nanabillie
07-24-2008, 11:59 AM
ABDUCTED CHILD: TRISTEN ALEN MYERS
FORUM OWNER
PROTECT YOUR KIDS
RESEARCH LEADER
NON-FAMILY ABDUCTION
TRISTEN ALAN MYERS
Age Progression
DOB: Jul 16, 1996
Missing Date: Oct 5, 2000
Sex: Male
Race: White
Age Now: 6
Height: 3'1" (94 cm)
Weight: 38 lbs (17 kg)
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Missing City: ROSEBORO
Missing State : NC
Missing Country: United States
Case Number: NCMC897039
Circumstances: Tristen's photo is shown age-progressed to six years. He was last seen walking with a tan Chihuahua and a black Doberman. The dogs have since returned home. At the time of his disappearance, Tristen was wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans and white tennis shoes. He has a scar on the left side of his neck. His full name is Tristen Alan Myers but he uses the nickname "Buddy." He may be in need of medical attention.
http://www.missingkids.com/
Justice seeker1 Missing Boy's Family Awaits DNA Test Results #1 [-]
Posts: 32497
(04/28/03 19:16:37)
Missing boy's family awaits DNA test results
Man who brought child to hospital arrested
Monday, April 28, 2003 Posted: 10:55 PM EDT (0255 GMT)
Buddy in 2000 is shown at left, and an artist's rendering of what he could look like now.
ROSEBORO, North Carolina (CNN) -- The family of a missing North Carolina boy last seen two and a half years ago was nervously awaiting DNA results Monday on a boy found almost three months ago in Chicago, Illinois, who does not remember who he is.
Tristen "Buddy" Myers was 4 when he walked away from his great aunt and uncle's home in Roseboro, east of Fayetteville, in October 2000. He has not been seen since.
On February 3, a man walked into a hospital in Evanston with a young boy in tow who he said was his son. The man said he wanted the boy evaluated for "aggressive behavior," said Jill Manuel of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Hospital workers saw that the boy, between 6 and 8 years old, "obviously had not bathed or changed clothes in days," Manuel said. The man also threatened to leave the child at the hospital, prompting workers to report him to a DCFS hotline.
Police found a warrant for the man's arrest on a retail theft charge. He was taken into custody, and the boy was placed in a foster home, Manuel said.
Social workers soon found that the boy could not name family members or give his birth date. The alleged father had given the boy's name as Eli Quick, but there were no records under that name, Manuel said.
"Our suspicion was all may not be as it should be," she said.
The social workers then called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children [NCMEC], which matched up the boy's photograph with a picture of Buddy Myers, who would now be 6 years old.
"The family has seen the pictures of this child in question," said Jackie Cox, a spokeswoman for the boy's great aunt and uncle. "It's such a strong resemblance."
Cox said a DNA test was conducted on Buddy's mother two weeks ago, and Buddy's DNA was tested last week.
"We're just sitting back, waiting for the DNA of this child," Cox said.
Police in Chicago and Sampson County, North Carolina, were not available for comment Monday evening.
According to the NCMEC's Web site, Buddy has blond hair and blue eyes and a scar on the side of his neck. He would be 6 years old. Cox said he has a speech impediment that makes it hard for him to pronounce certain words.
Manuel said she did not know whether the boy in Chicago had a scar or speech impediment.
In the meantime, the alleged father was released from custody and has vanished, Manuel said.
"We have never been able to question him again," she said.
She said it does not appear that the man had a history of crimes involving children.
Buddy's mother was a juvenile when she gave birth, which made her ineligible for custody under North Carolina law, Cox said. The mother's parents took custody of Buddy but had to give him up when his grandmother became terminally ill.
The grandparents gave Buddy to the grandfather's brother and sister-in-law, John and Donna Myers, and they were in the process of adopting the boy when he disappeared, Cox said.
She said Donna Myers and Buddy watched a videotape the afternoon that the boy disappeared.
"Tristen kind of fell asleep, and she took a short nap," Cox said. "When she awakened, he was gone."
www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/04/28/missing.boy.mystery/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/04/28/missing.boy.mystery/index.html)
Justice seeker1 Police, FBI Investigating Child Who May Be Missing Boy #2 [-]
Police, FBI investigating child who may be missing boy
Alleged father vanishes
Tuesday, April 29, 2003 Posted: 8:57 PM EDT (0057 GMT)
Tristen "Buddy" Myers, left, and the boy taken into custody by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Police are joining forces with the FBI to investigate the possibility that a child found in a north Chicago suburb is the same boy who disappeared from his great-aunt's North Carolina home more than two years ago.
Tristen "Buddy" Myers was 4 years old when he walked away from his great-aunt and great-uncle's home in Roseboro, east of Fayetteville, in October 2000. A computer-generated age progression photo of him bears a strong resemblance to the Illinois boy, raising hopes of family members.
"If it's not him, he's got a twin," said Buddy's great-aunt, Donna Myers.
Results of the DNA tests conducted Monday on the boy in Evanston, Illinois, typically take four to six weeks, authorities said. Meantime, the Evanston boy remains in a foster home.
"One day's too long for me," said Myers. "I'd like to know now."
Myers has a plan that might show results sooner.
"I would like to have them show him pictures of the family and pictures of the dogs, especially the three-legged dog, because I think that would trigger something there," Myers told CNN's Leon Harris. "Because how many times would he have seen a three-legged dog?"
The boy came to the attention of authorities on February 3, when a man, later identified as Ricky Quick, walked into Evanston's St. Francis hospital with a young boy in tow whom he claimed was his son. The man said he wanted the boy evaluated for "aggressive behavior," said Jill Manuel of the Illinois Department of Family and Children's Services.
Hospital workers saw that the boy, between 6 and 8 years old, was dirty and "obviously had not bathed or changed clothes in days," Manuel said. The man also threatened to leave the boy at the hospital, prompting workers to report the situation to a Department of Children and Family Services hotline.
Family impatient for DNA results
Social workers soon found the boy could not name family members or give his birth date. The alleged father had given the boy's name as Eli Quick, but there were no records under that name, Manuel said.
