Body Found in Desert Grave Identified as Missing Boy

The identification Saturday of a body found in a San Bernardino County desert grave solved one young boy’s disappearance--but left unanswered the year-old mystery of another.

Police in Adelanto disclosed that partially buried remains found by hunters a week ago are those of 4-year-old Christopher Joseph Rogers, who disappeared from his San Bernardino home Aug. 17. Investigators had speculated that the body was either Christopher’s or that of Jack Phillips, a 9-year-old who vanished Aug. 6, 1995 from nearby Big Bear Lake.

Hunters hiking into the desert at the edge of Adelanto discovered the body Sept. 1 when they noticed the skeletal remains of a head and shoulder that apparently had been unearthed by coyotes, according to police.

Dental records were used to identify the body, said Adelanto Police Lt. Scott Burnell. Although the remains showed signs of “blunt trauma,” further study by forensics experts will be needed to determine the cause of death, he said.

The boy’s mother and her boyfriend were questioned and released early Saturday but remain suspects in the continuing investigation, Burnell said.

Burnell said Nikesha Rogers and boyfriend Tyse Wilson, both 21, once lived a few miles from where the boy’s body was found. Adelanto, a town with 13,500 residents, is near Victorville and is about 40 miles north of San Bernardino.

Rogers reported to police that her son disappeared while playing in his yard in San Bernardino. A task force of 10 San Bernardino officers and detectives searched door-to-door for several days for the boy.

An even wider search was mounted a year ago in the Big Bear area for Jack Phillips.

A 20-mile area around the boy’s mountain home was scoured by searchers on foot, horseback and from the air after he disappeared while walking home from the Aspen Glen Picnic Grounds near Big Bear Lake. Small for his age, Phillips was described as 4 feet, 72 pounds.

Neither Michelle Phillips nor her boyfriend are considered suspects in his disappearance, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff’s investigators.