Ricky Holland
Posted on 07/06/2005 4:26:52 AM PDT by ShadowDancer
Search Continues For Missing 7-Year-Old Boy
Authorities Believe Child Left Home Voluntarily
POSTED: 11:01 am EDT July 5, 2005
WILLIAMSTON, Mich. -- The search for a missing 7-year-old boy suspected of running away from home entered its fourth day Tuesday after police and hundreds of volunteers failed to find him over the holiday weekend.
Authorities believe Ricky Holland voluntarily left his house in Williamston, about 15 miles east of Lansing in Ingham County, after his parents put him to bed on Friday night. He was reported missing Saturday.
The Ingham County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday that authorities continued their search for the boy. After failed searches Saturday and Sunday, about 50 police officers joined volunteers in the search on Independence Day.
Ricky's parents, Tim and Lisa Holland, said the ordeal is taking a toll.
"Right now I feel numb," Tim Holland told the Lansing State Journal. "I feel like I have nothing left to give. All I have left is hope and prayer."
The Hollands discovered that Ricky was not sleeping in his bed Saturday morning, and a statewide Amber Alert, where broadcast media outlets are asked to air information about a missing child, was later issued.
The Hollands found Ricky's bed pushed toward an open window, and his backpack and shoes were gone. The boy has run away before, but never for this long.
The Hollands asked anyone who has seen Ricky to call the sheriff's department.
Running away already at 7 y/o.
Very sad!!
Prayers for the family!
And because Ricky isn't a young, beautiful woman, this story will get little coverage.
I hope he returns home soon.
The oldest of five children, Ricky has attention-deficit disorder and bipolar disorder. He has run away before but never for this long.
My oldest has some of the same problems. I feel for these parents....
Praying for a good end. : (
Do you know if bipolar usually requires medication in a small child?
I don't know. I guess it depends on the severity, and whether other treatments help.
My son hasn't been diagnosed bi-polar, but we are watching some behaviors that tend in that direction.
I just checked the National Amber Alert site and a Michigan Amber Alert has been issued.
Amber Alert Issued For Missing Boy, 7 Child Last Seen By Adoptive Parents
Authorities have issued an Amber Alert for a 7-year-old Ingham County boy.
Ricky Holland was last seen Friday at a home in Williamston, Mich., where he lives with his adoptive parents.
The couple tucked him in at about 9:30 p.m. and woke the next morning to find his window was open and the child was missing.Helicopters, dive teams, and officers on foot and horseback were searching Saturday night for Ricky.
He's diagnosed with bipolar mood disorder, ADHD, and ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder), among others. He doesn't have his medications, and no one knows just what to expect.
His was a troubled childhood. Ricky first came to Tim and Lisa Holland's home as a foster kid when he was three.
"We thought we could do it," Lisa says. "We just wanted to give him a good start, a second chance," Tim adds.
He was never an easy kid, but they made him a part of their family because they love him.
Friday night, Tim says he and Ricky had something of a fight. True, his impulsive son's runaway before, but they say it was never anything more than curiosity. More importantly, it was never for more than a few hours.
"The child with mental health issues, doesn't know when to draw back from that," explains Dr. Marsha Rappley.
She's a specialist in developmental and behavioral psychology. She says with Ricky's conditions, rare for a child his age, her concerns with how his special needs affect him if he's out there.
She adds his judgments likely hurt further by his isolation from his family.
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