FBI officials announced that DNA results that will determine if a Chicago boy is a missing Sampson County boy will be released Friday. The Sampson County Sheriff's Office is planning to hold a press conference at 3 p.m. Friday.
Officials had said originally that the DNA process was supposed to take up to six weeks, but officials have sped up the process to around 48 hours. A lab in Burlington, N.C. is conducting the process.
Myers' family is crediting the media for speeding up the process, and they say they are still hoping for the news they want to hear.
"We are reenergized, reinvigorated and very optimistic that those results did not definitively exclude this child from [Illinois] from being Tristen Buddy Myers and we are all rested today," family spokeswoman Jackie Jacobs said on Thursday. "It was a physically, emotionally exhausting day yesterday, and we are anxiously awaiting the expediated results at this time."
Myers has been missing since 2000, when he disappeared from his Sampson County home. Authorities followed a lead that brought them to Chicago. Ricky Quick left a boy, Eli Quick, who resembled the description of Buddy Myers at a hospital in Illinois. Authorities questioned Ricky Quick and later released him.
Ricky Quick has given conflicting accounts as to his relationship with Eli Quick. At one point, he said Eli Quick was the boy's biological father and later stated that he was actually the boy's stepfather.
Quick said he has never been to North Carolina and does not know who Buddy Myers is. However, public records show Quick and Buddy's mother, Raven Myers, had lived in the same New Orleans, La., suburb several years ago.
In addition, both Myers and Quick have had prior run-ins with the law. In November 1999, Myers was arrested for cocaine possession. Authorities also say they have an outstanding warrant against Quick for a traffic violation dating to May 1998.
Raven Myers' father, Robert Dale Myers, also ran into trouble in Louisiana. He pleaded guilty to DWI and charges connected to a 1999 accident where he ran over Buddy.
Raven Myers also said she has hired an attorney to fight for custody of the boy. Buddy's great aunt last had custody of him when he wandered away.
Family members say they have asked the FBI to notify them personally. They said they do not want the information to go to the media without them hearing about it first.
• Credits
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
