BARABOO, Wis. — Thursday marked two years since the disappearance of 13-year-old James Yoblonski.
His father, Bill Yoblonski, keeps busy at his golf cart business in the Wisconsin Dells. He said he’s never able to stop thinking about his son.
“The more I think about him, the harder it is just to function,” Bill Yoblonski said.
He said he believes someone has James Yoblonski.
“I know somebody’s got him somewhere and I keep begging that they would let him go,” Bill Yoblonski said.“I know somebody’s got him somewhere and I keep begging that they would let him go,” Bill Yoblonski said. “That’s all I’m asking is let him go.”
The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office declined an interview and said there are no updates to this case. After James Yoblonski was recently featured on “America’s Most Wanted: Missing Persons,” the sheriff’s office confirmed they got a few new tips, but all of them ended up being dead ends.
“I think he was coaxed into leaving,” Bill Yoblonski said. “I mean, there were no arguments or anything that Sunday before he left. Nothing.”
Home surveillance video shows James Yoblonski leaving his house early on June 12, 2023, in his father’s van. That van was later found parked along Highway 12 in Baraboo.
About 300 feet from the highway, investigators found a campsite with clothes, toiletries and Bill Yoblonski’s phone that James Yoblonski had taken. James Yoblonski was nowhere to be found.
A Facebook page called “Missing: James Yoblonski” still shares reminders that this is an active investigation. Wendy Ward Sellers joined the group when James Yoblonski first disappeared. As a mom, she said this case breaks her heart.
“The main thing I kept focusing on was James,” Ward Sellers said. “He was a child who was now out in the world alone, or with someone, and I kept thinking what a horrible situation it was that he was in. Whatever that situation was.”
Ward Sellers said the Facebook group sends the case to podcasters and other groups, hoping for more visibility, and a tip that will lead to James.
“Our goal is to keep attention on the story and to either spark someone’s memory or spark someone’s conscious so that they will come forward with that bit of information that’s needed to find James,” Ward Sellers said.
Finding him is a hope that Bill Yoblonski said he will never give up on, as he prepares to mark another Father’s Day without his son.
“I believe he’s alive,” he said. “I’m hopeful that he’ll come home soon.”
Anyone with information should call Sauk County Crime Stoppers at 1 (888) 847-7285, or text “tipsauk” to 274637.
You can also report your tip online here.
