The FBI found an 8-year-old Vancouver boy in Jasper County, Missouri, on Friday – eight months after he went missing, officials said.
FBI agents in Kansas City and Jasper County Sheriff deputies found Breadson John safe and put him into the Missouri Department of Social Services custody. Officials with Washington Child Protective Services are traveling to Kansas City to pick him up and return him to Washington, FBI Seattle said in a statement Tuesday.
Officials did not say who would get custody of John once he returned to Washington.
The boy was living with his grandparents, Masterino Machuo and Refoela Refalopei, at the Walnut Grove Landing apartments in the 4700 block of Northeast 72nd Avenue in Vancouver. A “community member” contacted Washington Child Protective Services last year, prompting a June 17 welfare check by police. Officers did not see the child during the welfare check.
A neighbor who used to see John playing outside told police they hadn’t seen the boy since late May or early June, said Steve Bernd, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Seattle office, which was handling the case.
John’s family members told police he wasn’t missing, but didn’t say where he was, officials said.
Machuo and Refalopei have not cooperated with the investigation, officials said. They were charged in December with custodial interference.
Machuo and Refalopei later moved out of the apartment complex but are still living in the Vancouver area, according to the FBI.
Police said in January they were trying to locate John’s parents, but their whereabouts weren’t known. They may have released custody of John to his grandparents and returned to Micronesia last year, officials said.
Officials did not say who took John or what happened to the boy during the eight months he was missing.
— Catalina Gaitán, cgaitan@oregonian.com, @catalingaitan_
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