A South Carolina judge has ordered Dugan’s arrest after she failed to return Harper Huffman to his father following an Aug. 30 visit. The teen is listed as missing and endangered.
The FBI is investigating the disappearance of former “Survivor: China” contestant Jaime Dugan and her 16-year-old son, Harper Huffman, after she did not return him to his father following a weekend visit, the Daily Mail reported.
Harper was last seen with Dugan, 41, in Cayce, South Carolina, on Aug. 30. A Spartanburg County family court judge has since held her in contempt, declared the teenager missing and endangered, and ordered her immediate arrest, according to a Sept. 21 order obtained by the Daily Mail.
Harper’s father, Erik Huffman, 45, told the outlet he fears for his son’s safety. “Harper’s safety and wellbeing is my top priority right now, and getting him back safely is extremely important,” he said, adding that his son had been “really coming into his own” and had a stable life with him.
Reality TV romance to custody fight
Dugan and Huffman grew up about 25 miles apart in South Carolina but did not meet until they competed on “Survivor: China” in 2007. Neither won, but they became the season’s sweethearts and married in 2009 in a wedding they won from the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Harper was born in 2010.
Huffman went on to work as a physician assistant, while Dugan built a social media following of more than 70,000 as the influencer “Charleston Blonde.” The couple divorced in 2024 after an eight-day trial in which Huffman was awarded custody and Dugan received visits every other weekend.
Missed hearings and an arrest order
At an emergency hearing on Sept. 15, which Dugan joined remotely without the judge’s permission, she was ordered to disclose where she and Harper were, and refused. Neither appeared at a Sept. 18 hearing she was ordered to attend in person with her son.
The judge found her absence willful, suspended her visitation, gave Huffman sole custody, ordered her to surrender Harper’s passport, and directed that she be held at the Spartanburg County Detention Center once arrested.
According to the order, Dugan had accused Huffman of physical abuse and his mother of sexually abusing Harper, but refused to make the boy available to investigators. The judge found the allegations unfounded and said they did not justify defying custody orders. Huffman has called them “egregious and hurtful.”
Dugan was charged with cyberstalking in North Carolina in 2025, a charge that was later dropped, and filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy weeks after the divorce, listing more than $509,000 in debts, the Daily Mail reported. Her divorce attorney, Jonathan Lewis, said she is presumed innocent and that he joins in “praying for Harper’s safe return.”
Reporting in this story is based on court records obtained and reported by the Daily Mail and on coverage by the New York Post. The photograph is a stock file image.
