No results in Johnley Pond search for Wesley Dixon Jones
By Griffin Beach on Thursday, December 11th, 2025 in Columbia Basin News Columbia Basin Top Stories
MISSION – An FBI dive team searched Johnley Pond on the Umatilla Indian Reservation Dec. 3, but it yielded no results in the search for Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation member Wesley Dixon Jones who’s been missing since Oct. 5.
The pond is located along Johnley Road north of the Umatilla River near Cayuse. The 30-foot-deep pond is a former rock quarry, and according to the release has become an illegal dump site, shooting range, and party spot. Over the last year there’s been efforts from CTUIR to clean the site, including removing three vehicles from it on April 12.
Umatilla Tribal Police (UTPD) Det. William Morris said the search involved a five-member team with boats and specialized equipment, including an underwater drone.
“They had other equipment that they were using, too,” said Morris in a release from CTUIR. “But using their specialized equipment they did not detect anything that resembled human remains.”
The pond was searched because of anomaly detected during a search conducted by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIW) Search and Hope Alliance from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. During that search, sonar equipment was used in deeper pools of water along the Umatilla River and Johnley Pond.
“Anomaly does not necessarily mean human remains or remains of any kind. It’s something that could be remains,” Morris said. “They (FBI) were following up on information that was yielded during the MMIW search.”
He says the latest search took approximately half a day, and no other anomalies were detected.
Morris says the investigation is ongoing, but no additional searches have been scheduled. There are currently no plans to expand the search perimeter.
Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call UTPD at 541-278-0550.
A FBI dive team begins searching for missing Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) member Wesley Dixon Jones on Dec. 3 at Johnley Pond near the Cayuse community. Photo courtesy of UTPD.
