Job well done to Vancouver Police Department, FBI Kansas City, and the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office for finding the boy who went missing 8 months ago alive nearly 2,000 miles from home.
Authorities had been looking for the Washington state boy since last summer flew with his grandfather in August to Missouri, where he was found safe with an aunt last week, said Steve Bernd, a spokesperson with the FBI’s Seattle office.
Breadson John, of Vancouver in Washington, was found in Jasper, Missouri, on February 7, the FBI’s Seattle division confirmed on Tuesday, February 21.
Breadson was first listed as missing on June 17, 2022, when Vancouver police were unable to locate the boy during a welfare check after family members became concerned.
At the time of his disappearance, authorities said Breadson might have traveled to Hawaii, where he was born, or to Arizona or the Pacific island nation of the Federated States of Micronesia.
Information generated from publicity in the case recently led the FBI to Sarcoxie, Missouri, where Breadson was found Friday with an aunt, Bernd said Wednesday.
The FBI learned the boy had flown with his grandfather to Kansas City, Missouri, on August 17, said Steve Bernd, a spokesperson with the FBI’s Seattle office.
‘The grandfather flew back to Washington state, and Breadson was not with him,’ he said.
Breadson is in the custody of the Missouri Department of Social Services, and will be escorted back to his home state by Washington Child Protective Services, KGW8 reported.
‘Breadson’s recovery would not have been possible without the combined efforts of the Vancouver Police Department, FBI Kansas City, and the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office,’ Richard A. Collodi, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office, told the outlet.
‘We are relieved at this outcome and how quickly we were able to resolve it.
‘You think the worst when you hear a child is missing. Just to get him back safe and alive, everyone is very pleased with how this played out,’ he said.
FBI agents are trying to piece together Breadson’s movements from June to August and since he arrived in Missouri, Bernd said.
Bernd said he did not know whether Breadson was enrolled in school.
Investigators are also trying to determine why he was taken to Missouri and why his custodians, his grandparents, have not been cooperative with investigators.
The boy’s grandparents Masterino Machuo and Refoela Refalopei each face a charge of misdemeanor custodial interference, according to records from Clark County District Court in Washington.
They pleaded not guilty in December, court records showed. Machuo is scheduled to go to trial in April and Refalopei in May, according to the court.
