Jeremy Bright

As of 2017, Bright remains missing, and is presumed dead by his family. In an obituary for Bright's maternal uncle, who died in Pendleton, Oregon in 2010, it was written that he was preceded in death "most probably his oldest nephew, Jeremy Bright who has been a missing child since August, 1986." In August 2011, his family held a formal memorial service in his memory.

In October 2016, a pond on private property approximately 25 miles (40 km) from Myrtle Point was searched after a tip was received that Bright may have been disposed of there; the search, however, proved fruitless.

In August 2011, Bright's family stated they presumed him dead and held a formal memorial service in his memory. As of 2020, his whereabouts remain unknown.

A local man who had babysat Bright during his childhood, Terry Lee Steinhoff, was considered a suspect in his disappearance after Steinhoff was convicted of murdering a 32-year-old woman; there had been reports that Bright was seen in Steinhoff's truck the day he disappeared. However, Steinhoff died in prison in 2007.

Per a 2007 report, Bright's mother has resided in Florida since 1998, but returns to Myrtle Point each summer to assist in search efforts.

Initially, local law enforcement suspected foul play in Bright's case; however, within the week following his disappearance, several reported sightings of him in the area led detectives to reverse this decision, and he was temporarily classified as a runaway. Numerous theories and rumors circulated in Myrtle Point following Bright's disappearance, which were detailed in a 1989 segment on Unsolved Mysteries. Among them were that he overdosed on a drug at a party and his body had been disposed of by those present; another that he had been shot by local men while swimming in the Coquille River, who attempted to nurse him back to health, but buried his body in a shallow grave after he succumbed to the wound. Law enforcement conducted searches of property in correspondence with these rumors, but found no evidence leading to Bright's discovery.

According to some accounts, Bright was last seen in the passenger's seat of a truck owned by a young man named Terry Lee Steinhoff, who at one time babysat Bright. In January 1989, a week after the case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries, Steinhoff was charged in the stabbing death of 32-year-old Patricia Morris and police considered Steinhoff a potential suspect in Bright's disappearance. Steinhoff died in prison in 2007 of a heroin overdose.

In August 1988, filming began for a segment on Bright’s disappearance for the series Unsolved Mysteries. The episode aired in January 1989.

In August 1986, fourteen-year-old Jeremy Bright, a resident of Grants Pass, Oregon, was staying in Myrtle Point with his stepfather and younger sister. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Bright had been raised in Myrtle Point. On Wednesday, August 13, Bright attended the Coos County Fair with his friend, Johnny Fish. That day, he called his mother, Diane, from a payphone, and made plans for her to pick him and his 10-year-old sister, S'te (es-tEE), up in Myrtle Point on August 15. Later the same day, Bright met with his stepfather at a tavern owned by his grandmother, and was given money to attend the fair the next day. This was the last time he was seen by his stepfather or grandmother.

Law enforcement initially suspected foul play in Bright's disappearance, but on August 23, 1986, less than one week after his disappearance, it was announced that they were no longer suspecting foul play due to alleged sightings of Bright in the days after he disappeared, some of which were reported as late as August 16 or 17. Law enforcement believed that Bright may have run away with the traveling carnival. Alternately, several individuals (including S'te) had reported prior that they witnessed Bright be "forcibly removed" by a man near the fairgrounds' ferris wheel between 1:00 and 1:30 p.m.

Numerous wells in the Myrtle Point area were searched following Bright's disappearance after an anonymous tip was submitted in mid-August 1986, which stated Bright's body was in an area well. Another unfruitful tip was given to law enforcement which suggested they "follow a road to a concrete bridge in western Nebraska." Another tip was received leading investigators to young man named Jeremy Bright who was working for a circus company in Florida, where many traveling carnivals and circuses relocate during winter months, but the man was determined to be someone else from Colorado who shared the same name.

Jeremy Doland Bright (born May 25, 1972 – disappeared August 14, 1986) is an American teenager who disappeared under mysterious circumstances while attending the Coos County Fair in Myrtle Point, Oregon. At the time of his disappearance, Bright resided in Grants Pass, and had been visiting family in Myrtle Point. On August 14, 1986, he attended the Coos County Fair with his younger sister. During the day, the two separated, but he failed to meet her that afternoon at the carnival's ferris wheel. Several witnesses reported seeing Bright forcibly removed from the area by an unknown man, though these sightings were not confirmed.