ALEXANDER LAIN - 5 yo/ Accused:Raymond/ Father - Yucca Valley CA

Father of missing boy arrested


Investigators allege he knew where child was


YUCCA VALLEY — The father of a 5-year-old boy who was reported missing Tuesday night has been arrested, sheriff’s department officials said Wednesday afternoon. Raymond Leon Lain was booked at the Morongo Basin Jail Wednesday on charges of making a false report of a missing person and cruelty to a child. Investigators suspect while Lain reported his son, Alexander Lain, was missing, he in fact knew the child was at a family friend’s house.

Circumstances discovered at the Lain home as the Sheriff’s Department investigated Alexander’s disappearance led them to book the father on the charge of child cruelty as well, Sgt. T. Hutchins said via telephone Wednesday afternoon.

Lain called 911 around 8:50 p.m. Tuesday, saying his 5-year-old son was missing from their home at 57315 Onaga Trail. The family told investigators and a Hi-Desert Star reporter at the scene that Alex and his 3-year-old sister were in a bedroom while their father cooked dinner in another room.

“(His father) was trying to keep them away from the deep fryer,” the boy’s grandfather, Don Lain, told the Star Tuesday night.

The boy’s father told deputies Alex’s younger sister had informed him that Alex had walked out of the room.

When deputies from the Yucca Valley Police Department arrived, they asked to talk to Alex’s 3-year-old sister, but she too was gone. Lain told them he had given her to a woman to care for.

“He couldn’t tell us how to get in touch with the 3-year-old and we started to get extremely concerned,” Hutchins said. “He couldn’t give us the last name, the phone number or the address of the female he gave the 3-year-old to.”

Lain said the woman’s information should have been in his cell phone, but the phone malfunctioned and everything was erased.

In the meantime, law-enforcement personnel deployed to search the surrounding areas. Homicide detectives, deputies and members of the Morongo Basin Search and Rescue Team joined the investigation. A Sheriff’s Department helicopter flew overhead, making announcements and searching neighborhoods, and the county enacted its “Child is Missing” phone system, calling nearby homes.

“We had search-and-rescue members from all over the county coming up to help,” Hutchins said. “In addition, hundreds of citizens heard the ‘Child is Missing’ call and assisted by looking in their own neighborhoods.”

Investigators were able to track the two siblings to another baby sitter’s house in Joshua Tree. The sitter, who was not the woman whom Lain had identified earlier as his daughter’s caretaker, is not a suspect, Hutchins said.

The sergeant declined to give details on how searchers discovered the children’s whereabouts.

Both of the children were safe.

“We made sure the kids were OK and then we started talking to him (their father),” Hutchins said. “We determined that he filed a false report of a missing child.”

The children were turned over to Child Protective Services.

http://www.hidesertstar.com/articles/2011/02/18/news/doc4d5b90923cda1323962014.txt

OMG...I went with my roommate to drop the kids off at their grandparents' house in Yucca Valley on Wednesday. They were a bit freaked out because search helicopters were flying over their house the night before and searchers and police speakers were announcing they were looking for a blonde haired, blue eyed, 5 year old named Alexander. Our Alex is blonde and blue eyed, but he is 4, not 5.

Luckily, both children were found.