Sayreville police launch hunt for 10-year-old runaway gone since Monday after argument
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
BY TOM HAYDON AND SHARON ADARLO
Star-Ledger Staff
The parents of a missing 10-year-old Sayreville boy who ran away from home after an argument over a school progress report made a tearful plea yesterday for their son to return home.
"We're not mad at you. We miss you," Manuel Vargas said to his son, whose name is also Manuel Vargas.
"We love him," the father said at borough police headquarters, where he appeared with his wife, Dawn Vargas, the boy's mother.
Manuel, who left home about 7 p.m. Monday, has been the subject of two searches, that night and again yesterday, involving dozens of emergency workers.
"It's not in his nature (to run away). He's a good kid and honor roll student. He's an athlete," the father said.
Dawn Vargas, her eyes left red from the experience, called her son a "pleaser."
"He always tried to please us. He was very responsible about coming home from friends'," she said.
The parents expressed grateful surprise at the outpouring of help from people searching for their son, a fifth-grader at the borough upper elementary school.
About 80 police, firefighters and volunteers searched fields and wooded areas across Sayreville late into the night yesterday.
"We had dogs out last night searching," Sayreville police detective Kenneth Kelly said of police dogs from Union County and Manalapan that were used Monday.
Police contacted officials at Manuel's school and his friends, but when the youth had not been found by yesterday afternoon, borough police called on State Police and firefighters from across Middlesex County to assist in the search.
With a command center set up at the borough rescue squad headquarters, busloads of searchers were transported out in a caravan to again scour wide areas of open land in borough parks and behind the high school.
Helmeted officers rode all-terrain vehicles over the fields, and police dogs again were brought in for the search.
Authorities acknowledged the boy might be avoiding police.
"Has he been eluding police? Does he have a friend we don't know about? It's certainly possible. He could have seen police coming through fields after him during the search," Sayreville Police Chief John Garbowski said.
Authorities, who wouldn't give any details about the argument with his mother, said Manuel may have taken extra clothes with him because officers found some clothing he apparently dropped in his backyard when he left, authorities said.
Manuel is described as Hispanic, 4-foot-10, 105 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.
He was last seen wearing gray- and-black shorts and possibly a Perth Amboy Police Department T-shirt.
Investigators also examined the boy's computer for leads about where he might have gone, authorities said.
Police issued fliers asking borough residents to check yards, sheds, garages and vehicles where the youth might hide. Anyone with information is asked to call Sayreville police at (732) 727-4444.
Tom Haydon works in the Middlesex County bureau. He can be reached at thaydon@starledger.com or (732) 404-8088.