"Our suspicion was all may not be as it should be," she said.
The social workers then called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which matched the boy's photograph with a picture of Buddy, who would now be 6.
"The family has seen the pictures of this child in question," said Jackie Cox, a spokeswoman for the boy's great-aunt and great-uncle. "It's such a strong resemblance."
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Web site, Buddy has blond hair and blue eyes, with a scar on the side of his neck. Cox said he has a speech impediment.
Investigators said the boy found in Evanston shares facial features and scars with Buddy and has a speech impediment.
Future custody of boy unclear
Buddy's mother was a juvenile when she gave birth, which made her ineligible for custody, Cox said. The mother's parents took custody of Buddy but had to give him up when the grandmother became terminally ill.
The grandparents gave Buddy to the grandfather's brother and sister-in-law, John and Donna Myers, who were in the process of formally adopting the boy when he was last seen, walking out the door of their home, Cox said.
Myers said she did not know with whom the boy would live if it's determined the child is Buddy. Buddy's mother currently resides in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Meanwhile, the Illinois man who claimed to be the boy's father has disappeared. Police discovered there was a warrant out for his arrest on a retail theft charge, and he was taken into custody by Chicago police, Evanston police commander Michael Perry told CNN.
Chicago police have jurisdiction in the case, Perry said, because Quick, 33, had a Chicago address.
But Quick was later released from custody and has vanished, DFCS's Manuel said.
"We have never been able to question him again," she said, adding it does not appear the man has a history of any crimes involving children.
"There is no warrant out for (Quick's) arrest at this point," nor are authorities looking for him, North Carolina FBI spokesman Erik Blowers told CNN.
"The investigation is continuing" until an identification of the boy can be made, he said.
CNN Correspondent Mike Brooks contributed to this report.
Justice seeker1 DNA Tests Show Illinois Boy Is Not Buddy Myers #3 [-]
Posts: 32497
(05/02/03 11:10:19)
DNA Tests Show Illinois Boy Is Not Buddy Myers
POSTED: 11:08 a.m. EDT May 2, 2003
UPDATED: 2:06 p.m. EDT May 2, 2003
CHICAGO -- It's not the same boy. According to an Illinois government source, DNA tests have confirmed that the boy who was abandoned at a hospital near Chicago is not Tristen "Buddy" Myers, the boy who vanished in North Carolina two and a-half years ago.
Earlier, Myers' mother told a North Carolina TV station that she'd been told of the results -- and that they had established that the boy in Illinois wasn't hers.
North Carolina TV producer spoke to Raven Myers, who said she was told by FBI agents that Eli Quick is not her son.
The boy has told authorities his mother was Sharon Smith. She was killed in a car accident near Sterling, Colo., last May.
Federal authorities in Chicago and the Myers family in Roseboro have scheduled simultaneous news conferences for 3 p.m. E.T. Friday.
A source familiar with the investigation earlier had told the Chicago Tribune earlier that authorities were turning away from the theory that the boy is Tristen.
The state placed the boy in foster care after a man named Quick took him to an Evanston hospital. Ricky Quick contends he has raised the child since he was a baby.
A woman in southern Illinois, Cheri Trandel, also denyied that the boy was Tristen. She said her sister is the one who gave birth to Eli Quick -- and that the sister gave the boy to Ricky Quick when he was 7 or 8 months old.
Trandel said she has been in contact with authorities and would like to take custody of the boy if the state allows her to.
www.wnbc.com/news/2174981/detail.html?treets=ny&tml=ny_natlbreak&ts=T&tmi=ny_natlbreak_19861_01010005022003 (http://www.wnbc.com/news/2174981/detail.html?treets=ny&tml=ny_natlbreak&ts=T&tmi=ny_natlbreak_19861_01010005022003)
Justice seeker1 Family Of Missing Boy Emotional............ #4 [-]
Posts: 32497
(05/02/03 14:10:58)
Family of missing boy emotional after learning he still isn't found
May 2, 2003
Roseboro, North Carolina-AP -- Relatives of a missing boy are emotional after learning a child in Chicago isn't their lost family member.
D-N-A tests show the Chicago boy is not Tristen "Buddy" Myers, who disappeared over two years ago in North Carolina.
A spokesman for some Myers family members says they "will not give up" until they find him.
A cousin of the missing boy describes his absence as great void. She burst into tears after after saying, "Love you, Buddy. Come home."
The boy was four years old and in the care of his great aunt when he apparently walked off and disappeared.
The missing boy's biological mother reacted to news that her son still hasn't been found, saying it was "really upsetting" and "really hurts.""
Justice seeker1 Tests Show Illinois Boy Not Missing N.C. Child #5 [-]
Posts: 32497
(05/02/03 14:17:03)
Tests show Illinois boy not missing N.C. child
FBI investigating youth left at Chicago-area hospital
Friday, May 2, 2003 Posted: 4:00 PM EDT (2000 GMT)
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- DNA tests have determined that a boy abandoned in Illinois is not Tristen "Buddy" Myers, who disappeared from his great-aunt's North Carolina home in 2000, government sources told CNN on Friday.
The hopes of Buddy's family had been raised because of a strong physical resemblance between the two boys, but the DNA tests proved it was only a resemblance.
The Associated Press reported Friday that Buddy's mother, Raven Myers, said the results were conclusive and that the abandoned boy is not her son.
The AP reported the mother made the statement in an interview with North Carolina television station WTVD.
A spokesman for the Myers family, which cared for Buddy before his disappearance, said the family's optimism had been dashed.
"As early as this morning, our hopes were very high, and we were very optimistic that we were going to have a reunion with little Buddy. But that is not the case," Jackie Jacobs said. She encouraged anyone with information regarding Buddy's whereabouts to call the local sheriff's office or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
"Buddy, if you are out there, the Myers family loves you very much," Jacobs said. "They have not forgotten about you. We are still looking for you. We will not give up until we find you."
Now that testing has determined Eli Quick is not the missing North Carolina boy, the FBI said it will continue to try to find out who Eli's parents are and how he came to be with Ricky Quick, the man who abandoned Eli at a Chicago-area hospital in February, FBI spokesman Thomas Kneir said.
