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Abandoned Boy

Aired May 28, 2003 - 13:33   ET

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

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


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: New clues now about the possible identity of that little boy found wandering the streets of Bakersfield, California just 10 days ago. A woman who says she is his mother has contacted police.
CNN's Kevin Sites joins us now with more -- Kevin.

KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, after all those days without many developments in the case of the so-called mystery boy, a couple of new developments, the one that you just mentioned, the phone call from the detective to the woman identifying herself as the mother, and now a more recent development, a local television station says they actually got a call from a viewer, that says they know who the father of the boy is. They saw the boy that has been called Matteo on video and the still photographs of him, and they say they know who the father is, and they actually passed that information on to the Bakersfield P.D.

Now joining me is Detective Mary Degeare. She is the public information officer from the Bakersfield P.D.

Can you tell me about the phone call, the most recent development?

DET. MARY DEGEARE, BAKERSFIELD POLICE: First of all, this is one of many leads that we're following. The viewer called and says that he recognized the boy as the son of somebody he knows. He gave some vague information. He gave the first name of Rigo and a vehicle description. Well, they aired that last night, and we got a call from somebody who says they know who this person is. So the detectives are working on it. And we feel confident we'll be able to contact this Rigo person today, and determine whether or not he's the father or eliminate him as a lead.

SITES: Is there information that would indicate he's the father?

DEGEARE: Not so far. It's just this person saying that, you know, I think that this little boy's father is Rigo.

SITES: Now the more significant development, the phone call on Friday, the detective called this, this is a voice-mail message left by a woman named Sochi. Tell me a little bit about that phone call.

DEGEARE: She called, was very upset. She identified her name as "Sochi." She says the boy's name is not Matteo. She identified the boy.

SITES: Jesus Flores Peres is the name she gave?

DEGEARE: Yes. She described some of his physical attributes, that if you didn't know him, you wouldn't know about these attributes.

And early on, when Detective Caldes (ph) talked to the boy, he said some things that matched up with what Sochi is saying, so we're pretty confident that she's the mother.

SITES: What is the progress in terms of tracking her down right now?

DEGEARE: Well, we have entered her name and his name into numerous databases, and we're getting some feedback from that, so it seems like every little bit we give out, we get a lot more back. So we're going to be following all these leads until we solve it.

SITES: So after a few days, as we said, without much to go on, now two significant leads that may help to identify this mystery boy, the boy that was initially called Mateo, whose name now might be Jesus Flores Peres.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Well, meanwhile, Kevin, where is this little boy? Who is taking care of him?

SITES: We speak earlier to the Kern County public defender, who is in charge of the legal representation of this boy. He's currently in foster care. Mark Arnold, who is the county public defender, says the boy is in good health. He's healthy. He's been eating well. He's very cheerful.

In fact, that's the state he was found in, Mary, is that correct, that he was actually in good shape when he was located on that evening 10 nights ago?

DEGEARE: He was frightened at first, but once he got comfortable, he has just been a joy to be around. He's a very cheerful child. and he's just been really fun to interact with.

SITES: There's a lot of people here that seem to want to adopt him. They're getting a lot of phone calls on that. But they would like to do is to find where the parents are, first.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: No doubt it just breaks your heart. Kevin Sites, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired May 28, 2003 - 13:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: New clues now about the possible identity of that little boy found wandering the streets of Bakersfield, California just 10 days ago. A woman who says she is his mother has contacted police.
CNN's Kevin Sites joins us now with more -- Kevin.

KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, after all those days without many developments in the case of the so-called mystery boy, a couple of new developments, the one that you just mentioned, the phone call from the detective to the woman identifying herself as the mother, and now a more recent development, a local television station says they actually got a call from a viewer, that says they know who the father of the boy is. They saw the boy that has been called Matteo on video and the still photographs of him, and they say they know who the father is, and they actually passed that information on to the Bakersfield P.D.

Now joining me is Detective Mary Degeare. She is the public information officer from the Bakersfield P.D.

Can you tell me about the phone call, the most recent development?

DET. MARY DEGEARE, BAKERSFIELD POLICE: First of all, this is one of many leads that we're following. The viewer called and says that he recognized the boy as the son of somebody he knows. He gave some vague information. He gave the first name of Rigo and a vehicle description. Well, they aired that last night, and we got a call from somebody who says they know who this person is. So the detectives are working on it. And we feel confident we'll be able to contact this Rigo person today, and determine whether or not he's the father or eliminate him as a lead.

SITES: Is there information that would indicate he's the father?

DEGEARE: Not so far. It's just this person saying that, you know, I think that this little boy's father is Rigo.

SITES: Now the more significant development, the phone call on Friday, the detective called this, this is a voice-mail message left by a woman named Sochi. Tell me a little bit about that phone call.

DEGEARE: She called, was very upset. She identified her name as "Sochi." She says the boy's name is not Matteo. She identified the boy.

SITES: Jesus Flores Peres is the name she gave?

DEGEARE: Yes. She described some of his physical attributes, that if you didn't know him, you wouldn't know about these attributes.

And early on, when Detective Caldes (ph) talked to the boy, he said some things that matched up with what Sochi is saying, so we're pretty confident that she's the mother.

SITES: What is the progress in terms of tracking her down right now?

DEGEARE: Well, we have entered her name and his name into numerous databases, and we're getting some feedback from that, so it seems like every little bit we give out, we get a lot more back. So we're going to be following all these leads until we solve it.

SITES: So after a few days, as we said, without much to go on, now two significant leads that may help to identify this mystery boy, the boy that was initially called Mateo, whose name now might be Jesus Flores Peres.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Well, meanwhile, Kevin, where is this little boy? Who is taking care of him?

SITES: We speak earlier to the Kern County public defender, who is in charge of the legal representation of this boy. He's currently in foster care. Mark Arnold, who is the county public defender, says the boy is in good health. He's healthy. He's been eating well. He's very cheerful.

In fact, that's the state he was found in, Mary, is that correct, that he was actually in good shape when he was located on that evening 10 nights ago?

DEGEARE: He was frightened at first, but once he got comfortable, he has just been a joy to be around. He's a very cheerful child. and he's just been really fun to interact with.

SITES: There's a lot of people here that seem to want to adopt him. They're getting a lot of phone calls on that. But they would like to do is to find where the parents are, first.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: No doubt it just breaks your heart. Kevin Sites, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com