text: DeOrr Kunz Jr.'s parents (Photo: Paul Boehlke/KTVB) 
   
   LEMHI COUNTY -- The Lemhi County sheriff announced Monday that the parents of missing toddler DeOrr Kunz Jr. have been named suspects in his disappearance. 
   
   Sheriff Lynn Bowerman told KTVB that Jessica Mitchell and Deorr Kunz Sr. have been "less than truthful" since the investigation began. 
   
   "They refused to give us any further information to clear up the untruthfulness and they've changed their story on numerous occasions," he said. 
   
   DeOrr Kunz Jr. was reported missing July 10, 2015. His parents told authorities the boy disappeared during a family camping trip near Leadore. Search teams combed the area, but found no trace of the toddler. 
   
   MORE: New details released in missing 2-year-old, DeOrr Kunz Jr., case 
   
   Bowerman said he believes DeOrr's parents know where he is and whether he is dead or alive. 
   
   "They're not able to tell the same story twice because they've told so many stories, you know, getting changes in the story all the time," he said. 
   
   
   
   Bowerman says when he confronted the parents, they refused to give any additional information to clear up their inconsistencies. 
   
   The pair are not under arrest, and no warrants have been issued. Bowerman said he has met with prosecutors, the FBI and the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office and plans to take his time and make sure the case is solid before bringing charges against Mitchell and Kunz. 
   
   "We don't feel that the arrest is imminent, but we're leaving all options open," he said. "We don't want to jeopardize the investigation and charge them too early, for fear that we might find DeOrr and it might change." 
   
   Private investigators with Klein Investigations and Consulting hired by the family said earlier this month they had ruled out the possibility of an abduction or attack by a wild animal in DeOrr's disappearance. 
   
   Bowerman said he still hopes the public can help investigators by contacting authorities with any information that could help the investigation. 
   
   "We're asking the public at this time to come forward with any information that they might have concerning the parents and their interaction with their son DeOrr that they might have witnessed," he said. 
   
   The sheriff stressed that the naming of suspects in the case did not mean the hunt for the toddler was being pushed to a back burner. 
   
   "I want to find Deorr. That's my top priority. He's my victim here. That's my goal is to find Deorr Kunz and to solve this investigation," said Bowerman. 
   
   DeOrr is now three years old. He was two when he disappeared, but he turned three on Dec. 30. 
   
   The sheriff says he was holding off naming the parents as suspects because he wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, and to see if any other information would come out that would prove otherwise. 
   
   Sheriff reponds to fundraising questions 
   
   Bowerman also says he wanted to release this information because his office has gotten a lot of calls from the public about whether they should donate money to help find DeOrr. 
   
   On Jan. 16, the family held a dinner, raffle, auction to help raise money to pay for the private investigator. 
   
   Trina Clegg, Jessica Mitchell's mother and DeOrr's grandmother, says the family has raised $15,000, and every penny of that is going to pay for the private investigator out of Texas. 
   
   We asked the sheriff about fundraising efforts, here is what he had to say: 
   
   "I'm getting a lot of calls from the public - should we donate money to help find Deorr Kunz? And I can't honestly say yes or no knowing that the family is less than truthful. I think it's only fair that the public knows that they are suspects that we are continuing our investigation and that they aren't being truthful." 
   
   DeOrr's grandmother says the family is no longer asking for money, but the website -- Miracles For Little Man -- will remain online. 
   
   Trina Clegg says someone else is running the website. Any future money that comes in will go toward other missing children's cases. 
   
   Click here to see all of KTVB's continuing coverage of this search. 
   
   Read or Share this story: http://on.ktvb.com/1RIYUFE ||||| What DeOrr Kunz and Jessica Mitchell told us after their son disappeared 
   
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   Updated at 11:34 am, January 25th, 2016 By: Nate Eaton, EastIdahoNews.com 
   
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   IDAHO FALLS — Since their son disappeared on July 10, DeOrr Kunz Sr. and Jessica Mitchell have consistently said they don’t know what happened to their two-year-old boy. 
   
   In their only on-camera interview, recorded three days after DeOrr went missing, the couple shared their account of what they say happened during the camping trip. 
   
   The video above is their unedited conversation with EastIdahoNews.com reporter Nate Eaton. ||||| LEADORE, Idaho (KBOI) -- The Lemhi County Sheriff's Office has officially named the parents of missing toddler DeOrr Kunz as suspects in the boy's disappearance. 
   
   Sheriff Lynn Bowerman told KBOI 2News on Monday that Jessica Mitchell and DeOrr Kunz Sr., have been "less than truthful" with investigators during recent interviews. 
   
   "They are the top persons of interests," Bowerman said over the phone. "Does that mean they're suspects? Yeah I think so." 
   
   The boy has been missing since July 10 after he was last seen at his family's campsite at Timber Creek Campground, just south of the town of Leadore near the Montana border. 
   
   Bowerman says the couple agreed to a polygraph test, but when asked if they knew where there son was, red flags were raised. 
   
   "They are being less than truthful," Bowerman said. "They know something, I just don't know what they know. It causes me alarm. I believe they know where he is absolutely." 
   
   RELATED LINK: 911 call for missing Idaho Falls toddler released 
   
   
   
   The sheriff said the investigation began to turn in the second week of January after the FBI and behavior analysts turned over their findings. Detectives brought them in yet again for follow up interviews and they continued with their story, the sheriff says. 
   
   "I thought I'd give them another opportunity to tell us what happened, " he said. "I decided it was time the public knew what my concerns were -- I don't believe we have an abducted child." 
   
   Bowerman said he's been asked numerous times whether he'll file charges against the parents. But he says it's just too early. 
   
   "I'm not willing to jeopardize the investigation and filing (charges) too early," he said. "I want to make sure I got this right. 
   
   The boy's aunt, Tanisha O'Neal Tompkins, told our media partner KIFI in an exclusive interview that both Kunz Sr. and Mitchell are innocent. 
   
   "They have no motive at all," O'Neal Tompkins said. "They would gain nothing out of doing anything. I just want people to not be judgmental anymore and until there's facts, just please be quiet." 
   
   Tompkins says the family knows just as much as the public does, and that they want answers first. 
   
   Bowerman has asked the public to come forward if they had ever noticed any strange behavior between the couple and their son before his disappearance. 
   
   
   
  
target: – After Idaho toddler DeOrr Kunz went missing during a family camping trip in July, his parents said they were holding out hope that the 2-year-old was with someone, and that he would be returned to them. Six months later, the Lemhi County Sheriff's Office says "I don't believe we have an abducted child"—and the boy's mother and father are the top suspects in his disappearance, KBOI reports. "They know something, I just don't know what they know. It causes me alarm. I believe they know where he is absolutely," Sheriff Lynn Bowerman says, adding that DeOrr Kunz Sr. and Jessica Mitchell "are being less than truthful." Mitchell and Kunz Sr. say they left DeOrr with Mitchell's grandfather and went on a walk a short distance away but the grandfather thought DeOrr had gone to his parents. Bowerman says the investigation just recently took this turn, after behavior analysts and the FBI submitted their findings, and detectives brought DeOrr's parents in again for follow-up interviews. "I thought I'd give them another opportunity to tell us what happened," Bowerman says. Per KTVB, the sheriff says the parents "refused to give us any further information to clear up the untruthfulness and they've changed their story on numerous occasions." EastIdahoNews.com is re-running its interview with the parents from three days after their son went missing; the news organization notes it's the only on-camera interview they've given. "He's a goer and a mover but he does not go away from his parents," Kunz Sr. says in the video. "He's very attached to us," Mitchell adds.