Ricky Quick says the Illinois child is his stepson.
State and local investigators took DNA samples from Eli -- who officials said appears to be between 6 and 8 years old -- and the missing boy's birth mother to see whether they were related.
Buddy disappeared October 5, 2000, from the home of his great-aunt and great-uncle in Roseboro, North Carolina. He was with his three-legged mutt, Buck, and his black Doberman puppy, Sasha. The dogs later returned, but Buddy did not. He was then 4 years old.
In February, Ricky Quick brought a boy he identified as Eli to a hospital in Evanston, Illinois, saying he wanted the boy evaluated for "aggressive behavior," said Jill Manuel of the Illinois Department of Family and Children's Services. He threatened to leave the boy at the hospital, she said.
Seeing that the boy was filthy and fearing parental neglect, hospital workers called police, Manuel said.
Police arrested Ricky Quick on an outstanding shoplifting warrant, but he was released and never returned for the boy, who was turned over to foster care, Manuel said.
Raven Myers gave birth to Buddy in Louisiana when she was 15.
Chicago social workers who interviewed Eli said he was not able to tell them his birthday or offer much information about his family, so they contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They soon noticed a strong resemblance to Buddy.
Officials said the two boys both have a similar scar on the side of their necks and a speech impediment.
Myers, the 22-year-old mother of the missing North Carolina boy, had joint custody of Buddy after giving birth to him in Louisiana at 15.
After Myers' mother became terminally ill, Buddy was taken to live with his great-aunt and great-uncle in Roseboro, where he later disappeared.
Quick was relocated after he was released on the shoplifting warrant and late Tuesday was questioned by FBI agents in Chicago. The FBI said he went with the agents voluntarily and was not in custody.
Quick, who told reporters he was not charged, said Eli is his stepson, the product of an extramarital affair his now-deceased wife had during their 17-year marriage. Quick's wife, Sharon Smith, died in a car crash last May in which Eli was injured.
-- CNN's Mike Brooks, Gary Tuchman, Kimberly Osias and Jeff Flock contributed to this report.
Justice seeker1 DNA Tests: It's Not Missing Kid #6
DNA Tests: It's Not Missing Kid
CHICAGO, May 2, 2003
DNA tests confirm that the boy identified as Eli Quick, above, is not missing North Carolina boy Tristen "Buddy" Myers, the FBI said Friday. (Photo: AP)
CBS) The FBI in Chicago says DNA tests confirm that a boy who was left at a Chicago-area hospital is not a North Carolina boy who has been missing since October of 2000.
Thomas Kneir, FBI special agent in charge, said the DNA tests were conclusive that the boy is not Tristen "Buddy" Myers. Authorities said the boy's DNA had been compared with Buddy's mother, Raven Myers.
"I wish I were here to give you and more importantly, the family of Tristen ... Myers some good news. Unfortunately, that is not the case," Kneir said.
"The two children are not identical," he said.
Buddy hasn't been seen since he and his great aunt, Donna Myers, nodded off while watching a videotape on Oct. 5, 2000, at the rural home they shared in Roseboro, about 60 miles south of Raleigh.
When she awoke, Donna Myers discovered Buddy and two of the family dogs were gone. The dogs returned home day later, but Buddy, then 4, was never found.
The investigation into the Illinois boy's identity and possible connections to Buddy began after Ricky Quick took a boy he said was his son Eli to a hospital in Evanston in February to be evaluated for aggressive behavior.
Officials said Eli hadn't bathed or changed clothes in days, so juvenile officials were called and the child was placed in foster care.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services also circulated the youngster's picture to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and found the reports of Buddy's disappearance.
Eli's face, lisp and scars strongly resembled a description and photo of Buddy. Investigators retrieved DNA samples from the child and from Raven Myers, who gave birth to Buddy when she was 15 years old.
Quick has repeatedly said he fathered the child with a prostitute named Laura who gave him the infant and asked him to raise the boy.
On Thursday, a woman who lives in southern Illinois came forward saying the boy was born to her sister, Laura. Cheri Trandel said her sister had handed the baby over to Ricky Quick years ago.
Cook County records also show that a woman named Laura Trandel gave birth to Timothy Robert Trandel at a Chicago hospital in 1996. Criminal records also show Laura Trandel was arrested for prostitution at least a dozen times.
"My sister had a little boy. That's him," Cheri Trandel told the Chicago Sun-Times for Friday editions.
Cheri Trandel said she is raising three of her sister's children and has contacted the state about the boy. "If I could step in, I would want him," she said.
Eli remained in foster care Friday, authorities said.
Justice seeker1 Frenzy Exhausts Tristen's Family #7 [-]
Sunday, May 4, 2003 12:00AM EDT
Now, cameras won't go
Frenzy exhausts Tristen's family
By MARTHA QUILLIN, Staff Writer
In the early days of his disappearance, when it might have brought him quickly home, it seemed impossible to get Tristen Myers' picture on the news.
This week, when his family members were most emotionally vulnerable, waiting for positive identification of a child who might be their lost little boy, they couldn't get away from the cameras.
On Friday -- two hours after learning that DNA tests had determined that Eli Quick, taken into custody by child welfare workers in Chicago in early February, was not Tristen -- wrung-out family members stood at a news conference with local law enforcement to announce the results to the rest of the world.
Thousands of people are reported missing in this country every year, and there is no way to predict which cases will capture the public's attention.
The sudden interest in Tristen's case 2 1/2 years after he slipped out of his Roseboro home as his great aunt dozed on the couch might have been a matter of timing. It comes on the heels of the joyful reunion of Elizabeth Smart with her family in Utah and the unhappy discovery of the bodies of Laci Peterson and her baby on the California coast.
The media frenzy this week, during which reporters sat for hours in folding chairs under the carport of the Myers home and cameramen followed the family dogs, has exhausted Donna Myers, the great aunt.
It has titillated some members of her family, preoccupied local police and frustrated some of the volunteers who have been involved in the search from the start.
