Search continues on Red Lake Indian Reservation for missing boys

November 25, 2006

Absolutely heartbreaking...may these boys be found safe and sound. Please post this far and wide. ************ Tristan Anthony White, left; and Avery Lee Stately Anyone with information can call the FBI at (612) 376-3200 or the Red Lake Tribal Police Department at (218) 679-3313. Search Continues on Red Lake Indian Reservation for Missing

Boys FBI Offers Reward In Missing Toddlers Case Search for Minnesota brothers enters third day Search continues on Red Lake Indian Reservation for missing boys Associated Press RED LAKE, Minn. - Dozens of trained searchers took to the woods, lakes and air Friday as the search resumed for two young brothers who went missing two days earlier from the remote Red

Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe said the search began with the growing group of professionals who have been gathering in the heavily wooded reservation with hopes of finding Tristan Anthony White, 4, and Avery Lee Stately, 2. A dive team from the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office was to check lakes near the woods where the boys disappeared, although McCabe said two days of ground searching found no tell-tale breaks in the ice where the boys may have slipped in. Fixed wing aircraft were scheduled to search overhead, while federal, state and local law enforcement officers were on the ground. A rapid-response team of retired law enforcement officers from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children arrived Thursday, McCabe said. While the search started Friday with professionals, more volunteers would be requested later in the day, he said. Since the boys disappeared, at

least 300 hundred volunteers on foot, horseback and four-wheelers have combed the surrounding forest. "The response from the Red Lake nation has been overwhelming," he said. Among the searchers Thursday were Al Downwind and his children Danielle, 11, Alvin, 13, and Brandon, 7. "We felt the need to help," Al Downwind said. "All I know is that there are two young boys missing." Bloodhounds have been part of the search, and McCabe said another group of five dogs worked from 9 p.m. Thursday to about 2:30 a.m. Friday, but with no success. As the ground search widened Friday, McCabe said investigators were also checking out the possibility that the boys were abducted. "There's nothing to indicate foul play at this time, but we are pursuing a two-pronged approach," he said. The FBI offered a $20,000 reward on Friday for information about the boys, who disappeared from a yard in the Walking Shield area of the city of Red

Lake between 9:30 a.m. and 9:50 a.m. Wednesday. As darkness fell after a futile day of searching the wetlands, lakes and woods near the boys' home Thursday, tribal Chairman Floyd (Buck) Jourdain Jr. said: "It's not been a very joyous Thanksgiving here. Many of those people didn't eat dinner today. They've been out looking for those little boys." The boys, both American Indian, have short brown hair and brown eyes. Tristan was described as 3-feet-6 and wearing a dark blue Spider-man jacket with yellow trim, Levis jeans and black and gray winter boots. Avery was described as 2-feet tall and wearing a gray pullover sweat shirt that says "Timberland" on the front, faded Levis jeans and Spider-man tennis shoes. It was partly cloudy and in the mid-30s Friday morning in the area. The National Weather Service was predicting decreasing temperatures during the day and a 30 percent chance of rain or snow. The reservation

differs from most reservations around the state in that the FBI has primary law enforcement jurisdiction there. The latest turmoil over reservation children comes less than two years after 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed his grandfather and grandfather's girlfriend on the reservation on March 21, 2005, then went to the high school school and killed seven more people, including a teacher and a security guard, before killing himself. http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/state/minnesota/16085681.htm Anyone with information can call the FBI at (612) 376-3200 or the Red Lake Tribal Police Department at (218) 679-3313.

Want to start your own business? Learn how on Small Business.