Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Mystery of Missing Boy

Aired April 30, 2003 - 07:48   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have been following the story of a little boy lost who may have been found. Tristen "Buddy" Myers disappeared from his North Carolina home more than two years ago. Local police, the FBI and volunteers searched in vain for the 4-year- old boy.
But now, there is a possibility that Buddy may have turned up in Illinois. His family is hoping that DNA tests on the unidentified boy will confirm what they believe to be true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONNA MYERS, BUDDY'S GREAT-AUNT: When they showed us a picture of him and everything, and they told us the scars the child has and the speech he has, and it's just everything is pointing like it's him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Bob Turner is a columnist with the "Sampson Independent." He covered the story of Buddy's disappearance back in October of 2000, and he is joining us now from Roseboro, North Carolina.

Bob, thanks for being with us. Good morning.

BOB TURNER, COLUMNIST, "SAMPSON": Good morning.

KAGAN: Take us back to covering that story back in 2000. What was different about this story in terms of following a missing child story?

TURNER: Well, I guess the biggest thing that sticks out in my mind is initially, after a wave of searches, search and rescue from all over the state -- military folks, local personnel, all of the Sampson County Sheriff's Department people -- were out here combing the woods extensively.

And then five days after the disappearance, the three-legged dog returned. And when that dog returned, he was in exceptional shape considering the environment around you with the animals and the bugs and what-not. This dog was definitely not out in the woods for that period of time Buddy was missing. And that was rather odd to me.

KAGAN: And what about the parents in this case? That seems to be the kind of underlying story that the birth mother who has given DNA, I guess she was young when Buddy was born, never really had custody of him. TURNER: Correct. From what I understand, the mother was actually out of state at the time, and Buddy was actually staying with another family member out of the area, and then was brought here to stay with Ms. Donna Myers. And mom, at that point early on, hadn't had a whole lot of interaction with the situation. And I know Donna was pretty much at the front of the crowd, so to speak, in the search efforts.

KAGAN: And so, you've covered the story since the beginning. How many leads, how many times did it pop up, or has it kind of been dormant and quiet over the last couple of years?

TURNER: Well, no, I think initially the leads were just immense, calls from all over the world basically. Darrell Cox (ph) with the Sheriff's Department, and at the time retired Major John Hays (ph), were pretty much at the forefront of that. And the leads were just every day. Every day there were leads.

And these folks here went out of their way to talk with everybody possible that felt they had any information. And, of course, all of those leads panned out to be fruitless. But it was an immense amount of information in the beginning.

KAGAN: And now, of course, nothing more that more information than you have right now, this little boy that we're hearing about in Illinois, you hear about the scars on his neck, you hear about the speech impediment. Do you think that this is the same child that disappeared, the same child you started covering back in 2000?

TURNER: I'm optimistically cautious. I'd like to believe it's him. I would say that between the speech impediment and the scars, it would be very hard-pressed to believe that this little boy is not the same boy that disappeared from here. But, again, I think everybody is being cautiously optimistic. And you know, you want to get your hopes up, but then again you don't want to be let down either. It's been a long road for the last two years for this family particularly.

KAGAN: It certainly has. And as we've heard, it's going to take a few more weeks for that DNA match to be complete. I'm sure you'll be covering it for your paper.

Bob Turner from the "Sampson Independent," thanks for joining us from North Carolina this morning.

TURNER: Thank you.

KAGAN: We appreciate it.

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 April 30, 2003 - 07:48   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have been following the story of a little boy lost who may have been found. Tristen "Buddy" Myers disappeared from his North Carolina home more than two years ago. Local police, the FBI and volunteers searched in vain for the 4-year- old boy.
But now, there is a possibility that Buddy may have turned up in Illinois. His family is hoping that DNA tests on the unidentified boy will confirm what they believe to be true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONNA MYERS, BUDDY'S GREAT-AUNT: When they showed us a picture of him and everything, and they told us the scars the child has and the speech he has, and it's just everything is pointing like it's him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Bob Turner is a columnist with the "Sampson Independent." He covered the story of Buddy's disappearance back in October of 2000, and he is joining us now from Roseboro, North Carolina.

Bob, thanks for being with us. Good morning.

BOB TURNER, COLUMNIST, "SAMPSON": Good morning.

KAGAN: Take us back to covering that story back in 2000. What was different about this story in terms of following a missing child story?

TURNER: Well, I guess the biggest thing that sticks out in my mind is initially, after a wave of searches, search and rescue from all over the state -- military folks, local personnel, all of the Sampson County Sheriff's Department people -- were out here combing the woods extensively.

And then five days after the disappearance, the three-legged dog returned. And when that dog returned, he was in exceptional shape considering the environment around you with the animals and the bugs and what-not. This dog was definitely not out in the woods for that period of time Buddy was missing. And that was rather odd to me.

KAGAN: And what about the parents in this case? That seems to be the kind of underlying story that the birth mother who has given DNA, I guess she was young when Buddy was born, never really had custody of him. TURNER: Correct. From what I understand, the mother was actually out of state at the time, and Buddy was actually staying with another family member out of the area, and then was brought here to stay with Ms. Donna Myers. And mom, at that point early on, hadn't had a whole lot of interaction with the situation. And I know Donna was pretty much at the front of the crowd, so to speak, in the search efforts.

KAGAN: And so, you've covered the story since the beginning. How many leads, how many times did it pop up, or has it kind of been dormant and quiet over the last couple of years?

TURNER: Well, no, I think initially the leads were just immense, calls from all over the world basically. Darrell Cox (ph) with the Sheriff's Department, and at the time retired Major John Hays (ph), were pretty much at the forefront of that. And the leads were just every day. Every day there were leads.

And these folks here went out of their way to talk with everybody possible that felt they had any information. And, of course, all of those leads panned out to be fruitless. But it was an immense amount of information in the beginning.

KAGAN: And now, of course, nothing more that more information than you have right now, this little boy that we're hearing about in Illinois, you hear about the scars on his neck, you hear about the speech impediment. Do you think that this is the same child that disappeared, the same child you started covering back in 2000?

TURNER: I'm optimistically cautious. I'd like to believe it's him. I would say that between the speech impediment and the scars, it would be very hard-pressed to believe that this little boy is not the same boy that disappeared from here. But, again, I think everybody is being cautiously optimistic. And you know, you want to get your hopes up, but then again you don't want to be let down either. It's been a long road for the last two years for this family particularly.

KAGAN: It certainly has. And as we've heard, it's going to take a few more weeks for that DNA match to be complete. I'm sure you'll be covering it for your paper.

Bob Turner from the "Sampson Independent," thanks for joining us from North Carolina this morning.

TURNER: Thank you.

KAGAN: We appreciate it.

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