Earlier this morning, we reported that a man had been informed live on air by Nancy Grace that his son — who had been missing for 11 days — had been found alive in his basement, despite searches by the Detroit police, the FBI, Michigan police, bloodhounds, and cadaver dogs which had not turned anything up. Nancy Grace being Nancy Grace — A SENSATIONALIST MONSTER — revealed to the father that his son had been found in the basement, but didn’t immediately reveal that he was alive. It was during that moment in which the man — Charlie Bothuell — looked stunned, and it’s hard to say if he was stunned to learn that his son had been found or that he’d been found alive.
We have an update.
It’s a weird story anyway you look at it. How did the authorities miss seeing the kid hiding in the basement? Why was he being concealed by a make-shift structure? Why did he have food with him? Why was he relieved to see the police when he was found? Why did he only turn up after police turned the child into a potential homicide investigation?
We still don’t know the answers to that, but some details that have been released might allow us to make some assumptions. For instance, we now know that the child had not in fact been in the basement the entire time. According to Detroit police, he had been in a separate location. In fact, the basement area had clearly been staged, and the 12 year old had only been there a short while. However, the kid was wearing the same clothes he had on when he went missing. His mental condition is currently good, though he is still in the hospital being monitored.
Here’s the sketchy details: A PVC pipe found in another location is part of the investigation. Blood was found on the child’s clothing, in the house, and in the father’s trunk. Bothuell also broke into tears when the homicide possibility was mentioned to him again (at the 1:50 mark).
The strangest thing to me, however, is the fact that — as of 12:30 p.m., at least 14 hours after he was found, the father hasn’t been allowed to see his son.
It’s a weird story, but on the other hand, at least the boy wasn’t “floating away in a balloon.”
Source: Detriot Free Press