50‑Year Prison Term for James Bachmurski- Man Convicted in missing teenager Jade Colvin’s Disappearance and Death
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Jade Marie Colvin was around14 - 15 years old when she went missing. She ceased contact with friends and loved ones in March 2017 and has not been seen since.
She was approximately 5'4" tall and 127lbs, with dyed brown hair and blue eyes.
According to her aunt, Tina McLaughlin, Jade had bounced between foster families and shelters in the years before she disappeared and had run away multiple times. Despite an unstable home life, she remained close to her grandmother, whom she called at least once a month.
Like many teenagers, Jade regularly posted on social media — but in late March 2017, all updates abruptly stopped.
McLaughlin said she first became suspicious that something was wrong when Jade failed to call her grandmother on her birthday, something she would rarely miss.
After Jade’s parents separated, she moved from Texas to Iowa. Her mother, LaDawn Colvin, reportedly struggled with mental illness and addiction.
In early 2017, LaDawn began working through issues with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) while trying to establish a home in Mallard.
Investigators believe that around this time, Jade traveled to a farm in rural Winneshiek County, Iowa, owned by James David Bachmurski.
Media outlets reported that Bachmurski and LaDawn had previously dated, and investigators say he financed Jade’s trip to his property.
According to The Globe-Gazette (August 30, 2025), Jade began living with Bachmurski in March 2017 while her mother dealt with DHHS issues.
Jade was last seen in late March 2017 on Bachmurski’s farm and was officially reported missing to Des Moines police on June 10, 2017.
Later that year, Jade’s mother, LaDawn, passed away in Emmetsburg. Jade did not attend the funeral. She was never seen again, and her body has never been found.
Following her mother’s death, Tina McLaughlin pressed authorities to investigate the teenager’s disappearance.
She contacted both Des Moines and Emmetsburg police, leading to Jade’s case being added to Operation Homecoming, an initiative involving 25 missing children. While most of the children on the list were eventually located, Jade was not.
The case went cold until 2022, when Winneshiek County investigators received a tip from the U.S. Marshals Service and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The lead pointed to Bachmurski, who by then was living in Georgia.
The investigation revealed that the last person to speak with Jade was Bachmurski’s son, Bryan Bachmurski, at 12:15 a.m. on March 30, 2017.
The two had a brief conversation in which Jade said she would call Bryan during his work break at Walmart — but the call never came.
Bryan, who like Jade had grown up in foster care, said they bonded over shared experiences and their mutual love of anime. He recalled that Jade planned to stay at the farm briefly before “assuming another identity and living with another family.”
Bryan told investigators that on March 29, 2017, his father dropped him off for his night shift at Walmart around 10 p.m. Jade was in the vehicle at the time, and he assumed she would be taken to her new residence. When she didn’t return his calls or messages, he wasn’t immediately alarmed.
The following year, Bachmurski abruptly moved to Georgia without explanation. Around the same time, Bryan noticed that Jade’s pink luggage was still at the farmhouse.
Bryan questioned his father several times, but Bachmurski was evasive. Each time, he offered different stories — claiming Jade was living in various states.
According to The Globe-Gazette, Bachmurski also told his son at one point that Jade was working in the sex industry as a cam girl. When pressed further, he allegedly said, “Do you think I killed her?”
Bachmurski was arrested in August 2024 and charged with second-degree murder in connection with Jade’s disappearance.
During questioning, he told investigators it would “be bad for him” if he revealed the truth about what happened to Jade.
Initially, he claimed he had gone shopping after Jade and her mother argued, and returned to find Jade missing and strange tire tracks in his driveway.
In a later interview, he allegedly stated, “You know what? I already, a long time ago, figured I’d go to the grave before I tell the truth.”
In September 2025, following a three-and-a-half-hour jury deliberation, 66-year-old James David Bachmurski was convicted of second-degree murder in Winneshiek County.
He was sentenced the following month to 50 years in prison.