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Sources: Early tests show boy not missing child
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Preliminary genetic tests indicate a boy abandoned at a Chicago-area hospital is not Tristen "Buddy" Myers, who disappeared from his aunt's North Carolina home more than two years ago, law enforcement sources told CNN Thursday. The sources said they are 90 percent sure the two boys are not the same, not only because of the initial DNA findings, but also based on interviews with the Illinois boy's self-described father, Ricky Quick. In addition, the eye color of the two children seems to be different. The FBI said Wednesday that comparison tests were inconclusive, forcing authorities to wait until the end of the week to get genetic test results. State and local investigators took DNA samples from the boy in Chicago known as Eli Quick -- who officials said appears to be between 6 and 8 years old -- and the missing boy's birth mother to prove whether they are related. Buddy Myers disappeared October 5, 2000, from the home of his great-aunt and great-uncle in Roseboro, North Carolina. He was with his three-legged mutt, Buck, and his black Doberman puppy, Sasha. The dogs later returned, but Buddy did not. He was then 4 years old. In early February, Quick brought a boy he identified as Eli to an Evanston, Illinois, hospital, saying he wanted the boy evaluated for "aggressive behavior," said Jill Manuel of the Illinois Department of Family and Children's Services. He threatened to leave the boy at the hospital, she said. Seeing the boy was filthy, and fearing parental neglect, hospital workers called police, Manuel said. Police arrested Ricky Quick, 33, on an outstanding shoplifting warrant, but he was later released and never returned for the boy, who was turned over to foster care, Manuel said. Social workers who interviewed the boy in Chicago said he was not able to tell them his birthday or offer much information about his family, so they contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They soon found he bears a strong resemblance to Buddy Myers from North Carolina. Officials said the two boys share the same scar on the side of their necks and same speech impediment. Raven Myers, the 22-year-old mother of the missing North Carolina boy, had joint custody of Buddy after giving birth to him in Louisiana at age 15. After Raven Myers' mother became terminally ill, Buddy was taken to live with his great-aunt and great-uncle in Roseboro, where he later disappeared. A topless dancer at Sharky's Cabaret in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Raven Myers said if the boy abandoned in Illinois is her son, she will fight for custody. She lives in a Fayetteville motel.
"I want him to have the kind of relationship he needs to have with his mama, which is me," she said. Raven Myers has custody of an 18-month-old daughter. Raven Myers said she gave a blood sample Monday to see whether her DNA matches a sample taken from the boy in Chicago. Jackie Jacobs, a Myers family spokeswoman, asked Wednesday afternoon for a government official to intervene and speed up the DNA testing process, "and bring closure to this family." Quick was relocated after he was released on the shoplifting warrant and late Tuesday was questioned by FBI agents in Chicago. The FBI said he went with the agents voluntarily and was not in custody. Quick, who told reporters he was not charged, said the boy he calls Eli is his stepson, the product of an extramarital affair his now-deceased wife had during their 17-year marriage. Quick's wife, Sharon Smith, died in a car crash last May that left Eli with injuries. Raven Myers, so-named because her mother was a fan of Edgar Allen Poe, thinks the boy in Chicago is her son. She said she was questioned after her son disappeared and took a lie detector test to prove she had nothing to do with her son's disappearance. CNN's Mike Brooks, Gary Tuchman, Kimberly Osias and Jeff Flock contributed to this report.
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