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California Authorities Still Have No Motive in Abduction of 9- Year-Old Boy

Aired August 28, 2002 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: California authorities say they still have no motive in the apparent abduction of a 9-year-old boy. Police say Nicholas Farber was snatched at gunpoint from his home overnight during an home invasion.
CNN's John Vause is following the developments from Palm Desert.

John, what do you know.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, it's been eight hours now since Nicholas was taken from his home, just a little boy, just nine years old. Police say he's got brown hair, with blond highlights, he stands 4 1/2 feet tall, and they say two men broke into his home. It was about 2:00 local time a.m. when that happened. They say there a fight that took place between the boy's father and the two men. They say they were armed. The father was injured in the scuffle. These two men apparently leaving behind their weapon.

That is all they will tell us as far as the weapons go. They won't give us any specific details on what exactly some of these men were armed with. They said that some of those weapons were, in fact, left behind, and these two men escaped in a white SUV. And they could have been more people inside of that white SUV. Now they have issued a modified Amber Alert, basically a local Amber Alert. The CAC has not issued a statewide Amber Alert, basically because they say they just don't have enough information at this stage to issue a statewide Amber Alert.

Now the mother is not in the house. She does not live with the father. We're told that she lives out of state, but the father has been released if hospital and is back at the house, and according to police, he is assisting with inquires and answering their questions at this stage.

PHILLIPS: John, was the home robbed?

VAUSE: At this stage, we don't think that anything was taken. It just looks like it was purely a case that these men broke into the house with the pure intention of snatching this boy. Apart from the incident with the father, there was nothing else that happened. They fought with the father, they took the boy, and then they left. So nothing else was taken. That's at least what we're being told at this stage.

PHILLIPS: Do we know if the father knew these abductors? VAUSE: Don't know that one at this stage. There is a lot of speculation as to what may have happened. I spoke with some of the neighbors around the house, they say, look, this is just a very ordinary middle class family, it's a very nice neighborhood, it's a middle class area of Palm Desert, $200,000 homes, very ordinary middle America.

As for a motive, there is a lot of speculation, but nothing that police will give us any indication of what may have happened, or the reason for this happening.

PHILLIPS: Now, John, these weapons left behind, are police lifting fingerprints from those weapons, and seeing, by chance, if they can get an owner on those weapons, but more than likely, they are probably stolen,. but are they looking into that?

VAUSE: Yes, they are looking at these weapons. They are refusing to give us the specifics about what these weapons. The police are out here being very cagey on specific details that we would normally get.

Of course the whole motive and the whole situation, circumstances surrounding this kidnapping seem to be very hazy at this stage. But certainly, they are looking at those weapons. There have been forensic detectives inside the house. The FBI have been called in. So have the sheriff's department for the Riverside County. So a lot of law enforcement agencies looking into this right now.

PHILLIPS: John Vause on the story, we'll check in with you again. Thanks, John.

Joining us for more on what authorities know about Nicholas Farber's disappearance is Joann Donnellan. She's with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington.

Hi, Joann.

JOANN DONNELLAN, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN: Hi, how are you?

PHILLIPS: Well not so good when you hear a story like this. There have been way too many this summer. What do you know so far about the disappearance of this little boy?

DONNELLAN: Well, I can tell you that we received the case, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, received the case this morning, and we initially developed a poster, which is now on our Web site for those to go to missingkids.com. We have a case manager who is working on the case, and details you know are sketchy at this point.

You know, we don't know the circumstances, which is very important that we can't really judge at this juncture what exactly has happened. But we do know that an Amber Alert was issued locally, and that is very important, that everybody in the community pay attention, to look at his picture, to know what Nicholas looks like, to know what the car the abductors was driving, so that's really important.

PHILLIPS: Joann, why isn't an Amber Alert issued nationally?

DONNELLAN: Well, right now, we not have a national Amber Alert system, nor would that be appropriate. It would not be appropriate for a radio and television station in New York City to interrupt programming for a case in Riverside, because really, the Amber Alert is all about engaging the community of which the child was taken the very first hours of the case.

It would take days to drive the child to New York per se, so the Amber Alerts go out locally, regionally and statewide. I am sure if law enforcement agents see they have information they believe that child is taken throughout state of California, that a statewide Amber Alert would be issued.

But this is very important for the American public to understand. Because again, we do not want to overuse the system, we don't want to abuse the system, or make the public numb to it.

PHILLIPS: I guess CNN is a bit of a national amber alert, if you will, right?

DONNELLAN: In a way. But that's why it is important to say a local Amber Alert has gone out in Riverside County, as opposed to saying there is a national Amber Alert out for Nicholas. Very important to distinction to be made.

But I will tell you, the media plays a very powerful role in the case. So it's wonderful that you are showing his picture and giving the details. We know at the National Center for Missing and Exploited children in Washington that one out of six children are safely recovered based on fact that someone has seen a child's photograph on television or a missing child poster.

So very powerful statistic, and the public plays a very powerful role in helping to find these children.

PHILLIPS: We've reported so many stories in last couple of months about missing little girls. Now we have a little boy that's missing. Any significant to that, or does it strike you differently in any way?

DONNELLAN: Well, we do know that 65 percent of the cases of abducted children are female, 35 percent are boys. You know, it can happen; it just tends to happen to girls more often. And we don that in 81 percent of cases, that child is usually between 12 to 17.

So it can happen to, you know, any child but we see a tendency towards girls.

And we just want people to know that there is safety information out there, and you can go to the web site. We have a wealth of information for families. And again, this home invasion as it has been called, is a very rare situation. Again, we don't understand the motive just yet, or the circumstances, so we should -- everybody out in the community should not fear that someone will break into their home.

PHILLIPS: FBI numbers, Joann, show that kidnappings are not up, either, right?

DONNELLAN: Right, no, exactly. Our statistics show that they are consistent with last summer. So the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington is trying to just make people to be more street smart, and understand, you know, to be cautious. You know, we live in a different society now, and you know, there are plenty of things that parents can do, especially when you are looking at home invasions. You can have security systems. You can have motion-detector lighting outside of your home, you know, solid locks on your doors to lock your doors at night. And also to make sure that, you know, your shrubs, or anything close to the home is cut very short, so you know, no one can be lurking behind there.

So there is so much that parents can do to take a proactive role in this situation.

PHILLIPS: All right, Joann Donnellan, thank you.

DONNELLAN: Thank you.

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