Boy Missing More Than 2 Years May Be Found

Authorities Test To Confirm Recently Found Boy's Identity

POSTED: 2:46 p.m. EDT April 29, 2003
UPDATED: 2:48 p.m. EDT April 29, 2003

CHICAGO -- A 6-year-old boy who turned up in a Chicago hospital may be Tristen
"Buddy'' Myers, who disappeared from his family's North Carolina home more than two
years ago, authorities said.

Authorities conducted DNA tests Monday on the boy,
who shares the same facial features, scars and
speech impediment as Buddy, Sampson County (N.C.)
Sheriff's Sgt. Darold Cox said.

"The chin, the ears, eyes, speech impediment, scars
look similar to Buddy,'' Cox said after talking with
Illinois child care workers.

Buddy, who was 4 at the time, hadn't been seen
since he wandered away from his aunt's home on
Oct. 5, 2000 with his two dogs.

Investigators took a DNA sample from Buddy's mother, Raven, last week and performed
a match test Monday, Illinois Department of Child and Family Services spokeswoman Jill
Manuel said. It will take 4-6 weeks to receive the results.

The boy had been with a man who was taken into custody after he brought the child
to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill. and asked doctors to do something about his
"aggressive behavior,'' Manuel said.

The hospital staff became suspicious when the man tried to leave with the boy. They
called Evanston police, who discovered the man was wanted for shoplifting.

Manuel said she called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after the
boy could not explain some "holes'' in his background. The center compared the boy's
profile to its database of missing children and contacted police in North Carolina.

The boy has been turned over to social workers in Chicago, Manuel said.

Sampson County Sheriff's Office Lt. Ricky Mattocks said local investigators hesitated
before releasing new information about the case.

"We get a bunch of leads everyday,'' he said. "Stuff comes in all the time and we
waited until we were sure.''

Buddy's aunt, Donna Myers, said local investigators asked her to come to the sheriff's
office in Clinton, N.C., on April 1 to look at a picture of the boy.

Donna Myers said she told investigators that the boy in the picture had a scar on his
neck similar to one Buddy had.

"There are so many things that point to it being him that we are just praying that it
is,'' she said. "If it's not him, he's got a twin.''

Buddy was living with Myers for two months before his disappearance. Born to a
teenage mother, Buddy had lived with his maternal grandmother until she was
diagnosed with cancer. Another relative who took him in accidentally injured the boy
while working on a car, and Buddy went to live with Myers. Authorities said he slipped
out the back door of Myers' home in western Sampson County while she slept.
Thousands of searchers -- including soldiers from nearby Fort Bragg and helicopter
teams using infrared technology -- looked in vain for him.

But now, authorities have their best lead in years.

"I do a lot of praying,'' Myers said, "and I believe God is going to answer my prayers.''

Buddy would be more than 6-1/2 years old. He has blond hair and blue eyes. He was
just over 3 feet tall at the time of his disappearance.

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Boy Has Tragic Past

Investigators who have worked to find Buddy Myers know enough about the life of the
young boy to figure out some things.

"This child has never had a chance,'' said Darold Cox,
the lead investigator for the Sampson County, N.C.,
Sheriff's Office.

Buddy's mother, Raven Myers, was a stripper who
doesn't know who his father is. They lived with her
grandparents because his mother was too young --
she was 15 when he was born -- under Mississippi
law to keep custody of him. He moved to North
Carolina to live with relatives after a drunken
accident in Louisiana, where he was living with his
grandfather in November 1999.

It was there that Robert Myers got drunk while working on a car, according to court
records. He rolled the car backward, not realizing that Buddy was behind it.

Buddy walked up to his grandfather covered in blood. He suffered a deep cut on his
head, second-degree burns on his face, hands and feet, and a broken leg, records
say.

A friend took Robert and Buddy Myers to a hospital, where Robert Myers was charged
with drunken driving, first-degree vehicular negligence causing injury and cruelty to a
juvenile.

The next year, Buddy moved to Roseboro to live with his great-uncle John Myers after
his grandmother contracted a liver disease.

John Myers and his wife, Donna, knew almost nothing about the boy. They had never
met him, but they had heard he was a good child. When John Myers drove to Louisiana
to get Buddy, he was handed the boy and three changes of clothes.

"Raven did not show any emotions regarding John bringing Tristen back to N.C.,''
according to a statement John Myers made to investigators.

Initially, Donna Myers said, everything went smoothly. Buddy played well with her
grandchildren and seemed to be adjusting to his new life. But his emotional state
quickly deteriorated. He began hitting the grandchildren. He started biting and
scratching himself.

Donna Myers' daughter, Sherry Hicks, said Buddy's problem had been diagnosed as
attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.

But no one can explain why he killed a family dog on the night of Sept. 24, 2000, 11
days before he disappeared.

"He got up in the middle of the night and was going to give the puppy a shower,''
Donna Meyers wrote in her statement to investigators. "He had the dog by the neck
and was shaking it. It was old. It may have had a heart attack.''

Other reports show that a dog's tooth was found in the bathtub.

"Tristen didn't understand the dog dying,'' John Myers said in his statement. "Tristen
tried to dig up the dog to carry (the) dog to the doctor.''

Buddy spent five days in a mental hospital soon after that, undergoing a battery of
tests and analyses. Records show that doctors assessed Buddy as emotionally and
physically underdeveloped. He spoke few words and had trouble understanding simple
directions and concepts, doctors said.

"I would be surprised if he could say his name, Tristen Myers, and he was from
Roseboro,'' one doctor wrote.

Physicians said they were unable to complete a psychological evaluation and
recommended that Tristen be placed in an evaluation center.

He was sent home on Sept. 29 as an outpatient, records show. Three days later, he
walked away from his home. A neighbor who lived about a half-mile away returned him
to his home.

Three days later, Tristen left while Donna Myers was napping.

Five days after his disappearance, Buck, the three-legged Chihuahua that Tristen had
slept with every night, returned home. Ten days later, the family's Doberman did the
same. Neither dog showed signs of having been in the woods.

Raven Myers, now 22, works in Fayetteville as a stripper and lives in northeastern
Sampson County with her father.

On Jan. 25, records show, a Harnett County social worker filed a report saying that
Raven Myers' 3-month-old baby, Milana, suffered a skull fracture. Raven Myers said a
roommate caused the injury and has since left the state. The child recovered and
continues to live with her mother.

She has continued to believe that Buddy is alive since his disappearance.

"Somebody is keeping him for themselves,'' she said. "There is nothing I can do,'' Raven
Myers said. "I just have to move on with my life and worry about my daughter right
now.''