Family still haunted by Rawlins welding student’s 1983 disappearance

RAWLINS — When John Boutin vanished from Rawlins in 1983, the world kept churning as if nothing had changed. At least that’s how it felt to his tight-knit family, who said it was as if nobody was taking his disappearance seriously. The 24-year-old welding student was one week away from obtaining his certificate but had made cryptic allegations about illegal activity at the welding shop where he trained, including falsified timesheets and theft, which he’d been secretly documenting in a notebook.

Boutin was officially reported missing by his welding instructor on Jan. 13, with the date last seen recorded as Jan. 6. He left behind all his possessions. His family’s own investigation revealed questionable timecards, missing pages from a notebook, and inconsistent accounts from the shop owner and instructor. The shop owner, Gerald “Jerry” Williams, served a 10-year prison sentence for homicide in Texas three years after Boutin disappeared and has since died.

Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken said the case is still open, but he has very little to go on without direct access to Boutin’s missing person case file, which hasn’t been located. He encourages anyone with information to come forward. Boutin’s sister, Chris Weber, said the family would just like to locate his remains and finally bring him home. “I grabbed him and hung on to him,” she recalled of their last meeting. “I said, ‘Johnny, please don’t go.’ I just had an overwhelming feeling that this was a bad deal.” Anyone with information is asked to call the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office at 307-324-2776 or DCI at 307-777-7181.