McRae and his son met Kipling at a church event a few days before he vanished, and McRae even helped look for him afterward. Police later found a missing person poster for Kipling in McRae’s locker.

McRae had a long history of violence. He was convicted of killing and dismembering an 8-year-old boy in Michigan when he was a teenager. He served 20 years in prison. Later, while working as a guard at a Florida prison for teens, three boys disappeared. McRae is suspected in those disappearances, too. He was eventually convicted of murdering another boy in 1987, though that conviction was overturned and then reinstated before his death in prison in 2005.

Police strongly believe McRae killed Kipling and the other missing boys, but he always claimed to be innocent. Even when offered a deal to avoid prison if he revealed where the bodies were, he refused. However, his wife said he confessed to some of the killings.

Kipling was a normal boy, involved in school, church, Scouts, and piano lessons. His case remains a mystery.