"This is not the way this should have happened," said Monica Caison, who runs the CUE Center in Wilmington, a grass-roots group that organizes searches and provides support to the families of missing people in North Carolina. "But some good will come of it. Now the whole world knows who Tristen Myers is, and that can only help find him."
Hundreds of people had searched the fields and woods around the Myerses' rural Sampson County home after Tristen disappeared Oct. 5, 2000. Since then, there have been enticing leads in other states, but all were determined to be false. The discovery of Eli in Illinois was the most promising prospect yet.
A mystery child
Eli was brought to a hospital in Evanston, Ill., just outside Chicago, on the night of Feb. 3 by Ricky Quick, a man who said he was Eli's father. The child was filthy, and neither he nor Quick could give definitive details about such things as his birth date. The boy is about 6 years old, the age Tristen would be now.
Suspecting neglect, hospital officials called state child welfare workers, who took the boy into custody. When Quick objected, the hospital called police, who found an outstanding warrant for him and arrested him.
When questioned about the boy by state and law enforcement officials, and later by reporters, Quick gave varying accounts of their relationship. Sometimes he said he was the child's father, and sometimes he said he was Eli's stepfather. He first named his former wife, who was killed in a Colorado car crash a year ago, as Eli's mother. Later he said the mother was a prostitute named Laura, a story that is supported by Illinois birth records and the woman's sister.
In the first two months they had Eli, state officials began to explore the possibility that he might be a missing child. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found Tristen to be the closest match. The boys shared some behavioral problems, along with physical scars and a healed break in the right leg.
In April, Illinois officials contacted Sgt. Darold Cox at the Sampson County Sheriff's Office. First, Cox brought Donna Myers in to look at photos of Eli to see whether she thought he might be Tristen, whom her family called Buddy.
"It sure looks like him," said Myers, who said she had grown close to Tristen during the month and a half she and her husband had cared for him. The couple took Tristen in the fall of 2000, when his custodial grandmother was dying. Before coming to the Myerses' home, Tristen had lived briefly with his grandfather, who accidentally ran over him while working on a car.
Tristen's mother, Raven Myers, lives in North Carolina but has never had legal custody of the child because she was only 15 when he was born. In Mississippi, where she was living at the time, minors are not allowed to have custody of children.
After Donna Myers looked at the pictures, Cox tracked down Raven Myers at the Fayetteville motel where she was staying and took her to have blood drawn for a DNA test.
Caison, of the CUE Center, was among a handful of people who had known about the possible link between Tristen and Eli but had planned to discuss it publicly only if the DNA test proved the boys were one and the same. Some information about the case had been posted briefly on her organization's Web site, she said, but it was intended only to be accessible to trusted CUE volunteers.
"Buddy's family and volunteers from the CUE Center knew about the Eli Quick situation weeks ago, but they decided not to involve either the public or the media until the truth was known, in order to spare the Myers family undue pressure and attention -- amid another crushing disappointment -- should Eli Quick turn out not to be Buddy Myers," Caison said.
The media move in
Early Monday morning, the information, along with Eli's name, was placed on another group's Web site where it was accessible to anyone. Someone also e-mailed it to local and national media. Caison said neither she nor any of her volunteers leaked the information.
By Monday afternoon, reporters' cars and television satellite trucks lined the sandy stretch of Microwave Tower Road near the Myerses' home. Crews filmed the boy's room, and reporters knocked on the door to ask the family to comment on every fact and rumor generated in the case. Information was coming from at least three states.
Cox, lead investigator on the case for the Sampson County Sheriff's Office, couldn't return one reporter's phone call before he got two or three new ones. "It makes it kind of tough," Cox said late in the week.
Even Raven Myers, an exotic dancer who has had another child and has not been closely involved in the search for Tristen, traveled to New York to be interviewed on television. By midweek, she had announced that if Eli turned out to be Tristen, she would fight to become his legal guardian.
Originally, Cox said it would take up to six weeks to get the results of the DNA test, which was being done by a lab in Burlington. But with the intense pressure to solve the mystery of the two boys, the company managed to expedite the test. In announcing the findings, Cox sounded saddened by the outcome but relieved that the ordeal was over.
Caison, too, said she was disappointed for Donna Myers and her family, who have not lost hope.
"I think it's going to be a rough night tonight," she said Friday, "and it'll be a little better tomorrow, and on Monday, she'll go back to work, and then I'll get a call saying, 'OK, now what do we do to find Tristen?' "
Staff writer Martha Quillin can be reached at 829-8989 or marthaq@newsobserver.com.
Justice seeker1 Mother of missing Sampson boy dies #8 [-]
Posts: 32497
(03/06/04 19:44:55)
Saturday, March 6
Mother of missing Sampson boy dies
The Associated Press
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. --
The troubled young mother of a Sampson County boy missing since 2000 was killed Friday when she jumped from a moving vehicle, Fayetteville police said.
Raven Myers, 23, died during surgery, Lt. E.B. Dalton said. She suffered massive head injuries.
The incident remained under investigation Friday night, but police do not suspect foul play. Myers was a passenger in a pickup truck.
"The evidence leans to her jumping out of the vehicle," Dalton said. "We heard there was an argument prior to them getting on the road, and for whatever reason she jumped out of the car."
On Oct. 5, 2000, Raven Myers' son, Tristen "Buddy" Myers, went missing after he slipped out of his Roseboro home while his great aunt dozed on the couch. Hundreds of people searched the fields and woods around the Myers' rural Sampson County home, but the child was never found.
The case drew national attention last year when authorities investigated the possibility that a child known as Eli Quick in Evanston, Ill., could have been Buddy Myers. DNA tests ruled out that theory.
Raven Myers never had legal custody of the child because she was 15 when he was born. The child was in the custody of Donna Myers, his great-aunt.
"I'm very hurt," Donna Myers said. "Buddy's not here. Now he's not going to get to know his mother. It's so unfair."
Donna Myers said she had not seen or talked with Raven for several months.
"Last time I had heard, she was doing fine," Donna Myers said.
