FBI finds Washington boy in Missouri 7 months after disappearance; grandparents face charges
Breadson John was found 'happy and healthy' in Kansas City, Missouri, after he went missing from Vancouver, Washington, in 2022
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The FBI and local law enforcement were able to track down an 8-year-old boy who went missing from Vancouver, Washington, in June, and his grandparents now face pending charges.
The FBI's Seattle field office on Wednesday announced that they found Breadson John in Kansas City, Missouri, where he is currently in Missouri’s Department of Social Services custody.
"The fact that… from the time we issued the release saying we were looking for him on [January] 23, and he was recovered a month later – talk about a win and how the publicity… actually works," Steven Bernd, a spokesperson for FBI Seattle, told Fox News Digital. "You kind of think the worst. You hear about missing kids… and then to find him alive and healthy – it's just very exciting."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}His grandparents, who had custody of John at the time of his disappearance, "seemed very suspicious" to investigators right off the bat, Bernd said.
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The FBI has located missing Breadson John, who disappeared from his Vancouver, Washington, home in June 2022. (FBI)
When the Vancouver police first showed up at the apartment complex where John lived with his grandparents in June 2022, his grandparents dismissed authorities.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"He was nowhere to be found, and his grandparents wouldn't tell them. They were very uncooperative. They said he wasn't missing but… they're not going to give us any information about where he is," Bernd said. "Then, a couple weeks later, they moved out of the apartment complex."
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The Vancouver Police Department asked for FBI assistance in November or December 2022, and the agency produced a missing person poster in January 2023.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Breadson John's grandparents face pending charges in his disappearance. (FBI)
Word got out to some of John's family members that the FBI was now involved in the search for the 8-year-old.
"Why grandma and grandpa weren't cooperating, I think, is the most important question," Bernd said. "We were able to establish that he had been flown to Missouri in August by his grandfather and left there.… His grandfather flew home."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}There is "a gap" between when John was transported to Kansas City and the time the FBI got a lead regarding the 8-year-old's whereabouts and contacted the Kansas City field office.
When FBI Kansas City began to share the boy's missing poster throughout the area, the aunt he had been staying with contacted family and made them aware that the FBI was involved in the search for John, according to Bernd.
"And then we showed up and picked him up," Bernd said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The boy's grandparents are facing pending charges in Washington state. Any federal charges will come from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Washington Child Protective Services is traveling to Missouri, where they will collect John and bring him back to his home state.