“Jade Colvin Is Missing”: 48 Hours Reports April 18 2026

CBS’s 48 Hours turns to a difficult Iowa case in Jade Colvin Is Missing, airing Saturday, April 18, 2026, at 10:00 PM ET/PT. Reported by Natalie Morales, the episode examines the disappearance of Jade Colvin, a teenager whose life had already been shaped by instability before she vanished in 2017. The program focuses on the long path from a missing persons case to a murder conviction, and on the digital evidence that helped investigators rebuild Jade’s final days after years of uncertainty.

The case is one of those investigations where the absence of a body did not end the search for answers. Jade’s relatives, friends, investigators, and prosecutors were left to piece together what happened through messages, phone records, witness testimony, recovered photographs, and the actions of the man who was the last known person to see her alive. By the time the case reached trial, the central question was no longer only where Jade had gone, but whether the evidence proved she had been killed.

• Who Was Jade Colvin & What Happened to Her? 2026 Update & Background
• Who Is James Bachmurski & Where Is He Now? 2026 Update & Background

Jade Colvin’s Life Before She Vanished

Jade Colvin was a teenager whose early life was marked by instability. Court records and later testimony described a young girl who moved between homes, spent time in foster care, and had a history of running away. She had ties to Iowa, Arizona, and Texas, and her family situation was affected by her mother’s mental health and substance abuse problems. Those circumstances shaped the way people understood her disappearance from the start, because her past made it easier for others to assume she had simply left again.

That history also complicated the search for her. Reports described Jade as someone who had used aliases, changed locations, and gone off the radar before. But prosecutors later argued that her earlier disappearances were not proof that she chose to vanish in 2017. Instead, they said those facts showed how vulnerable she was. Jade was still only 15 when her known communications stopped, and the state’s position was that her pattern of instability did not explain the total silence that followed her final days in Decorah.

The Farm Near Decorah and Jade’s Final Days

Jade ended up at a rural farm south of Decorah connected to James Bachmurski, a former partner of her mother. According to court records and testimony, Bachmurski had been in electronic contact with Jade before she arrived. Prosecutors said he had been messaging with her for about a month and had helped bring her to the property. The farm became the center of the case because it was the last place where Jade was known to be alive.

During that short period in March 2017, Jade relied in part on Bachmurski’s phone because her own phone did not get reliable service at the farm. Investigators later established that her last confirmed message was sent on March 30, 2017. After that, her communications stopped. That date became central to the state’s timeline. Prosecutors argued that Jade effectively disappeared from the face of the earth that day, while the defense claimed she may have left on her own and gone into hiding.

The Investigation and the Discovery on an Old Cell Phone

For years, Jade’s case remained unresolved. A major shift came when authorities reopened the investigation in 2022. The U.S. Marshals Service had taken up her missing persons case as part of a broader effort, and investigators began focusing on Jade’s time at Bachmurski’s farm. That renewed attention led local law enforcement, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and federal authorities to reexamine the evidence and the people connected to her final known movements.

One of the most important breakthroughs came from an old cell phone recovered from property Bachmurski had stored after selling his farm. Investigators were able to recover deleted material from that phone, including images that showed Jade at the farm and at a local restaurant. Those photographs helped establish that she had in fact been on the property during the final week of her life. The phone also yielded communications that had been deleted, allowing investigators to reconstruct parts of the relationship between Jade, her mother, and Bachmurski. In a case with no body and no confession, that digital trail became one of the strongest foundations of the prosecution.

The Case Against James Bachmurski

James Bachmurski was a former Winneshiek County man who owned hundreds of acres near Decorah and operated a corn maze business. After Jade disappeared, he later sold the farm and moved to Georgia. Prosecutors argued that Bachmurski was the last person to see Jade alive and that he gave shifting and false explanations about what happened after March 30, 2017. They also argued that he had taken an unusual interest in Jade before she arrived in Iowa, a point the defense strongly disputed.

The case against him was built through circumstantial evidence, but it was extensive. Testimony showed that Jade’s suitcase remained at the farm after she was supposedly gone. Witnesses described statements Bachmurski made over time that raised questions about whether he knew she was dead. One of the most damaging lines came from a recorded conversation in which he said he thought Jade was dead and added that he did not think it happened right away. In another interview cited at trial, prosecutors highlighted his statement that he would go to the grave before telling the truth. The state used those words, along with the timeline, deleted evidence, and Jade’s complete silence after March 30, to argue that Bachmurski killed her.

The Defense and the Question of Whether Jade Could Still Be Alive

The defense tried to persuade jurors that Jade had the motive and ability to disappear on her own. Lawyers pointed to her history of running away, a handwritten plan about how to vanish, and communications suggesting she may have wanted to avoid authorities and remain out of sight until adulthood. They argued that there was no direct proof of death, no body, no known cause of death, and no forensic finding that tied Bachmurski to a homicide.

Defense attorneys also challenged the meaning of the phone evidence and alleged sighting reports that surfaced after Jade’s disappearance. They argued that some deleted material on the recovered phone was unrelated and that investigators did not fully pursue every report that suggested Jade might still be alive. Their position was that suspicion was not proof, and that the state had failed to eliminate the possibility that Jade left the farm voluntarily. It was a no-body murder defense that centered on reasonable doubt, but jurors ultimately rejected it.

Trial, Conviction, and Sentence

James Bachmurski went on trial in 2025, and the prosecution asked jurors to look at the totality of the evidence. They argued that Jade had survived years of instability and upheaval until the short period when she was under Bachmurski’s control at the farm. The state said the abrupt end to all known communication, the abandoned belongings, the false statements, and the recovered digital evidence pointed to one conclusion: Jade Colvin was dead, and Bachmurski was responsible.

Jurors returned a unanimous verdict finding Bachmurski guilty of second-degree murder in September 2025 after several hours of deliberation. He was later sentenced to 50 years in prison and must serve at least 35 years before he is eligible for parole. Reports state that he is serving that sentence at Anamosa State Penitentiary. Jade’s body has never been found, and Iowa’s missing persons record remains active pending recovery and positive identification of her remains. That detail underscores the painful reality of the case: there was a conviction, but there is still no grave and no final physical recovery.

Why Jade Colvin Is Missing Stands Out

48 Hours often returns to cases where one key piece of evidence reshapes the investigation, and Jade Colvin Is Missing fits that pattern. The episode appears to focus on how a long-cold case was revived through digital forensics and persistent investigative work. Interviews with Jade’s family and friends, along with investigators such as Detective Cheryl Nablo, Special Agent Jon Turbett, Deputy U.S. Marshal Justin Wallace, and Detective Chris Wuebker, give the story both personal and investigative weight.

What gives this case its force is the contrast between how Jade was seen in life and what the evidence later showed. Her instability made her easier to overlook. Her history of running away gave room for doubt. But the prosecution’s case, and now the television episode, tells a different story. It presents Jade not as a child who slipped away without a trace by choice, but as a missing teenager whose final days were hidden in deleted messages, old photographs, and years of silence. The conviction answered the legal question, but the case still carries the unresolved pain that comes with a missing child whose remains have never been brought home.