SEVIER COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — Jordan Boone went missing nearly two years ago, back in August of 2021, according to his younger sister Shelby. An adventurer has recently shined a spotlight on his case after posting a Tiktok video of what are now confirmed to be his tattered, sun-bleached belongings in a Utah desert.

On May 22, 2023, Ryan Moreau, an explorer and Tiktoker who goes by “ry_of_the_desert,” found some items out in the San Rafael Swell, located just south of I-70 in Sevier County. Among some of the items found were a guitar, a backpack, and a poncho, all of which Shelby confirmed to belong to Jordan.

“The item you thought was a blanket was actually a poncho. The jacket, he’d bought at a thrift store and my mom mended the hem for him. The fake news patch… he loved to tease my dad about his love for fox news. And the guitar….. we thought someone had stolen it as it wasn’t in his room or his van,” Shelby said in a Facebook post.

About a week later, on May 30, Moreau found some more items, which he says were around 300 feet from the original find. Those items included a watch and phone, which Moreau says the detectives missed in their search of the site.

As of now, Shelby says Jordan was last seen in Nucla, Colorado on August 16, 2021, having chatted with someone at a hardware store called Co-op Country on Main St. Shelby does say, however, that a woman believed she saw Jordan and his dog, a Pitbull mix named Lily, on Main St. in Telluride, Colorado.

In regard to his disappearance, Shelby says that aside from his wonderful, kind spirit, Jordan struggled with mental health issues. “We can only guess how all of this came to be. We may never know for sure. All we can do is take his behavior and consider the symptoms accompanied with psychosis, bipolar disorder, and the beliefs he would cling to in his mania,” Shelby said.

Jordan reportedly experienced mania for the second time in 2018, and fell into a bout of psychosis during the episode. “There is a fairly wide range of symptoms you can experience with psychosis. His include, the belief that an ordinary event has special and personal meaning, racing thoughts, excitement, excessive wordiness, delusions, persecutory delusion, religious delusion, hearing voices, memory loss, hyperactivity, restlessness,” Shelby said.

Shelby noted that a person with this condition is usually unaware of their behavior. She said that in Jordan’s case, he believed that if he made it out to California, he would be able to “find a path to the other side of the world, where his daughter lives.” She said he believed the music he was listening to was telling him where to go find her.

“We are all entitled to our own opinion but I hope that you will consider that we are searching for someone that is ill,” Shelby said. But she wants the world to know that he is not only his illness. “He is a whole person. Someone who is deeply loved. Someone who is a father, a son, and a brother.”

Within this context, Shelby said that Jordan’s struggles had gotten him into trouble in the past, and that leading up to his disappearance, she had reported him to his probation officer. She said she told the officer about his mental state at the time.

Here is a timeline of Jordan’s disappearance, according to Shelby:

• August 1, 2021 — Took Cooper (his brother’s dog) and headed down to the San Rafael Swell.
• August 3, 2021 — Picked up by a couple on an ATV, had Lily (his dog) with him. Checked out by EMTs. He was reportedly severely dehydrated, wearing a wet suit.
• August 3, 2021 — Taken by and officer to the Village Inn hotel in Huntington, Utah. Left the hotel at some point in night or morning. Shelby believes he left after overhearing the officer on the phone with his probation officer.
• August 4, 2021 — Chatted with woman working at BK’s Stop-N-Shop. Took a stolen garbage truck 300 yards behind the shop.
• Seen at Stewart’s market in Castle Dale, Utah. “Not sure if this was before he went out to the desert or after,” Shelby said.
• August 4, 2021 — Ditched garbage truck in Carbon County, Utah, then took a Jeep Renegade.
• August 4, 2021 — Tried to get a cell phone at a Verizon store in Moab, Utah. Had a confrontation with a man there. “Not sure what came first,” Shelby said.
• August 4, 2021 — Stole water from a structure in Thompson Springs, Utah. Jeep Renegade was found off I-70 at mile marker 221 in Cisco, Utah.
• August 10, 2021 — Lily believed to be seen on a trail alone near the Rimrocker Trail in Montrose County, Colorado. “Can’t find the name of this man,” Shelby said.
• August 16, 2021 — Chatted with someone in Nucla, Colorado at Co-op Country on Main St. Shelby spoke with this person and believed they had contact with Jordan due to some of the conversation mentioned.
• Sometime in the last week of August, a woman believed she saw Jordan and Lily on Main St. in Telluride, Colorado. “They distinctly remember Lily’s ears,” Shelby said.
• Before Jordan left, he was excited about a Courtney Marie Andrews concert at Soiled Dove Underground in Denver, Colorado set for September 19, 2021, Shelby said.

Cooper, the dog belonging to Jordan’s brother, was found alive 3 weeks after Jordan caught a ride on the ATV, Shelby said. This was within 30 miles from where Moreau found his belongings.

“I believe his guitar and other items became too much to carry and he had to leave them. Jordan loves animals and loved Cooper. I don’t know what happened or how he got separated from him but I don’t think he ever meant to leave him. He was manic and probably severely dehydrated. Who knows what was going on in his mind at that point,” Shelby said.

In the search for Jordan, Shelby said she hasn’t had quite the help she’s wanted from law enforcement. “The bottom line is, 600,000 people go missing each year. To them, he is a needle in a haystack.”

Jordan is described as 6’2″, 190 lbs, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. His tattoos include the Star Wars rebel symbol on the back of his right hand, a round eagle on the back of his left hand, an eagle feather attached to a daisy on his left forearm, and a bird on his upper left chest.

Moreau’s Tiktok video of his belongings has amassed 9.2 million views.

Shelby has not given up on the search for Jordan. If you have any information about Jordan, or believe that you may have seen him, please send Shelby a message on the Facebook page she created for Jordan’s case.