Overview

Last contact: October 23, 2016 — Cheyenne/Laramie County, Wyoming, according to current NamUs-linked records.

Presumed death: Investigators believe Silas died during the October 20–23, 2016 period in Cheyenne. Rogers pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after saying Silas fell from a counter while in his care; investigators also developed evidence concerning alleged abuse and methamphetamine exposure.

Remains: Rogers said Silas’s body was placed in a dumpster. Trash from the dumpster was transported to a landfill near Ault in Weld County, Colorado. Extensive searches failed to recover Silas.

Current status: Silas remains listed as missing, NamUs MP #99933. The Sheriff’s Office publicly described the investigation as open in 2022, and Silas was added to the Doe Network as 7173DMWY in April 2026.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Silas Anthony Ojeda: The 2016 Cheyenne, Wyoming Disappearance and Presumed Death

Thirteen-month-old Silas Anthony Ojeda disappeared from Cheyenne, Wyoming, in October 2016. What began as a missing-child investigation quickly became a presumed-death case after investigators received changing accounts from the man caring for Silas and gathered evidence that authorities believed indicated the toddler had died.

Silas’s remains have never been recovered. Nearly a decade later, he continues to appear in missing-person resources, and the circumstances surrounding where his body was taken remain unresolved.

Silas Ojeda’s Last Known Days in Cheyenne

Silas was born August 28, 2015, and was just 13 months old when he disappeared. Current NamUs-linked information lists his date of last contact as October 23, 2016, in Cheyenne, Laramie County, Wyoming. Other investigative records describe events beginning several days earlier, which is why historical sources sometimes give October 20, 21, 22, or 23 as significant dates in the case.

One witness told investigators that he had seen Silas around October 17 or 18 and observed concerning injuries, including a split lip, swelling to part of his face and difficulty holding his head up. Silas’s mother reportedly attributed his injuries to falls while he was learning to walk. Authorities ultimately came to believe that Silas had been abused and had died.

Silas Is Reported Missing

Silas’s grandfather reported him missing on October 26, 2016, after learning that the child had not been seen for several days. Investigators then focused on Logan Hunter Rogers, who was the boyfriend of Silas’s mother and had been caring for the toddler during the period surrounding his disappearance.

Investigators said Rogers gave several conflicting explanations for where Silas had gone. One version involved a man named Santiago supposedly taking the child fishing or camping. Another account implicated members of a motorcycle club.

Police investigated those explanations before Rogers eventually gave investigators an entirely different account involving Silas’s death.

Rogers Describes Silas’s Death

According to investigative and court-related accounts, Rogers eventually said Silas had fallen from a counter and suffered a head injury while in his care. Rogers described the child subsequently suffering a seizure and dying.

Authorities also alleged that Silas had been exposed to methamphetamine. Rogers told investigators that he had been around methamphetamine during the period surrounding the toddler’s death. A child-endangerment charge involving exposure to a controlled substance was originally filed along with the manslaughter charge.

Rogers told investigators that after Silas died, he placed the toddler’s body in a trash container. Investigators determined that garbage collected from the container would have been transported to a landfill near Ault, Colorado, in Weld County.

The Search for Silas at an Ault, Colorado Landfill

On November 1, 2016, investigators began a massive search at the northern Colorado landfill. Personnel from the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office, Wyoming Army National Guard and other agencies participated.

Search teams were faced with an extraordinarily difficult task. Contemporary reporting described investigators working through a massive volume of compacted refuse in an attempt to locate the 13-month-old child. Despite the effort, Silas was not found.

Additional searches around Cheyenne also failed to locate his remains. Divers later searched a pond outside Cheyenne, again without finding Silas.

Current Wyoming missing-person information states that investigators believe Silas is deceased and that his body was disposed of in a Laramie County dumpster before the contents were transported to a Weld County landfill. The current case summary further states that there is no credible evidence indicating his remains are located somewhere else.

Guilty Plea and Prison Sentence for Logan Rogers

On November 18, 2016, Rogers pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection with Silas’s death. As part of the plea arrangement, the separate child-endangerment charge involving exposure to methamphetamine was dismissed.

In March 2017, Rogers received a sentence of 18 to 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence reported for the manslaughter offense. During sentencing, however, Rogers reversed course and claimed that his guilty plea had been coerced and that Silas was actually alive. The assertion conflicted with his previous admissions and with investigators’ assessment of the evidence.

Rogers appealed. On October 25, 2017, the Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s judgment and sentence. The court record identifies the appellate matter as Logan Hunter Rogers v. State of Wyoming, docket S-17-0124, 2017 WY 126.

Why the Silas Ojeda Case Remained Open

A conviction did not answer the central unresolved question: Where is Silas?

In October 2017, Laramie County officials said the investigation remained active. The district attorney said investigators continued receiving pieces of information, while emphasizing that Rogers had provided so many different versions of events that his statements were difficult to rely upon.

The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office again confirmed in June 2022 that the investigation remained open. An agency official also said investigators had a person of interest, but declined to publicly identify that person or provide further details. Silas’s body still had not been recovered.

Latest Publicly Available Information

The case remains represented in current missing-person databases. Current NamUs-linked records identify Silas as NamUs MP #99933, list him as missing from Cheyenne and use October 23, 2016 as his date of last contact.

A 2024 review of Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation missing-person cases still identified Silas among Laramie County’s missing people and described him as believed to have been the victim of foul play.

There has also been a recent addition to national case-awareness resources. On April 25, 2026, the Doe Network added Silas Anthony Ojeda to its missing-person database as 7173DMWY.

As of August 2026, publicly available records reviewed for this article reveal no announcement that Silas’s remains have been recovered and no public announcement closing the investigation. Current case resources therefore continue to treat the location of his remains as unresolved.

A Child Still Missing

Silas Anthony Ojeda was only 13 months old when he vanished from Cheyenne. The criminal case resulted in a manslaughter conviction and lengthy prison sentence, but investigators never recovered the child whose death was at the center of that prosecution.

The unresolved location of Silas’s remains means the case occupies an unusual position: there has been a conviction connected to his presumed death, while Silas himself continues to be listed among Wyoming’s missing.

Anyone with credible information concerning Silas Ojeda, the disposal of his remains, or events surrounding his disappearance should provide that information directly to the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office rather than posting investigative tips publicly.