Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992 TAG: 9203140405
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN, SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Hampton is a couple of blocks from his home on Winona Avenue near Wasena Park and the Roanoke River.
"He said he just found some cover and stayed there until someone found him," a police spokesman said.
The spokesman said the youngster appeared to be in good health but was cold. Friday's temperatures ranged from 23 to 41 degrees, with stiff winds.
Scottie was being checked at Roanoke Community Hospital about midnight, and family members expected him to stay there overnight.
He was in good spirits, however, telling his story to police and family and eating Fruit Loops.
Police said the youngster told them he had become scared Thursday when no one was at the school bus stop to meet him. Scottie is a kindergarten student at Virginia Heights School.
When his mother, Annette Gibson, was reunited with her son shortly before midnight Friday, she walked up to him and gave him a big hug.
"I'm so happy. I'm so glad he's safe. He's OK," she said. "He was kind of scared. I told him I missed him and was glad he was found."
"I'm just tore up," said Joe Gibson, Scottie's stepfather. "I just busted out crying. I'm so glad he's all right."
Joe Gibson said two police officers came to the house to tell them Scottie was safe.
The child's disappearance after school Thursday had heightened anxiety in Southwest Roanoke, where parents already were upset because a man had been following children in the Raleigh Court neighborhood.
Lt. Jerry Dean, who heads the police department's Youth Bureau, said late Friday afternoon that he would bet "my 29-year career" that the two situations were unrelated.
The search for Scottie was complicated because youthful witnesses told different stories on whether he boarded a school bus bound for home, police said.
Some children said he was dropped off at Wasena Avenue and Maiden Lane, near the Ghent Grace Brethren Church and also near Hampton and Winona. Others said he was never on the bus.
The regular bus driver was not on duty Thursday, and the substitute driver was unable to remember if Scottie was on the bus, police said.
A child matching Scottie's description was seen playing at a wall near the bus stop shortly after the school bus unloaded its passengers, but police couldn't confirm that the youngster was Scottie.
Scottie wasn't supposed to be on the bus, according to his mother. She said she had sent a note to his teacher instructing her to let Scottie walk with other children to a baby sitter's house on Cambridge Avenue, about a block from the school.
That was a new routine for Scottie, however. Until last week, he regularly met his stepbrother, Shannon Whitaker, at the bus stop, several blocks from their home. Shannon left to live with his father out of town, so new arrangements had to be made.
Scottie's mother works at Valley Apparel and could not meet him after school.
When he didn't appear at the sitter's house, relatives began searching for him and reported to police about 5:30 that the child was missing.
Almost as excited as the parents about Scottie's discovery was school Superintendent Frank Tota.
"We're certainly excited by the fact that the boy was found alive," Tota said. "I have the highest regard for the Roanoke Police Department and Detective [Keith] Sidwell's work."
Sidwell was the chief investigator on the case.
Tota was visibly upset Friday afternoon after he met with police and school personnel gathered at Virginia Heights School. He said he had been awake most of the night.
"We thought every hour that the child would appear," Tota said Friday afternoon.
Teachers and other school personnel joined Fire Department workers, on- and off-duty police, and other volunteers in searching for the youngster, who is 3 feet tall and weighs 38 pounds.
Scottie's mother, Annette Gibson, said she never gave up hope that her son would be found.
She said Scottie knew his phone number.
"He's never wandered off like this or nothing," she said Friday afternoon.
"He never left the house," she said. "He never went to the park without the other children with him. He was a mama's boy."
Daniel Wimmer, Scottie's father, was at Dee and Doug's Rendezvous, a Roanoke bar and restaurant, Thursday night when he got the word from police his son was missing.
He immediately called Annette Gibson.
"I'm looking at the happy side," Wimmer said as he waited Friday afternoon for word of his son. "Scottie hasn't been found, so he could still be alive."
He was with his son at the hospital Friday night.
Wimmer, 32, had his own moment of drama during his son's absence from home. He said that when police found him early in the evening at the bar and told him about Scottie, he thought they didn't think he cared "a damn about my son."
"I didn't know my son was going to come up missing," he said.
Wimmer said he stayed at the bar and drank until police came back to talk to him a second time. They ended up charging him with being drunk in public and taking him to jail for the night.
The search for Scottie was so intense that Dean said he suspected some people were interviewed several times.
Mid-morning Friday, searchers found a small pair of shorts and a small shirt on the banks of the Roanoke River at Wasena Park. Joe Gibson was able to assure the officers that the clothes were not Scottie's.
Before sunrise, searchers were scouring the woods, railroad tracks, and river banks near the bus stop where some witnesses said Scottie was last seen.
Some police officers returned to search on their own time, after they had gone off duty.
Mike and Jeannie Kane, who live nearby, were there. "We heard a little boy was missing and we decided to come out and help," Mike Kane said.
"We just couldn't sit home and watch TV," Jeannie Kane added. "It touches your heart. How could you just stay home?"
Scottie's aunt, Alice Holdren, and his 12-year-old stepsister, Chasity Whitaker, joined the search Thursday night. Well past midnight, they walked along the streets carrying a flashlight.
"A 5-year-old can't play hide and seek at 1:30 in the morning," Holdren said.
And as she stood beneath the red neon "Jesus Saves" sign at the Ghent church, she reaffirmed her faith.
"Pray to the good Lord to bring Scottie back," Holdren said. "Pray he is safe."
Her prayers were answered.
by CNB