Two Young Boys Lost in the Knox Mountains (Part One)
Ken Batten
February 05, 2026
On a late spring day in 1970, two young brothers, Roger (6) and Russell (3) DuBois were playing where their father was cutting firewood near their home in Orange Vermont.
They apparently wandered into the woods to play and were soon lost. After a frantic search by family and friends, reinforcements were called in, setting off the largest search in Vermont state history which included the Vermont State Police, Fish and Wildlife, Forest Parks & Recreation, Civil Air Patrol, Norwich University and the Vermont National Guard. Many local businesses closed down to help and Governor Dean Davis gave state employees a day off to help search.
I was only 13 at the time and considered too young to help. I do remember riding up to where the State Police had set up a headquarters at a camp and seeing all the activity. I also remember seeing the boys grandmother, sitting in the back seat of a police cruiser with the door open, listening to the radio, hoping for someone calling in that they had been found.
My three sisters helped in the search. Judy had already graduated, Ava was a Senior and Aleta was a sophomore. They were at the Chaloux's with a bunch of other teenagers when they got word of the lost boys. The Chaloux's were family friends that had a dairy farm on Route 302 with a view across the road of the Knox Mountains and where the boys were lost.
Ava said they they all took off into the woods across the road from the Chaloux's so they could help in the search. That night, searchers with lights were crisscrossing the hills with megaphones calling, "ROGER! RUSSELL! Ava said she fell asleep that night with the sound of people calling for them over and over. She and Aleta said it was very disturbing.
Aleta said, "The next day Judy, Ava and I went to help the search party (Spaulding High School let anyone who would search out from school). The person in charge wasn't going to let us be part of the search team until he was told that we were Russell Batten's daughters, and then we were accepted as part of the group.
Each day we went to the headquarters at the little Orange Junction general store and were assigned which group we would be part of and what area we would be searching. We would walk an arm's distance apart through thick, thick undergrowth and woods, with someone constantly calling,"Russell, Roger."
"At lunchtime, we'd go back to the store where there was lunch for everyone who was helping. I think volunteers must have made lunches and brought them to the store. I only remember sandwiches, and we didn't have to pay for them. I don't remember very many other details, just the tedium of walking slowly through brush and shrubs and rocks, always hoping I could spot the children, but we never did."
Ava remembered walking on line through brush when a halt was called, because someone had found freshly dug dirt. She said, "We had to wait while they dug to see if possibly the boys had been buried there. They found a dead calf that had recently been buried, but it was very disturbing.
To be continued
Ken Batten grew up on a small sheep farm in West Topsham VT. He was a logging contractor, soldier and rural mail carrier. He now lives in North Hyde Park VT with his wife Tina-Marie. You can contact Ken at kenbatvt@gmail.com or PO Box 5 N Hyde Park VT 05665
They apparently wandered into the woods to play and were soon lost. After a frantic search by family and friends, reinforcements were called in, setting off the largest search in Vermont state history which included the Vermont State Police, Fish and Wildlife, Forest Parks & Recreation, Civil Air Patrol, Norwich University and the Vermont National Guard. Many local businesses closed down to help and Governor Dean Davis gave state employees a day off to help search.
I was only 13 at the time and considered too young to help. I do remember riding up to where the State Police had set up a headquarters at a camp and seeing all the activity. I also remember seeing the boys grandmother, sitting in the back seat of a police cruiser with the door open, listening to the radio, hoping for someone calling in that they had been found.
My three sisters helped in the search. Judy had already graduated, Ava was a Senior and Aleta was a sophomore. They were at the Chaloux's with a bunch of other teenagers when they got word of the lost boys. The Chaloux's were family friends that had a dairy farm on Route 302 with a view across the road of the Knox Mountains and where the boys were lost.
Ava said they they all took off into the woods across the road from the Chaloux's so they could help in the search. That night, searchers with lights were crisscrossing the hills with megaphones calling, "ROGER! RUSSELL! Ava said she fell asleep that night with the sound of people calling for them over and over. She and Aleta said it was very disturbing.
Aleta said, "The next day Judy, Ava and I went to help the search party (Spaulding High School let anyone who would search out from school). The person in charge wasn't going to let us be part of the search team until he was told that we were Russell Batten's daughters, and then we were accepted as part of the group.
Each day we went to the headquarters at the little Orange Junction general store and were assigned which group we would be part of and what area we would be searching. We would walk an arm's distance apart through thick, thick undergrowth and woods, with someone constantly calling,"Russell, Roger."
"At lunchtime, we'd go back to the store where there was lunch for everyone who was helping. I think volunteers must have made lunches and brought them to the store. I only remember sandwiches, and we didn't have to pay for them. I don't remember very many other details, just the tedium of walking slowly through brush and shrubs and rocks, always hoping I could spot the children, but we never did."
Ava remembered walking on line through brush when a halt was called, because someone had found freshly dug dirt. She said, "We had to wait while they dug to see if possibly the boys had been buried there. They found a dead calf that had recently been buried, but it was very disturbing.
To be continued
Ken Batten grew up on a small sheep farm in West Topsham VT. He was a logging contractor, soldier and rural mail carrier. He now lives in North Hyde Park VT with his wife Tina-Marie. You can contact Ken at kenbatvt@gmail.com or PO Box 5 N Hyde Park VT 05665
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