Post by Scumhunter on May 16, 2015 0:00:41 GMT -5
(left: Ruben Felix circa 1997, right: Age-progressed to 17. Credit: NCMEC)
Missing Child/Person Profile as of May 16th, 2015 (based on missingkids.com profile)
Missing Since: Feb 23, 1997
Missing From: Shoshone, ID
DOB: Oct 18, 1994
Age (aa of 5/16/2015): 20
Sex: Male
Race: Hispanic
Hair Color: Sandy
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 2'6"
Weight: 32 lbs
TIPS: Anyone having information should call 1-800-THE-LOST or the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office (Idaho) - Missing Persons Unit - 1-208-886-2259 OR Your Local FBI
Then 2-year old Ruben David Felix was one of the first missing child cases to be posted on America's Most Wanted's website. I'm assuming he was also possibly aired but I'm not 100 percent certain on that. Ruben's is a complex missing child case- one that initially seemed like a tragic accident- that has taken a few surprising twists and turns in the nearly decade and a half since. Below is a new article on the case:
SHOSHONE, Idaho (AP) — Ruben Felix was last seen 18 years ago today, drinking his bottle on his family's front porch. The 2 1/2 year old apparently vanished after his step-father stepped inside momentarily.
Now, his family is going to review his file for the first time, the boy's aunt, Steaphanie Felix said Friday.
"This year, we finally got permission to get his case file from Lincoln County with an investigative team to see if there's anything they've missed," she said.
Ruben's mother left for work 4:30 p.m. Feb. 23, 1997, a 1998 Times-News story says. She left him at a family gathering at a remote home along the Little Wood River, west of Shoshone, near the Lincoln County-Gooding County line.
About 6:30 p.m., the family called his grandmother to say Ruben was gone. There was a frantic search, but the only clue was a tiny footprint in the ice along the river's edge.
Some theorized Ruben fell into the river and drowned. Family members and the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office did a massive search of the river and land near the house. No remains were ever found.
From the beginning, family members suspected foul play.
"I'm not a professional," the boy's grandmother, Peggy Salas, told the Times-News 10 days after he disappeared. "But if he is in there, he didn't get there by himself. There's no way in hell that baby did that by himself. I pray somebody did pick him up."
Then-Chief Deputy Kevin Ellis (now the Lincoln County sheriff) told the paper that dogs tracked the boy's scent 200 yards. The trail began at the house where he was playing and led to an out building, across a corrugated potato field, up an embankment, over railroad tracks, down through a small pasture into the river where a footprint was found.
"Search and rescue teams form Lincoln and Gooding counties and volunteer diving and dog teams from Twin Falls, Gooding, Lincoln and Minidoka counties spent all last week at the site where Felix is thought to have gone into the river," the March 5, 1997 article says. "They dragged it five times; divers searched by feel, others from boats and still others searched by plane. All with no sign of the boy."
His mother, Roseanna Mireles Ruben said, in a 2007, that someone claiming to be an FBI agent called her and said her son may have been kidnapped and sold. She suspected her former husband's family. In 2006, she said, she answered a call from a man claiming to be an agent on the case. He said he traced the boy to Guadalajara, Mexico, where he had been sold to a rich family, the man said.
"He told me to meet them at the FBI office in Twin," she said. "But I got there, and they didn't know what I was talking about. The FBI agent in Twin told me, 'Your case was a cold case for six years.'"
Now, the family is hoping for more clues, Steaphanie said.
"Grandma's health is failing," she said. "The one thing she wants is to see him before she dies."
Life without Ruben has taken a toll on her family, she said.
"The kids we do have, we shelter them more. We don't want anything to happen to them because we're paranoid now."
Steaphanie and her family believes Ruben, who would be 20 years-old, is alive.
"Our theory is Mexico. Roseanna's side of the family believes that he was sold," she said. "Our belief is that he is alive and that one of these days somebody is going to tell him the truth and we will come back. That is our hope and our prayer."
Thoughts? This a sad but strange case. While the Mexico lead seemed to come out of nowhere, I wonder who would make something like this up. It does give hope Ruben can one day be recovered.
www.charleyproject.org/cases/f/felix_ruben.html
www.kboi2.com/news/local/Ruben-Felix-Missing-Idaho-293692111.html
www.missingkids.com/poster/NCMC/830148
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