Last modified: March 06. 2004 12:42AM
www.heraldtribune.com/app.../403060539 (http://www.heraldtribune.com/app.../403060539)
FORUM OWNER
PROTECT YOUR KIDS
RESEARCH LEADER
NON-FAMILY ABDUCTION
TRISTEN ALAN MYERS
Age Progression
DOB: Jul 16, 1996
Missing Date: Oct 5, 2000
Sex: Male
Race: White
Age Now: 6
Height: 3'1" (94 cm)
Weight: 38 lbs (17 kg)
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Missing City: ROSEBORO
Missing State : NC
Missing Country: United States
Case Number: NCMC897039
Circumstances: Tristen's photo is shown age-progressed to six years. He was last seen walking with a tan Chihuahua and a black Doberman. The dogs have since returned home. At the time of his disappearance, Tristen was wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans and white tennis shoes. He has a scar on the left side of his neck. His full name is Tristen Alan Myers but he uses the nickname "Buddy." He may be in need of medical attention.
http://www.missingkids.com/
Justice seeker1 Missing Boy's Family Awaits DNA Test Results #1 [-]
Posts: 32497
(04/28/03 19:16:37)
Missing boy's family awaits DNA test results
Man who brought child to hospital arrested
Monday, April 28, 2003 Posted: 10:55 PM EDT (0255 GMT)
Buddy in 2000 is shown at left, and an artist's rendering of what he could look like now.
ROSEBORO, North Carolina (CNN) -- The family of a missing North Carolina boy last seen two and a half years ago was nervously awaiting DNA results Monday on a boy found almost three months ago in Chicago, Illinois, who does not remember who he is.
Tristen "Buddy" Myers was 4 when he walked away from his great aunt and uncle's home in Roseboro, east of Fayetteville, in October 2000. He has not been seen since.
On February 3, a man walked into a hospital in Evanston with a young boy in tow who he said was his son. The man said he wanted the boy evaluated for "aggressive behavior," said Jill Manuel of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Hospital workers saw that the boy, between 6 and 8 years old, "obviously had not bathed or changed clothes in days," Manuel said. The man also threatened to leave the child at the hospital, prompting workers to report him to a DCFS hotline.
Police found a warrant for the man's arrest on a retail theft charge. He was taken into custody, and the boy was placed in a foster home, Manuel said.
Social workers soon found that the boy could not name family members or give his birth date. The alleged father had given the boy's name as Eli Quick, but there were no records under that name, Manuel said.
"Our suspicion was all may not be as it should be," she said.
The social workers then called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children [NCMEC], which matched up the boy's photograph with a picture of Buddy Myers, who would now be 6 years old.
"The family has seen the pictures of this child in question," said Jackie Cox, a spokeswoman for the boy's great aunt and uncle. "It's such a strong resemblance."
Cox said a DNA test was conducted on Buddy's mother two weeks ago, and Buddy's DNA was tested last week.
"We're just sitting back, waiting for the DNA of this child," Cox said.
Police in Chicago and Sampson County, North Carolina, were not available for comment Monday evening.
According to the NCMEC's Web site, Buddy has blond hair and blue eyes and a scar on the side of his neck. He would be 6 years old. Cox said he has a speech impediment that makes it hard for him to pronounce certain words.
Manuel said she did not know whether the boy in Chicago had a scar or speech impediment.
In the meantime, the alleged father was released from custody and has vanished, Manuel said.
"We have never been able to question him again," she said.
She said it does not appear that the man had a history of crimes involving children.
Buddy's mother was a juvenile when she gave birth, which made her ineligible for custody under North Carolina law, Cox said. The mother's parents took custody of Buddy but had to give him up when his grandmother became terminally ill.
The grandparents gave Buddy to the grandfather's brother and sister-in-law, John and Donna Myers, and they were in the process of adopting the boy when he disappeared, Cox said.
She said Donna Myers and Buddy watched a videotape the afternoon that the boy disappeared.
"Tristen kind of fell asleep, and she took a short nap," Cox said. "When she awakened, he was gone."
www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/04/28/missing.boy.mystery/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/04/28/missing.boy.mystery/index.html)
Justice seeker1 Police, FBI Investigating Child Who May Be Missing Boy #2 [-]
Police, FBI investigating child who may be missing boy
Alleged father vanishes
Tuesday, April 29, 2003 Posted: 8:57 PM EDT (0057 GMT)
Tristen "Buddy" Myers, left, and the boy taken into custody by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Police are joining forces with the FBI to investigate the possibility that a child found in a north Chicago suburb is the same boy who disappeared from his great-aunt's North Carolina home more than two years ago.
Tristen "Buddy" Myers was 4 years old when he walked away from his great-aunt and great-uncle's home in Roseboro, east of Fayetteville, in October 2000. A computer-generated age progression photo of him bears a strong resemblance to the Illinois boy, raising hopes of family members.
"If it's not him, he's got a twin," said Buddy's great-aunt, Donna Myers.
Results of the DNA tests conducted Monday on the boy in Evanston, Illinois, typically take four to six weeks, authorities said. Meantime, the Evanston boy remains in a foster home.
"One day's too long for me," said Myers. "I'd like to know now."
Myers has a plan that might show results sooner.
"I would like to have them show him pictures of the family and pictures of the dogs, especially the three-legged dog, because I think that would trigger something there," Myers told CNN's Leon Harris. "Because how many times would he have seen a three-legged dog?"
The boy came to the attention of authorities on February 3, when a man, later identified as Ricky Quick, walked into Evanston's St. Francis hospital with a young boy in tow whom he claimed was his son. The man said he wanted the boy evaluated for "aggressive behavior," said Jill Manuel of the Illinois Department of Family and Children's Services.
Hospital workers saw that the boy, between 6 and 8 years old, was dirty and "obviously had not bathed or changed clothes in days," Manuel said. The man also threatened to leave the boy at the hospital, prompting workers to report the situation to a Department of Children and Family Services hotline.
Family impatient for DNA results
Social workers soon found the boy could not name family members or give his birth date. The alleged father had given the boy's name as Eli Quick, but there were no records under that name, Manuel said.
