Mystery swirls around Indiana boy who vanished 5 years ago —without family realizing

A huge hunt is on for a 9-year-old Indiana boy — after his family only recently realized he’s actually been missing for more than five years.

Hayden Manis’ relatives, including his grandparents and aunts, told WTHR that they assumed the youngster was with his dad, who was awarded custody despite their fierce objections over his alarming history of abusing drugs.

But they finally reported him missing late last year — having realized none of them had seen him since Christmas Eve 2019, when he was just 4.

They fear he might have been killed by his dad — who died of a drug overdose in November, soon after he was quizzed about his missing son.

“I can’t ever remember something quite like this,” Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman told the outlet of the hunt around Muncie, about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis.

“It haunts me every day.”

When Hayden was still a baby, his parents lost custody of him over drug-related arrests, and he went to live with his grandfather, Gary Manis, whom he called “Paw Paw,” the family told WTHR.

Hayden’s father, Dustin Manis, eventually finished his court-ordered probation and drug treatment, and was again given custody of his son — despite his grandfather’s fierce objections.

“He’s a drug addict,” Gary Manis said of his troubled son. “I told them, I begged them, not to give him back. Wasn’t my choice. Wouldn’t even let me speak in court,” the granddad said. “He did what they required of him and they gave (Hayden) back.”

Though visits with extended family continued for a little after Hayden returned to his father’s care, they eventually stopped after Christmas Eve 2019 — and the dad never suggested anything was wrong.

“At least every month, I’d message him: ‘Hey we’re doing this or that. Can you come?’” his great aunt Barbara Phillips said.

“We wanted him to know we wanted them there. We wanted to be a part of their lives,” another great aunt, Shellie Sewell, said.

“We’d say, ‘Can you and Hayden come have dinner with us? And he would respond with, ‘We’ll try. I’ll try. Everything’s fine. We’re OK. Hayden’s fine. We’ll try to make it.’ But we never did get to see him. He never came to anything.”

Text messages revealed Dustin moved out of town in 2021 — and he soon stopped answering messages completely, making his family believe he was too busy or no longer wanted to visit them.

After years without contact, his family realized something was wrong last year when Hayden’s two great-grandmothers ran into each other at a grocery store — and one mentioned that Dustin had told her years earlier he lost custody of Hayden again.

“She went straight home and called [grandfather Gary] and said ‘Something is off, something’s not right,’” Shellie said.

The family immediately called Child Protective Services and the police, who found Dustin — but not his son.

Dustin told officers that CPS took his son in 2022 and returned him to his mother — which police quickly determined was a lie. Their investigation revealed that the child had been missing since 2020.

“To say that that has complicated the case is an understatement,” said Hoffman, the prosecutor. “To get the call in 2024 that you’ve not seen a child since 2020 is a huge hurdle.”

Dustin was questioned in November, before being arrested when officers found heroin and meth on him. He was bonded out — just to die of a drug overdose.

With no sign of Hayden, his family fear the worst.

“I don’t believe he’s alive,” his great-aunt Shellie said, with the rest of his relatives agreeing. “I mean, the police have been working on this nonstop since September, and there’s been no sign of him.”

Hayden, who would now be nearly 10 years old, has been added to a national registry of missing and exploited children.

“There are very few days I come to this office and I don’t think about Hayden Manis,” said Hoffman, the prosecutor.

“This case is on my mind, and it’s on the investigators’ minds on a daily basis. We’re not going to stop until we get to an answer. We need to know the truth.”