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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Disappearance of Reed Jeppson

1964 disappearance of a Salt Lake City teenager

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ110588947 ↗
Source-derived summary

Reed Taylor Jeppson (born May 28, 1949, disappeared October 11, 1964) was an American teenager who disappeared along with his two dogs as he walked them on the afternoon of October 11, 1964 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Despite an extensive search and media coverage (including renewed attention in the early 2010s), neither Jeppson nor the dogs have been located.

Background

Reed Taylor Jeppson was born on May 28, 1949, to Elizabeth and Edward Jeppson. At the time of his disappearance, he had eleven siblings and he and his family lived in Salt Lake City, Utah; they also had a summer home in Montana. Jeppson was a sophomore at East High School, and played on the school's football team. He also was a paperboy.

Jeppson was described as a good and popular student with many friends in both Salt Lake City and Montana, and who enjoyed training his dogs to hunt birds.

Disappearance and investigation

The Jeppson family had attended church on the morning of October 11, 1964. Afterwards, Jeppson went to feed and walk his two German Shorthaired Pointers, one an adult and the other a puppy, telling his sister he would return within 30 minutes for dinner. The dogs were kept about 200 yards from the Jeppson residence.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Disappearance of Reed Jeppson” is 1964 disappearance of a Salt Lake City teenager. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Disappearance, Reed and Jeppson, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1949, 1964—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Disappearance, Reed and Jeppson is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1964 disappearance of a Salt Lake City teenager” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q110588947. Authority coordinates are 40.605, -111.794. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1949 and 1964.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Disappearance of Reed Jeppson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Disappearance of Reed Jeppson primary sources, Disappearance of Reed Jeppson archive and Disappearance research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Disappearance of Reed Jeppson”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Disappearance of Reed Jeppson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.