"Our suspicion was all may not be as it should be," she said.
The social workers then called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which matched the boy's photograph with a picture of Buddy, who would now be 6.
"The family has seen the pictures of this child in question," said Jackie Cox, a spokeswoman for the boy's great-aunt and great-uncle. "It's such a strong resemblance."
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Web site, Buddy has blond hair and blue eyes, with a scar on the side of his neck. Cox said he has a speech impediment.
Investigators said the boy found in Evanston shares facial features and scars with Buddy and has a speech impediment.
Future custody of boy unclear
Buddy's mother was a juvenile when she gave birth, which made her ineligible for custody, Cox said. The mother's parents took custody of Buddy but had to give him up when the grandmother became terminally ill.
The grandparents gave Buddy to the grandfather's brother and sister-in-law, John and Donna Myers, who were in the process of formally adopting the boy when he was last seen, walking out the door of their home, Cox said.
Myers said she did not know with whom the boy would live if it's determined the child is Buddy. Buddy's mother currently resides in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Meanwhile, the Illinois man who claimed to be the boy's father has disappeared. Police discovered there was a warrant out for his arrest on a retail theft charge, and he was taken into custody by Chicago police, Evanston police commander Michael Perry told CNN.
Chicago police have jurisdiction in the case, Perry said, because Quick, 33, had a Chicago address.
But Quick was later released from custody and has vanished, DFCS's Manuel said.
"We have never been able to question him again," she said, adding it does not appear the man has a history of any crimes involving children.
"There is no warrant out for (Quick's) arrest at this point," nor are authorities looking for him, North Carolina FBI spokesman Erik Blowers told CNN.
"The investigation is continuing" until an identification of the boy can be made, he said.
CNN Correspondent Mike Brooks contributed to this report.
Justice seeker1 DNA Tests Show Illinois Boy Is Not Buddy Myers #3 [-]
Posts: 32497
(05/02/03 11:10:19)
DNA Tests Show Illinois Boy Is Not Buddy Myers
POSTED: 11:08 a.m. EDT May 2, 2003
UPDATED: 2:06 p.m. EDT May 2, 2003
CHICAGO -- It's not the same boy. According to an Illinois government source, DNA tests have confirmed that the boy who was abandoned at a hospital near Chicago is not Tristen "Buddy" Myers, the boy who vanished in North Carolina two and a-half years ago.
Earlier, Myers' mother told a North Carolina TV station that she'd been told of the results -- and that they had established that the boy in Illinois wasn't hers.
North Carolina TV producer spoke to Raven Myers, who said she was told by FBI agents that Eli Quick is not her son.
The boy has told authorities his mother was Sharon Smith. She was killed in a car accident near Sterling, Colo., last May.
Federal authorities in Chicago and the Myers family in Roseboro have scheduled simultaneous news conferences for 3 p.m. E.T. Friday.
A source familiar with the investigation earlier had told the Chicago Tribune earlier that authorities were turning away from the theory that the boy is Tristen.
The state placed the boy in foster care after a man named Quick took him to an Evanston hospital. Ricky Quick contends he has raised the child since he was a baby.
A woman in southern Illinois, Cheri Trandel, also denyied that the boy was Tristen. She said her sister is the one who gave birth to Eli Quick -- and that the sister gave the boy to Ricky Quick when he was 7 or 8 months old.
Trandel said she has been in contact with authorities and would like to take custody of the boy if the state allows her to.
www.wnbc.com/news/2174981/detail.html?treets=ny&tml=ny_natlbreak&ts=T&tmi=ny_natlbreak_19861_01010005022003 (http://www.wnbc.com/news/2174981/detail.html?treets=ny&tml=ny_natlbreak&ts=T&tmi=ny_natlbreak_19861_01010005022003)
Justice seeker1 Family Of Missing Boy Emotional............ #4 [-]
Posts: 32497
(05/02/03 14:10:58)
Family of missing boy emotional after learning he still isn't found
May 2, 2003
Roseboro, North Carolina-AP -- Relatives of a missing boy are emotional after learning a child in Chicago isn't their lost family member.
D-N-A tests show the Chicago boy is not Tristen "Buddy" Myers, who disappeared over two years ago in North Carolina.
A spokesman for some Myers family members says they "will not give up" until they find him.
A cousin of the missing boy describes his absence as great void. She burst into tears after after saying, "Love you, Buddy. Come home."
The boy was four years old and in the care of his great aunt when he apparently walked off and disappeared.
The missing boy's biological mother reacted to news that her son still hasn't been found, saying it was "really upsetting" and "really hurts.""
Justice seeker1 Tests Show Illinois Boy Not Missing N.C. Child #5 [-]
Posts: 32497
(05/02/03 14:17:03)
Tests show Illinois boy not missing N.C. child
FBI investigating youth left at Chicago-area hospital
Friday, May 2, 2003 Posted: 4:00 PM EDT (2000 GMT)
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- DNA tests have determined that a boy abandoned in Illinois is not Tristen "Buddy" Myers, who disappeared from his great-aunt's North Carolina home in 2000, government sources told CNN on Friday.
The hopes of Buddy's family had been raised because of a strong physical resemblance between the two boys, but the DNA tests proved it was only a resemblance.
The Associated Press reported Friday that Buddy's mother, Raven Myers, said the results were conclusive and that the abandoned boy is not her son.
The AP reported the mother made the statement in an interview with North Carolina television station WTVD.
A spokesman for the Myers family, which cared for Buddy before his disappearance, said the family's optimism had been dashed.
"As early as this morning, our hopes were very high, and we were very optimistic that we were going to have a reunion with little Buddy. But that is not the case," Jackie Jacobs said. She encouraged anyone with information regarding Buddy's whereabouts to call the local sheriff's office or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
"Buddy, if you are out there, the Myers family loves you very much," Jacobs said. "They have not forgotten about you. We are still looking for you. We will not give up until we find you."
Now that testing has determined Eli Quick is not the missing North Carolina boy, the FBI said it will continue to try to find out who Eli's parents are and how he came to be with Ricky Quick, the man who abandoned Eli at a Chicago-area hospital in February, FBI spokesman Thomas Kneir said.
