Terrence Shemel Woods Jr.

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Idaho County Sheriffs Office (ID)

Missing From:

Orogrande, Idaho

Summary:

Terrence Shamel Woods Jr., 26, a TV production assistant, disappeared on October 5, 2018, while filming with a British TV crew from Raw TV near Orogrande, Idaho. Despite extensive search efforts involving dogs, ground searchers, and helicopters, no trace of him has been found. The case is considered an active missing persons investigation.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

On October 5, 2018, the crew went out to start filming the Penman Mines documentary in Orogrande, Nez Perce National Forest, Idaho. Woods' last post on social media was a picture of a forest captioned with one word, "Idaho." According to crew members, Woods reportedly started to act strange that day and attempted to "grab a drone out of the sky." He was also said to have had an anxiety attack earlier that morning although he wasn't known by family to suffer from anxiety. Around 5:30 pm, as the filming crew was packing up and ending production for the day, Woods told one of the two local women, who had been helping with transport, that he needed to use the bathroom. Soon after, Woods suddenly left the group and ran down a steep cliff. He took his belt off, along with his radio, and dropped it on the ground before disappearing into the woods. Terrence's disappearance was reported to the Idaho County Sheriff's Office at 6:41PM that same evening. According to an update posted to its Facebook page, due to "the late hour of the report", the search for Terrence did not begin until the following day. According to Woods Sr., his son’s suitcase was neatly packed when authorities found it. The only odd item was a pair of muddy shoes. The fact that the suitcase was packed though does seem to indicate that Woods Jr. was indeed planning to leave the set soon. It was discovered that on the day he disappeared, Woods Jr. requested to leave the set on October 10 because his mother was “unwell” and was having surgery. However, his mother had no such surgery scheduled. Woods Sr. thinks this an indication that his son wanted to leave for some reason, stating, “If he told them his mother was having a so-called emergency surgery, he wanted to leave.”

Additional Details:

Search teams made up of dogs, ground searchers on foot and all-terrain vehicles – along with helicopter teams that could detect body heat – were sent out. Unable to find any trace of Terrence, the search was called off after six days. Police found no evidence for foul play in Terrence Woods Jr.'s disappearance. "No leads were obtained from the previous seven days of searching, and no signs of Mr. Woods have been located in the search area or the expanded search area," the sheriff's office said in a statement in October 2018. In 2018, Woods returned to the US and was living at his father's home in Maryland. He worked as a production assistant on television crews. On September 30, 2018, Terrence Woods Jr. was dropped off by his father at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Washington. He took a flight to Montana for work, and called his father upon arrival to tell him everything was OK. Then, on October 3, 2018, Woods called his father and unexpectedly said he was coming home early but didn't explain why. Woods, along with the filming crew, arrived in Idaho the next day and everything seemed normal. Douglas Giddings, who was the Idaho County Sheriff at the time of Terrence’s disappearance confirmed witness accounts of [Terrence] being in Idaho. “We have all the people that talked with him and had dinner with him,” Giddings said. “So the probability of him not being here is really not very likely.” He was described as a "happy-go-lucky" person who loved to travel and spend time with his family. As the search for Terrence continued, his parents flew from Maryland to Idaho to meet with investigators. At the sheriff's department, they spoke with Raw TV producer Simon Gee, who had been on set and witnessed Terrence running into the woods. Although Woods Sr. might not know exactly what happened to his son, he told Dateline he knows his son would never take off on his own and he is never going to stop fighting for answers. His case was featured in a segment of America's Most Wanted: Missing Persons at 8PM ET on MONDAY MAY 12 on FOX.

Case Last Updated:

Oct 01, 2026