Child-Stealing Charged in 4-Year Absence of Boy
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VICTORVILLE — A felony child-stealing charge was filed Friday against a 40-year-old man in whose rural home authorities found a teen-age boy who was missing for nearly four years, officials said.
Patrick Michael McCleery was arrested Wednesday when Christopher Elias, 17, was discovered in McCleery’s trailer home in Apple Valley. Elias was 13 when he disappeared in July, 1984, from a recreation area in Lake County.
McCleery was originally arrested for investigation of kidnaping. Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Fagan said child-stealing was the “appropriate” charge.
Among the differences between the charges are the element of force in kidnaping and the elements of enticement and concealment in child-stealing.
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