On July 6, 2020, officers responded to an apartment complex in the 1100 block of 12th Street in Baraboo, Wisconsin, after Kodie’s mother reported her missing. The circumstances raised immediate concerns: the 10-year-old had left barefoot and without her phone, and her mother said she had threatened to hurt herself. Police, firefighters, and K-9 teams searched the surrounding area, extending their efforts through streets, fields, and woods as the evening gave way to darkness.
The effort continued overnight and into July 7, when authorities confirmed that Kodie’s body had been found. That announcement ended the search, but it did not establish, in the account provided, how she died. Concerns reported when she disappeared should not be mistaken for a confirmed cause of death. What remained was the loss of a child, a grieving family, and a community confronting an outcome no search team had hoped to deliver.
