Dad Skips Search for Missing Son

Fox News ^ | Saturday, November 27, 2004

[cateizgr8]

KITTITAS, Wash. — People here have come together to try to find an 11-year-old boy missing since September, with two important exceptions: his father, and the father's live-in girlfriend. A community search and a candlelight vigil for Richard "Cody" Haynes Jr. (search) took place without Richard "Rick" Haynes and Marla Jaye Harding, who have retained a lawyer and refuse to talk formally with investigators. "Their behavior is definitely curious," Kittitas Police Chief Steve Dunnagan told The Spokesman-Review in Spokane. "It does make us ask, 'Why does he have to have an attorney to help us find his son?"' Dunnagan, who leads a two-member force in this central Washington town of about 1,100, said police "don't have squat" in the search for Cody, who was last seen Sept. 11 at his family's home in an old, two-story apartment.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

May God bless that poor child.

[Gum Shoe]

Reference Mark Hacking and Scott Peterson for behavior models.

[investigateworld]

Amen

[Bob]

"It does make us ask, 'Why does he have to have an attorney to help us find his son?"'

Hey Chief -- Asking that question presumes that he hired the attorney to help you find his son and not to protect him and his girlfriend from legal trouble. You might want to re-examine that presumption, ya think?

[codyjacksmom]

That poor kid. What chance does he have with a screwed up family like that. May God protect him.

[ppaul]

Maybe Dad skipped the search because he already knows where the boy is.
Why bother going out in the cold?

[gop_gene]

Many, if not most, defense lawyers will say of this dad's questionable behavior, just as they did with Scott Peterson, that everyone reacts "differently" when they're in this kind of situation.

[Calico Cat]

ANY parent whose child is missing would be searching 24/7 for him or her, not holing up with an attorney. That is, unless they have something to hide.

[gop_gene]

Exactly. But most defense attorneys fall back on this excuse to try to explain away their client's unconventional actions. Because they can hardly claim, with any credibility, that this is how innocent people would act.

[daddyOwe]

2 yrs ago my son 16 at the time was on his way to work and decided to take a ride on some back roads. He ended up stuck in the snow and off the beaten track. I spent the whole night in a 4 wheel drive looking for him. It was the worse night of my life. I couldn't imagine sitting idly by and not doing anything.

[sinanju]

"The boy refused to put leftovers away and do the dishes. As discipline, he was ordered to sit in the kitchen until almost midnight, when he was sent to a second-floor bedroom, the chief said. His four sisters were told to stay away from their brother's room.


"About 2:30 a.m., Mr. Haynes told us he left the home to go looking for car parts," the chief said. The 43-year-old Haynes is a tow-truck operator in Ellensburg (search) who is restoring a 1954 Kaiser, the newspaper said.

In preliminary discussions, the chief said, Haynes told investigators that he drove hundreds of miles before returning home about 4 p.m. Sunday. He reported the boy missing two hours later.

The chief visited the home Sept. 17 but Harding, 39, told him he could not question the girls,"
____________________________________________________________

To say that this looks bad is putting it mildly. Looks to me like Daddy dearest and Cruella deliberately made sure they would do ol' Scott Peterson one better. My guess (and I hate to make guesses like this, but I'm just not feeling optimistic here) is that he bloodlessly smothered the boy, stuffed his body in a sack and then spent up to fourteen hours on the road going to and from a pre-arranged burial place several hundred miles away. The daughters didn't see or hear a thing (they were removed from the home a few days later in any case). Daddy snuck out some time in the wee hours (looking for car parts at 0230?). Neither party is going to say a thing to anyone. No body will ever be found. And they don't give good goddam what the neighbors think. End of story.

[hershey]

Did Pop buy life insurance on the boy?

[mtbopfuyn]

That poor child. As if someone goes out at 2:30 in the morning to buy car parts. The father is as guilty as sin.

[stockpirate]

When I first heard this story on the news I thought something was very fishy about the dads account of what happened. Sounds like he is a believer in after the birth abortions.

[raybbr]

As discipline, he was ordered to sit in the kitchen until almost midnight, when he was sent to a second-floor bedroom, the chief said. His four sisters were told to stay away from their brother's room.

"About 2:30 a.m., Mr. Haynes told us he left the home to go looking for car parts," the chief said. The 43-year-old Haynes is a tow-truck operator in Ellensburg (search) who is restoring a 1954 Kaiser, the newspaper said.

In preliminary discussions, the chief said, Haynes told investigators that he drove hundreds of miles before returning home about 4 p.m. Sunday. He reported the boy missing two hours later.

If you were the chief, what would you think about his hiring the lawyer?

[foolscap]

Shopping for auto parts at 2:30 am and needing to drive hundreds of miles to do it? Sounds strange to me.

[Dick Vomer]

Shopping for auto parts at 2:30 am and needing to drive hundreds of miles to do it? Sounds strange to me.

Sounds logical to me. Heck I make my own anchors out of concrete.

signed

Scott Peterson

[Bluedaddy]

How come this keeps happening in the blue states?

[ken5050]

Why didn't he hire Mark Geragos?