Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 15, 1994 TAG: 9405150029
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: AUGUSTA, W.VA. LENGTH: Short
The search, which had been halted nine days earlier, focused on 1 1/2 square miles near the home of Victor D. Shoemaker Jr.'s grandfather, whom the 5-year-old Leesburg, Va., boy was visiting when he disappeared May 1.
Guardsmen were seeking easy routes the boy may have taken in the steep, rocky hills, ravines and cliffs around Short Mountain, where the home is located, said Sgt. Bucky Burner of the state police detachment in Shinnston.
They planned to resume the search today and go into areas previously unexplored.
Authorities believe Victor, called "J.R." by his family and friends, is dead and are hoping to find some sign of him, if not his body.
"That would be the highest probability, unless there was just some way he could find food, which is very doubtful," Burner said. "I wouldn't look for a 5-year-old to be that resourceful."
Victor disappeared while playing with two cousins, ages 8 and 9, in the woods around the mobile home near Kirby.
The cousins told authorities they lost track of Victor after he said he wanted to go home and walked away.
Nighttime temperatures in the region plunged into the 30s in the days after the disappearance. Victor was dressed only in a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers.
- Associated Press
by CNB