Few Clues In Search For Missing Boys

Searchers planned to bring in more tracking dogs Thursday and increase the search area to help find two boys who disappeared while playing outside Sunday and haven't been seen since.

"We absolutely don't have any information about where they would be and why they would leave of their own accord," police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said Thursday at a news conference. "We just simply don't know where they are."

They planned to expand the search area outside the 100 square blocks they had been concentrating on, she said. Police also planned to bring in tracking dogs from northern Illinois.

Schwartz said they didn't have substantial leads despite hundreds of phone calls to a tip line. The FBI also planned to bring in a mobile command post to help and divers from four law enforcement agencies were planning to search a local park lagoon, she said.

"So far all the leads have lead to dead ends," Schwartz told reporters Wednesday.

"We haven't gotten calls from people who've said, 'I've seen them here or there,"' which is unusual, Schwartz said.

Multiple sources have also increased the reward for information leading to the safe recovery of the two, which was up to $17,000, she said.

"I know somebody's got them," said Garry Henning, the grandfather of missing 12-year-old Quadrevion Henning.

Angela Virginia, the mother of 11-year-old Purvis Virginia Parker, said she believed the same thing — that the boys wouldn't have wandered away on their own.

"I believe they've been forced against their will," said Virginia, as she wiped tears from her eyes. "He may be missing for now, but soon he'll be home."

The search that began earlier in the week intensified Wednesday, with dozens of police officers searching on foot and knocking on doors in a larger radius around the homes of the boys, who live 2½ blocks apart in a quiet neighborhood of small homes.

The hunt included searching the waters of a creek and a pond in the area. Divers checked storm sewers, and officers scanned the ground by helicopter. A ground search covered the 237-acre urban Havenwoods State Forest.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has sent officials who were saturating the state with posters, according to organization consultant Brook T. Schaub.

A local company, Dawes Rigging and Crane Rental, said Wednesday it started the reward fund with a $5,000 donation. It was called the "Safe Journey Home Fund" and organizers said donations were welcome at any M & I Bank branch office.

Police Chief Nanette Hegerty said Wednesday's search turned up no substantial leads.

"The longer they're missing, the more concern there is," Police Chief Nanette Hegerty told reporters.

Quentin Henning, of Huntsville, Texas, said it's highly unusual that his son, known as 'Dre,' would stray.

"Dre has a two-block radius, he didn't want to go any further," Henning said. "If you can't see the house, it's too far for him."

The boy has lived with his grandparents since 2003, when his father, in the Army Reserves, was sent to Iraq. His father returned to Texas the following year.

Garry Henning said his grandson asked for more time to play outside Sunday afternoon with Purvis. When dusk arrived and the boy hadn't returned, Henning went to look for him, finally calling police.

"He wouldn't know anywhere to go. He didn't know anyone outside his rim," Henning said as he sifted through his grandson's awards from LaBrew Troopers Military University School, including leadership, math, reading and high academics.

"That door never opened unless I knew where he was going," he said.

Angela Virginia said her son was a gifted artist, as she looked over detailed drawings her son had done.

Fliers with the boys' pictures were taped to windows and cars in the neighborhood. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children posted pictures of the boys.

Latrice Kazee, 33, of Milwaukee, the godmother of Purvis, said someone had to see something.

"They're not talking and I don't know why 'cause this is no game," she said.

Hegerty said there was no apparent link to another missing child case about three miles away. Seven-year-old Alexis Patterson disappeared the morning of May 3, 2002, after her stepfather walked her to school. She has never been found.