JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — On the website for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, go all the way back to the beginning of Florida cases and a black and white photo of a young boy sits at the front of the line.
Three-year-old, Jonathan Hagans was affectionally called "Jon Jon." His is the oldest missing child case in Florida and one of the oldest in the nation.
It all began in Jacksonville Beach the evening of June 11, 1968.
"I remember the day vividly," Joe Hagans III, Jon Jon's older brother, said.
Hagans was five-years old at the time and says he, his older sister Susan, one of her friends and Jon Jon along with his parents, aunt and uncle were at a small snack shop near the beach access at 16th Ave South. The kids were outside near the top of a ramp that lead down to the beach, while the adults were inside by a window.
"So they could see us sitting there," Hagans said.
He says he remembers Jon Jon wanted to go back inside the restaurant.
"I watched him walk back to the door, there was a little door on the side, almost like a little screen door type thing," Hagans says. "He reached up and opened the door and I turned around facing back toward the ocean."
He says about five to 10 minutes later his father came out and asked where Jon Jon was. The children responded, he should be in the restaurant and that's when Joe recalls he saw his father start to panic.
"He went into a hunting frenzy, my mom then found out he was missing and she broke down," he says.
Police were called, lifeguards dispatched to the area and even the Navy sent a helicopter to search - but there was no trace of Jon Jon.
Searches of the water continued for five days, but no body was ever recovered. Though his parents were told Jon Jon likely had drowned, Joel Hagans says his parents didn't believe that was the case.
"There was not one person that said they saw him going toward the water, but there were several people that said they saw him going back toward the snack shack," Joel Hagans said, Jon Jon's younger brother.
The family believed he was kidnapped.
"There's a lot of roadblocks to a case this old," tells Det. Cpl. Yvonne Warren with the Jacksonville Beach Police Department.
Det. Cpl. Warren says in the 56 years since this happened, the landscape has changed at the 16th Ave South access. Some witnesses have died and for others their memories faded, so she has poured through the reports from multiple investigators over the last five decades to gain insight on what happened that night.
"Susan was down closer toward the water, she doesn't report seeing him down by the water?" First Coast News' Katie Jeffries asked.
"Not according to the reports I've seen," Warren said.
"Is there anybody that reported seeing Jon Jon talking to anyone at the restaurant or walking with anyone?" Jeffries asked.
"Not that I am aware of, not that I have seen in any of the reports from back then."
He had seemingly vanished and until there is proof he died, she says they will continue to investigate it as a missing person's case. An age-progressed photo of what Jonathan Hagans may look like today was released by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Hagans would be 59 years old currently.
The Hagans family says they are hoping DNA databases could help.
"My brother Joe and my sister Julie have their DNA in the databases, multiple databases," tells Joel.
So far, there have been no matches, but Det. Cpl. Warren says in addition to DNA, she hopes exposure of this case will help bring in new leads. That someone might remember Jon Jon's face from 1968.
"Think back to then, did somebody show up with a child that didn't have a child before? Maybe they made up some story that they had to take in a child," tells Det. Cpl. Warren," If there is something where someone showed up with a child they didn't have before and that child is him [holding up a photo of Jonathan Hagans] then I would hope somebody could see this and call us."
It could potentially reunite a family that has been searching for 56 years.
"We have definitely not given up hope," tells Joel Hagans," We are still optimistic, we do realize the odds are stacked against finding him."
If you know anything about the disappearance of Jonathan Hagans in 1968, you are urged to contact the Jacksonville Beach Police Department at 904-270-1661.