Abducted US boy’s mother lived in car

This Friday, Jan. 11, 2013 photo shows the home of Michael Jeff Landers, near his grandparents’ home outside Browerville, Minn. Authorities have determined that Landers, 24, is really Richard Wayne Landers, Jr., who was abducted by his paternal grandparents when he was 5 years old, when his unemployed mother was living in a car in Indiana. Sheriff Peter Mikkelson said the investigation is ongoing and that the case will be forwarded to federal authorities for possible charges. AP

CLARISSA, Minnesota — In 2006, an 18-year-old man legally changed his name to Michael Jeff Landers. Six years later, authorities determined Landers was really the Indiana child who had been abducted by his paternal grandparents in 1994.

Richard Wayne Landers Jr., was reportedly abducted when he was 5 years old. The 24-year-old Michael Landers now lives in the small central Minnesota town of Browerville, sheriffs say.

Sheriff Peter Mikkelson said the investigation is ongoing and the case will be forwarded to federal authorities for possible charges.

It’s unclear what Landers knew about his history, but authorities said he had lived with his grandparents since birth.

According to court records, Landers applied for the name change himself in November 2006, just a couple of weeks after he turned 18. The application doesn’t say why he requested the change, and it wasn’t immediately clear how long he had used the name Michael.

A home phone number for Landers could not be found, and he and his wife didn’t respond to multiple messages sent through social networking sites.

In a posting in his name on the Facebook page of KARE-TV in Minneapolis, Landers said: “For you people who jump to conclusions you should find out the whole story I was where I needed to be. My ‘grandparents’ were in the the right I dont care what anyone else thinks.”

Landers didn’t immediately respond to a follow-up message from The Associated Press seeking confirmation that it was his post. AP believes the Facebook account to be Landers based on multiple links between it and known friends and relatives.

In July 1994, amid a custody dispute between Landers’ mother and the grandparents, the grandparents fled from Wolcottville, Indiana, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of South Bend.

The mother, Lisa Harter, had divorced Landers’ father, and the grandparents obtained custody after the woman, who has mild developmental disabilities, moved into a group home that could not accommodate children, said her attorney, Richard Muntz. After a while, she moved into an apartment and gained custody of her son on weekends. Once she remarried, she filed a petition to expand to expand her custody rights.

“The judge gave her custody on a trial basis, and before she could get him, that’s when they left,” Muntz said in a telephone interview.

The judge ruled one afternoon, and Harter was scheduled to pick up her son the next day, her attorney said. The grandparents withdrew $5,000 out of a home equity line, went out for breakfast, and left town, he said.

“The trail on this case went cold the day they disappeared. There was no trace of them after they left the restaurant,” Muntz said.

John R. Russell spent several months investigating the disappearance with the LaGrange (Ind.) County Sheriff’s Department.

“These people (the grandparents) were nice people. It was wrong for them to do it, but I can understand why,” Russell said “But I also didn’t think the child would be in any danger at all with them.”

The grandparents were charged with misdemeanor interference with custody, which was bumped up to a felony in 1999. But the charge was dismissed in 2008 after the case went cold.

Investigators reopened the case in September after a conversation between, Richard Harter, Lisa’s husband, and an Indiana State Police detective who attended the same church prompted one more search of Landers’ Social Security number after several searches over the years had yielded no sign of him, Muntz said.

That turned up a man with the same number and birthday with an address in Long Prairie, about 100 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

Indiana State Police then contacted Minnesota law enforcement agencies, which began investigating along with the FBI and the Social Security Administration.

Minnesota officials say the grandparents — now living in Browerville under the assumed names Raymond Michael Iddings and Susan Kay Iddings — verified Landers’ identity. They were known as Richard E. and Ruth A. Landers at the time of the abduction.

Now that Landers has been located, Harter is eager to talk to him, but that hasn’t happened yet, Muntz said.

“What we’re trying to do now is try to establish a way for Lisa and young Richard to get reacquainted,” the attorney said.

A woman who answered a phone number associated with the Iddingses declined a request for an interview. A couple who answered the door at their home declined to identify themselves and also refused an interview.

A spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota, Jeanne Cooney, said charges in such a case could be related to non-custodial kidnapping, whether the child was exploited, abused, trafficked or being used to obtain benefits.

Michael Landers and his wife, who police say are expecting a child, share a plot of land with his grandparents a few miles outside of Browerville. There are two houses and two deteriorating barns on the property, and a few toys were scattered in front of one of the houses Friday. Ten cars sat in the shared driveway.

Landers works at an auto parts store in Long Prairie, but wasn’t at the store Friday and an employee declined an interview.

Raymond Iddings has worked since 1999 as a herdsman at Twin Eagle Dairy in nearby Clarissa, where owner Patrick Lunemann described him as a “dedicated, faithful” employee. Lunemannsaid he was in shock when he read a story about the case.

He said Iddings plays guitar at his church, and recalled a day last summer when the couple brought their instruments to play for dairy workers. He said he knew Michael slightly, saying he stopped on occasion — perhaps to drop off Iddings’ lunch if he had forgotten it.

“(Landers) works at an auto parts place. That fits him perfectly, because Ray is kind of a motorhead and Michael is the same way,” Lunemann said.

The town buzzed with the news, though. Rich Wall, a retired jeweler, said some residents speculated that some people knew of Landers’ history but kept quiet. He said it was the most notable news since a grisly triple homicide there in 2003.

“My grandson called last night and said, ‘Long Prairie made the news again,’ ” Wall said.