Ricky Quick says the Illinois child is his stepson.
State and local investigators took DNA samples from Eli -- who officials said appears to be between 6 and 8 years old -- and the missing boy's birth mother to see whether they were related.
Buddy disappeared October 5, 2000, from the home of his great-aunt and great-uncle in Roseboro, North Carolina. He was with his three-legged mutt, Buck, and his black Doberman puppy, Sasha. The dogs later returned, but Buddy did not. He was then 4 years old.
In February, Ricky Quick brought a boy he identified as Eli to a hospital in Evanston, Illinois, saying he wanted the boy evaluated for "aggressive behavior," said Jill Manuel of the Illinois Department of Family and Children's Services. He threatened to leave the boy at the hospital, she said.
Seeing that the boy was filthy and fearing parental neglect, hospital workers called police, Manuel said.
Police arrested Ricky Quick on an outstanding shoplifting warrant, but he was released and never returned for the boy, who was turned over to foster care, Manuel said.
Raven Myers gave birth to Buddy in Louisiana when she was 15.
Chicago social workers who interviewed Eli said he was not able to tell them his birthday or offer much information about his family, so they contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They soon noticed a strong resemblance to Buddy.
Officials said the two boys both have a similar scar on the side of their necks and a speech impediment.
Myers, the 22-year-old mother of the missing North Carolina boy, had joint custody of Buddy after giving birth to him in Louisiana at 15.
After Myers' mother became terminally ill, Buddy was taken to live with his great-aunt and great-uncle in Roseboro, where he later disappeared.
Quick was relocated after he was released on the shoplifting warrant and late Tuesday was questioned by FBI agents in Chicago. The FBI said he went with the agents voluntarily and was not in custody.
Quick, who told reporters he was not charged, said Eli is his stepson, the product of an extramarital affair his now-deceased wife had during their 17-year marriage. Quick's wife, Sharon Smith, died in a car crash last May in which Eli was injured.
-- CNN's Mike Brooks, Gary Tuchman, Kimberly Osias and Jeff Flock contributed to this report.
Justice seeker1 DNA Tests: It's Not Missing Kid #6
DNA Tests: It's Not Missing Kid
CHICAGO, May 2, 2003
DNA tests confirm that the boy identified as Eli Quick, above, is not missing North Carolina boy Tristen "Buddy" Myers, the FBI said Friday. (Photo: AP)
CBS) The FBI in Chicago says DNA tests confirm that a boy who was left at a Chicago-area hospital is not a North Carolina boy who has been missing since October of 2000.
Thomas Kneir, FBI special agent in charge, said the DNA tests were conclusive that the boy is not Tristen "Buddy" Myers. Authorities said the boy's DNA had been compared with Buddy's mother, Raven Myers.
"I wish I were here to give you and more importantly, the family of Tristen ... Myers some good news. Unfortunately, that is not the case," Kneir said.
"The two children are not identical," he said.
Buddy hasn't been seen since he and his great aunt, Donna Myers, nodded off while watching a videotape on Oct. 5, 2000, at the rural home they shared in Roseboro, about 60 miles south of Raleigh.
When she awoke, Donna Myers discovered Buddy and two of the family dogs were gone. The dogs returned home day later, but Buddy, then 4, was never found.
The investigation into the Illinois boy's identity and possible connections to Buddy began after Ricky Quick took a boy he said was his son Eli to a hospital in Evanston in February to be evaluated for aggressive behavior.
Officials said Eli hadn't bathed or changed clothes in days, so juvenile officials were called and the child was placed in foster care.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services also circulated the youngster's picture to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and found the reports of Buddy's disappearance.
Eli's face, lisp and scars strongly resembled a description and photo of Buddy. Investigators retrieved DNA samples from the child and from Raven Myers, who gave birth to Buddy when she was 15 years old.
Quick has repeatedly said he fathered the child with a prostitute named Laura who gave him the infant and asked him to raise the boy.
On Thursday, a woman who lives in southern Illinois came forward saying the boy was born to her sister, Laura. Cheri Trandel said her sister had handed the baby over to Ricky Quick years ago.
Cook County records also show that a woman named Laura Trandel gave birth to Timothy Robert Trandel at a Chicago hospital in 1996. Criminal records also show Laura Trandel was arrested for prostitution at least a dozen times.
"My sister had a little boy. That's him," Cheri Trandel told the Chicago Sun-Times for Friday editions.
Cheri Trandel said she is raising three of her sister's children and has contacted the state about the boy. "If I could step in, I would want him," she said.
Eli remained in foster care Friday, authorities said.
Justice seeker1 Frenzy Exhausts Tristen's Family #7 [-]
Sunday, May 4, 2003 12:00AM EDT
Now, cameras won't go
Frenzy exhausts Tristen's family
By MARTHA QUILLIN, Staff Writer
In the early days of his disappearance, when it might have brought him quickly home, it seemed impossible to get Tristen Myers' picture on the news.
This week, when his family members were most emotionally vulnerable, waiting for positive identification of a child who might be their lost little boy, they couldn't get away from the cameras.
On Friday -- two hours after learning that DNA tests had determined that Eli Quick, taken into custody by child welfare workers in Chicago in early February, was not Tristen -- wrung-out family members stood at a news conference with local law enforcement to announce the results to the rest of the world.
Thousands of people are reported missing in this country every year, and there is no way to predict which cases will capture the public's attention.
The sudden interest in Tristen's case 2 1/2 years after he slipped out of his Roseboro home as his great aunt dozed on the couch might have been a matter of timing. It comes on the heels of the joyful reunion of Elizabeth Smart with her family in Utah and the unhappy discovery of the bodies of Laci Peterson and her baby on the California coast.
The media frenzy this week, during which reporters sat for hours in folding chairs under the carport of the Myers home and cameramen followed the family dogs, has exhausted Donna Myers, the great aunt.
It has titillated some members of her family, preoccupied local police and frustrated some of the volunteers who have been involved in the search from the start.
