Court documents: Human remains may be found in 1982 case of missing toddler near Bemidji

Contributed By Matt Henson Today at 9:39 AM Listen Comments Share Share this article News Reporting News Reporting Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The Trust Project What is this? BEMIDJI — Law enforcement in northwest Minnesota have reason to believe they may have located human remains in the case of a missing toddler from 44 years ago. That information was revealed in newly released court papers regarding the disappearance of 3-year-old Kevin Ayotte near Bemidji in 1982. ADVERTISEMENT A human remains detection dog found a number of areas of interest during a recent search of a property. According to two new search warrants, it was a tip from a nurse in July 2025 that led to a multi-day dig at a home northeast of Bemidji in October. During those 15 months, investigators talked with a number of people who they felt provided enough information to secure a search warrant for the property. Not only was the scent of a buried body discovered, so was a pair of blue adult underwear. According to the search warrant, the person who came forward, and is identified as "R1" in the documents, did so because "it was the right thing to do." R1 told police, shortly before a relative of theirs died in 2024, that the relative provided information to them about the Kevin Ayotte case. R1 believed that the boy had been buried underneath a detached garage, and they knew who may have put him there. ADVERTISEMENT Matt Henson / WDAY WDAY News is not naming that person since they have not been charged. However, Beltrami County Sheriff Jason Riggs said this last month about the property they were searching: "An individual of interest at one point in this investigation lived on this property and no longer does, but family members do," Riggs said. According to the warrant, police spoke with that "individual of interest" in 2025. He reportedly asked police why this case is coming up again and if his family "did some talking." He said he would not talk if the conversation was being recorded. He told investigators he thought Kevin was alive because Kevin's Social Security card was used in a different state. Investigators wrote in the warrant he repeatedly denied being responsible for Kevin's disappearance or burying him under the detached garage where he once lived. He disputed reports made by other family members that the detached garage was built around the same time Kevin disappeared. READ MORE FROM MATT HENSON Messages of hope support patients at Altru Cancer Center 6d ago Driver charged in fatal Cass County crash settles Grand Forks cases 6d ago Benefit planned for man injured in northwest Minnesota farmstead shooting 6d ago By the time police had gathered all of this information late last year, it was too cold to use ground-penetrating radar in the garage area, officials said. Investigators said the search did not happen until three weeks ago because the current residents were hard to schedule with. Investigators said that a month prior to the search, the man noted as a person of interest in Kevin's disappearance was spotted at the home in the garage retrieving a scooter. Due to the lack of cooperation, a judge granted a search warrant for the property on Oct. 19. During the search, investigators wrote that ground-penetrating radar detected an anomaly in the soil around the southeast corner of the garage. Human remains detection dogs also changed their behavior in that same area, according to the documents. ADVERTISEMENT Detectives then dug holes in the concrete inside the garage that would allow the odor of a dead body to be released from the ground. Detectives wrote in the court filings the dog's behavior indicated that they detected an odor of a dead body and police believe there are human remains in the ground or concrete of the garage. According to the warrant receipt, police located adult-size underwear buried in the dirt in the corner of the garage, a plastic part from the garage and unearthed debris from the garage. WDAY News reached out to Riggs on Thursday, Nov. 12, to find out if the evidence recovered, such as the underwear and debris, has provided any firm answers. He has yet not responded. Kevin Ayotte disappeared from his family's summer cabin about 25 minutes northeast of Bemidji on Sept. 30, 1982. The young boy, who was nonverbal and deaf, vanished along with his dog when his mother stepped out of the house for a brief moment. His brother was inside the home. The dog came back five days later, but there was never a clue of what happened to Kevin. Prep Watch live: Dakota Bowl XXXIV football championship games on ABC statewide Watch the 2026 NDHSAA Dakota Bowl Friday, November 13 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. statewide on WDAY and streaming on WDAY+. 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The Trust Project What is this? Tags Tags BEMIDJI MISSING PERSONS BELTRAMI COUNTY By Matt Henson Matt Henson is an Emmy award-winning reporter/photographer/editor for WDAY. Prior to joining WDAY in 2019, Matt was the main anchor at WDAZ in Grand Forks for four years. Listen to this article Conversation ADVERTISEMENT What To Read Next Minnesota A wave of hospital mergers is changing healthcare in Minnesota. 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