Missing B.C. boy found with father sleeping in car
A B.C. father who allegedly abducted his three-year-old son and fled to Montana was captured sleeping in his car with the boy outside the home of a stranger he befriended.
The massive search for Robert Barnett, 39, and his son Alvin began on Thursday afternoon when the pair disappeared during a supervised visit near Fernie, B.C.
The Elk Valley RCMP issued an Amber Alert, and the manhunt soon covered much of Western Canada and several states after the pair was spotted crossing into the United States.
The search ended on Friday morning when a man called police to say the pair were sleeping in a car outside his home in Whitefish, Mont.
According to Dave Leib of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office, on Thursday evening Barnett approached a man at a bowling alley in Whitefish asking for money and if he could use the man’s cellphone.
During their conversation, the man agreed to buy Barnett breakfast in the morning and also told him he could sleep in his car outside the man’s house, said Leib.
But on Friday morning the man learned that Barnett was the subject of a massive manhunt and called 911. Police moved in around 7 a.m. MT.
Lieb said the father is now in custody at the Flathead detention centre in Montana and his son Alvin was in good health.
"He came down to our office, and wandered around and talked to our deputies here, He was a bright little boy, and had a stuffed giraffe that we talked about, and then he was turned over to our department of family services."
RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskoluk said Robert Barnett will be transferred back to B.C. to face charges, as early as today.
His son Alvin was reportedly transferred to the care of B.C.'s Ministry of Children and Families on Friday morning.
"He is in good condition, a little tired and hungry," said Moskaluk.
The incident began on Thursday afternoon when Barnett was on a supervised visit with his son at a hotel in Fernie, said Moskaluk
The two left the room, and when they didn't come back, police were called around 3:15 pm MT and told that the boy was missing.
At the request of the Elk Valley RCMP, officials then issued the Amber Alert, notifying the public and press across Western Canada and the United States that the two were travelling in a 2002 blue Subaru Outback with B.C. licence plates.
But by that time, the two had already been recorded crossing the border into Montana around 3 p.m.
Police in the border town of Eureka were then advised Barnett stopped there and called family in Canada asking them to send money. Officers were sent, but by the time they got there, the little boy and his dad were gone.
But while an Amber Alert had been issued in B.C., at that time south of the border there was no Amber Alert issued, and the vehicle was only described to officials there as being stolen.
The Amber Alert wasn't officially expanded to Montana until after 8 p.m., hours after the alert was issued in B.C. The alert was issued in Washington even later.
Officials speaking to CBC News couldn't explain why there was such a delay, even though the alerts did say the child may have been in imminent danger.
