag similar to Pyle’s running behind the Jonestown Bible Church.
At the time, the boy appeared to be headed toward nearby U.S. Route 22. Later that night, as the church secretary was locking up, she noticed small footprints in the snow.
Eric Wayne Pyles was never heard from again.
In the days and weeks that followed, authorities investigated the possibility that Pyles ran back to the Shenandoah Valley, where his parents and other relatives lived.
Police questioned several of his family members, but interviews turned up no leads, and there’s no evidence that he ever arrived in Virginia. An extensive search near where he vanished yielded no answers.
According to the Charley Project, a page dedicated to cold cases, Maria (who has since remarried) passed a lie detector test in connection with Pyles’s disappearance. Police do not believe she was involved or harmed her brother in any way before he vanished.
Now, 25 years later, police hope that renewed attention and a cash reward might prompt someone to come forward with information that could finally bring closure to the case.
Today, Eric Pyles would be 37. He may be using the aliases Nick Cagnow and/or Nick Seaboy. He has a scar on his bottom lip and an appendectomy scar.
Throughout the years, several websites have continued to push for a resolution of the case and post age progression estimate photos. The case has been covered extensively in Pennsylvania newspapers and regional publications.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Pennsylvania State Police at Jonestown at (717) 865-2194.