Federal authorities said Wednesday they will have results this week from DNA tests to determine if a boy found in Evanston is Tristen “Buddy” Myers, who disappeared from his North Carolina home more than two years ago.
Authorities also said they spoke Tuesday with Ricky Quick, 33, who was with the unidentified boy when he was found.
The results of the DNA test will be available by Friday or Saturday as opposed to earlier estimates of four to six weeks, said Ross Rice, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago.
When The Daily informed the Myers’ family Wednesday of the hastened testing, they were thrilled, said Jackie Jacobs, a spokeswoman for the family. They have been waiting on tenterhooks since being notified that the unidentified boy in Evanston shared features with Myers.
“(Finding him) is the thing we’ve been hoping and praying for,” Jacobs said. She said the early test results would be “wonderful” news.
“The uncertainty and the not knowing is just an emotional roller coaster,” Jacobs said.
The FBI questioned Quick on Tuesday about the unidentified boy, Rice said. Quick had said he was the boy’s stepfather. “(Quick) voluntarily came down to our office to answer questions,” Rice said. “He was very cooperative.”
Quick has not been charged with any violation of federal law.
Evanston police on Feb. 3 arrested Quick of the 3900 block of W. Carmen Avenue in Chicago on an outstanding warrant for retail theft, said Cmdr. Michael Perry of Evanston Police Department.
Officers had responded to a disturbance call at St. Francis Hospital, 355 Ridge Ave, Perry said. Quick had brought a boy he called “Eli Quick” to the hospital for treatment.
Ricky Quick wanted doctors to treat the boy for a behavioral disorder, Perry said. After seeing how dirty and unhealthy the boy was, authorities put the boy into foster care.
Ricky Quick was taken to EPD and held until Chicago officers transferred him downtown, Perry said.
During a Feb. 4 court hearing, Ricky Quick pleaded guilty to retail theft and was sentenced to six months of supervision, said Jerry Lawrence, a spokesman for the Cook County State Attorney’s Office.
Myers disappeared from his aunt’s home in Roseboro, N.C., on October 5, 2000. The two dogs he had been walking eventually returned home, but the then 4-year-old boy was never found.
Donna Myers, Tristen Myers’ aunt, was called into the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office in Clinton, N.C., on April 1 to compare pictures of her nephew with those of the boy in Evanston.
The Myers family has said the unidentified boy in Evanston shares a number of physical characteristics with Tristen Myers. The unidentified child also has a lisp — as does Tristen Myers according to the family spokeswoman.
The Daily’s Jesse Abrams-Morley contributed to this report.
