By JACKIE TAYLOR | September 23, 2026

Linn County News

Jackielcn1@gmail.com

Sometimes tales…tails, have a way of weaving experiences that are more than what seems to be; and the tale of this rescue is one of those stories.

A dog that became known as Lily, a pit bull mix six-year-old dog, was found in Mound City Sept. 3; that, after she ran through wet concrete at Ed Wilson’s house near the ball fields. 

Megan Purvis, a volunteer with Dirt Road Rescue, said that Mound City Police Chief Paul McKee was called and he picked the dog up and took her to the pound.

Purvis said once the dog was in the pound, she scanned her for a microchip and found that she had one. “Within 15 minutes we had a call from Utah; the girl [identified as Kortney Shorts] said, ‘I got a message you might have my dog.’”

Shorts told Purvis that the dog had been missing five years and explained that her boyfriend at the time, Jordan Boone, took the dog, Lily, and disappeared – never to be seen again.

Now, a mystery has surfaced as Boone’s remains were found in a Utah desert in March of 2024; he’d been missing since 2021.

Family members started a Facebook missing person’s page for Boone, which tells a portion of the sordid story; it begins, “I am the sister of missing person, Timothy Jordan Boone. Last week, @ry_of_the_desert found some of my brother’s belongings out in the desert. His video has amassed 6 million views and has reached FAR beyond the Facebook page (Missing: Jordan Boone and Lily the pit mix dog) that I run on behalf of my brother and family. 

“I’ve gotten a lot of recommendations on how to move forward with this renewal of interest in Jordan’s disappearance. Thank you all and I am working on that! 

“First, I hope you will look back on this missing person’s Facebook page and read up on Jordan’s history of mental illness. Because we are asking the public for help in finding him, I do not want it to appear like we are trying to hide anything. I’ve already touched on his arson charges from when he was psychotic in 2018. I think it’s important to address what happened after Jordan left the hotel in Huntington, Utah. 

“Weeks before he even left Salt Lake City, we reported him to his probation officer, letting him know of his mental state. His probation officer said he called Jordan but he didn’t answer. That was that. We believe Jordan overheard the officer (that put him up in the hotel) talking to his probation officer (he was supposed to be off probation around August 6, 2021. So, within just a few days of when the officer put him up in the hotel). Jordan had not done anything illegal at that point in time and the officer that helped him out with the hotel room, did not perceive him as a threat. He seemed to think he was kind and funny. My mother was persistent in asking him to not leave him alone. She told him she feared he would have to beg or steal because he had no way of paying for anything. We were under the impression that the probation officer was going to go pick Jordan up that next morning. Otherwise, we would have. We later found out that he had no intentions to do so because, again, he hadn’t done anything illegal and Jordan was within a few days of being off probation.

“At some point in the night or next morning, Jordan left the hotel room and walked to a nearby convenience store. He spoke to the woman at the counter for 15 to 20 minutes and she gave his dog, Lily, some water. About 300 yards behind this convenience store, there were water and garbage trucks parked with the keys left inside. Jordan took one of those trucks and abandoned it in Price, Utah, a little while later. It was then reported that a Jeep Renegade was stolen in that same area. In an arrest warrant (you can find online), it states that Jordan pulled onto some private property. He got out of the vehicle and walked around the passenger side to look in the glove box. The man shouted out to him that he was on private property and he could not park there. Jordan shouted back that he was not on private property. We obviously do not know exactly how this confrontation played out. In the affidavit, it states that Jordan got back in the vehicle and aimed the vehicle to hit the man. He did hit him. The man got up and got in his truck and tried to follow him but he drove off too fast and he couldn’t catch up. 

“If you look at a map. It makes sense that he would have gone to the Verizon store in Moab after this confrontation. Thompson Springs, Utah, had sentimental meaning to Jordan. Officers had told us that someone had broken into some sort of structure out there and taken water. Because of the recent storms, they could see dog prints and Redwing boot (Jordan’s hiking shoes were Redwings) footprints in the mud. The jeep was later found out of gas, off the side of the highway at mile marker 21 in Cisco, Utah. If he would have continued on, it would make sense that people would have seen him walking in Fruita, Grand Junction, Montrose, and Nucla, Colorado. This all occurred on August 4th. After, his van got stuck.”

Dirt Road Rescue volunteer Purvis continued the tale and said, “Years ago, Lily disappeared with someone she loved. Despite efforts to find them, there were no answers. Two years later, Lily’s person was sadly found, deceased. Everyone believed that Lily hadn’t survived. 

“And then, somehow… in 2026, Lily turned up as a stray in rural Mound City, Kan., hundreds of miles away. Four years missing. An entire story that we still don’t know. 

“But we do know how this story ends...

“In just a couple of weeks, Lily is going home. She’ll finally be reunited with the mom who never stopped loving her, even when she believed she was gone forever.”

Purvis commented that the mystery of Lily the pit-mix dog was not over. “And there is one more piece of this mystery we’d love to solve. How did Lily get from Utah to Mound City, Kan.? If you have any information about Lily’s journey or know how she may have ended up here, please reach out. Everyone involved would love to have that final piece of closure.”

Purvis and fellow Dirt Road Rescue volunteer Janet Jackson completed the next chapter of Lily’s journey when they met Shorts in Loveland, Colo., on Saturday, Sept. 19 as Loveland is halfway for Purvis and Shorts, who now lives in Boise, Idaho, to meet.

The meeting was successful and Shorts got to reunite with Lily before taking her back to her forever home in Idaho.

If you want to donate to Dirt Road Rescue whether with cash, pet food or supplies, find them on Facebook or reach out to Megan Purvis, Janet Jackson or Melayna Johnson for more information.

Purvis mentioned the rescue will be holding a chipping event in the near future – Lily was just one example of a success story because of the use of chip technology.