ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997 TAG: 9703310071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: KIRBY, W.VA.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
No sign was found of Victor Shoemaker Jr., despite five days of searching by as many as 400 people.
Investigators said Friday they have a new lead in the disappearance nearly three years ago of a 5-year-old Virginia boy who was last seen playing on a rugged mountainside with two cousins.
Police have received a report that a man was spotted driving a dark 1990 pickup in the area of Short Mountain on May 1, 1994, the day Victor Shoemaker Jr. vanished. If he's still alive, Victor will turn 8 Sunday.
John Moran, an FBI special agent in Martinsburg, said the agency is aware of the new lead. He said the case remains active, but he declined further comment.
No evidence of the boy was found, and police said there was no indication of foul play or his family's involvement in the disappearance.
Victor was in the woods behind his grandfather's mobile home for about 15 minutes before heading home. The cousins told police they lost track of him and never saw him again.
Within two hours of his disappearance, the woods were full of people looking for the child clad in a red Bugs Bunny T-shirt, red shorts and a pair of white X-Men sneakers. No sign was ever found of the child, despite five days of searching by as many as 400 people. Authorities returned for five more searches, but no evidence was ever found.
The boy's mother, Nettie Shoemaker of Leesburg, Va., said she would never let her son go outside alone at their home in suburban Washington, but never thought twice about letting him play in the woods.
LENGTH: Short : 41 linesby CNB