"This is not the way this should have happened," said Monica Caison, who runs the CUE Center in Wilmington, a grass-roots group that organizes searches and provides support to the families of missing people in North Carolina. "But some good will come of it. Now the whole world knows who Tristen Myers is, and that can only help find him."
Hundreds of people had searched the fields and woods around the Myerses' rural Sampson County home after Tristen disappeared Oct. 5, 2000. Since then, there have been enticing leads in other states, but all were determined to be false. The discovery of Eli in Illinois was the most promising prospect yet.
A mystery child
Eli was brought to a hospital in Evanston, Ill., just outside Chicago, on the night of Feb. 3 by Ricky Quick, a man who said he was Eli's father. The child was filthy, and neither he nor Quick could give definitive details about such things as his birth date. The boy is about 6 years old, the age Tristen would be now.
Suspecting neglect, hospital officials called state child welfare workers, who took the boy into custody. When Quick objected, the hospital called police, who found an outstanding warrant for him and arrested him.
When questioned about the boy by state and law enforcement officials, and later by reporters, Quick gave varying accounts of their relationship. Sometimes he said he was the child's father, and sometimes he said he was Eli's stepfather. He first named his former wife, who was killed in a Colorado car crash a year ago, as Eli's mother. Later he said the mother was a prostitute named Laura, a story that is supported by Illinois birth records and the woman's sister.
In the first two months they had Eli, state officials began to explore the possibility that he might be a missing child. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found Tristen to be the closest match. The boys shared some behavioral problems, along with physical scars and a healed break in the right leg.
In April, Illinois officials contacted Sgt. Darold Cox at the Sampson County Sheriff's Office. First, Cox brought Donna Myers in to look at photos of Eli to see whether she thought he might be Tristen, whom her family called Buddy.
"It sure looks like him," said Myers, who said she had grown close to Tristen during the month and a half she and her husband had cared for him. The couple took Tristen in the fall of 2000, when his custodial grandmother was dying. Before coming to the Myerses' home, Tristen had lived briefly with his grandfather, who accidentally ran over him while working on a car.
Tristen's mother, Raven Myers, lives in North Carolina but has never had legal custody of the child because she was only 15 when he was born. In Mississippi, where she was living at the time, minors are not allowed to have custody of children.
After Donna Myers looked at the pictures, Cox tracked down Raven Myers at the Fayetteville motel where she was staying and took her to have blood drawn for a DNA test.
Caison, of the CUE Center, was among a handful of people who had known about the possible link between Tristen and Eli but had planned to discuss it publicly only if the DNA test proved the boys were one and the same. Some information about the case had been posted briefly on her organization's Web site, she said, but it was intended only to be accessible to trusted CUE volunteers.
"Buddy's family and volunteers from the CUE Center knew about the Eli Quick situation weeks ago, but they decided not to involve either the public or the media until the truth was known, in order to spare the Myers family undue pressure and attention -- amid another crushing disappointment -- should Eli Quick turn out not to be Buddy Myers," Caison said.
The media move in
Early Monday morning, the information, along with Eli's name, was placed on another group's Web site where it was accessible to anyone. Someone also e-mailed it to local and national media. Caison said neither she nor any of her volunteers leaked the information.
By Monday afternoon, reporters' cars and television satellite trucks lined the sandy stretch of Microwave Tower Road near the Myerses' home. Crews filmed the boy's room, and reporters knocked on the door to ask the family to comment on every fact and rumor generated in the case. Information was coming from at least three states.
Cox, lead investigator on the case for the Sampson County Sheriff's Office, couldn't return one reporter's phone call before he got two or three new ones. "It makes it kind of tough," Cox said late in the week.
Even Raven Myers, an exotic dancer who has had another child and has not been closely involved in the search for Tristen, traveled to New York to be interviewed on television. By midweek, she had announced that if Eli turned out to be Tristen, she would fight to become his legal guardian.
Originally, Cox said it would take up to six weeks to get the results of the DNA test, which was being done by a lab in Burlington. But with the intense pressure to solve the mystery of the two boys, the company managed to expedite the test. In announcing the findings, Cox sounded saddened by the outcome but relieved that the ordeal was over.
Caison, too, said she was disappointed for Donna Myers and her family, who have not lost hope.
"I think it's going to be a rough night tonight," she said Friday, "and it'll be a little better tomorrow, and on Monday, she'll go back to work, and then I'll get a call saying, 'OK, now what do we do to find Tristen?' "
Staff writer Martha Quillin can be reached at 829-8989 or marthaq@newsobserver.com.
Justice seeker1 Mother of missing Sampson boy dies #8 [-]
Posts: 32497
(03/06/04 19:44:55)
Saturday, March 6
Mother of missing Sampson boy dies
The Associated Press
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. --
The troubled young mother of a Sampson County boy missing since 2000 was killed Friday when she jumped from a moving vehicle, Fayetteville police said.
Raven Myers, 23, died during surgery, Lt. E.B. Dalton said. She suffered massive head injuries.
The incident remained under investigation Friday night, but police do not suspect foul play. Myers was a passenger in a pickup truck.
"The evidence leans to her jumping out of the vehicle," Dalton said. "We heard there was an argument prior to them getting on the road, and for whatever reason she jumped out of the car."
On Oct. 5, 2000, Raven Myers' son, Tristen "Buddy" Myers, went missing after he slipped out of his Roseboro home while his great aunt dozed on the couch. Hundreds of people searched the fields and woods around the Myers' rural Sampson County home, but the child was never found.
The case drew national attention last year when authorities investigated the possibility that a child known as Eli Quick in Evanston, Ill., could have been Buddy Myers. DNA tests ruled out that theory.
Raven Myers never had legal custody of the child because she was 15 when he was born. The child was in the custody of Donna Myers, his great-aunt.
"I'm very hurt," Donna Myers said. "Buddy's not here. Now he's not going to get to know his mother. It's so unfair."
Donna Myers said she had not seen or talked with Raven for several months.
"Last time I had heard, she was doing fine," Donna Myers said.
Last modified: March 06. 2004 12:42AM
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