02/20/2001 - news

Frustration growing in hunt for boy
By LYNN STEVENS / H-P Staff Writer

BENTON TOWNSHIP -- Despite a third daylong search, Benton Township police had nothing new to report Tuesday on Steven Kraft II.
Detective Lt. Delmar Lange said a team of 12 investigators has been assembled to work full time on finding the missing 12-year-old Hull Elementary School pupil. Lange said four are detectives and one is a patrolman from the Benton Township Police Department. The rest are FBI agents and members of the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force, based in St. Joseph.
And police will conduct what Lange called a "mechanized" search today using all-terrain vehicles and horses to expand the search area directly south of Highland Avenue and east and west of Interstate 94 south of Highland, and possibly east of Interstate 96 north of Sarett Nature Center.
Lange said about 50 people searched Tuesday. Although he said police will not need that many volunteers for the mechanized search, civilians are welcome to bring their horses or ATVs and join them.
Steven Kraft II has been missing from his home at 2103 Holly Drive since Feb. 15, when he went out to play with his dogs before dinner. The adult dog returned home on her own Sunday, and the 6-month-old German shepherd puppy was found Monday wandering near Blue Creek, about 11/2 miles north of Holly Drive. But none of the dozens of police and civilian searchers found any trace of Steven.
Lange looked tired and frustrated Tuesday afternoon when he made his daily progress report to reporters.
"The more time that passes, the more we worry," Lange said. "Every day that goes by it's more dangerous for him.
"If he had left a note, if he had some event in his life. ... But in this case, he just went out to play. He was expected back. That raises a lot of red flags, a lot of alarm bells."
Among Lange's worries was the weather.
He said that unless Steven found shelter, he could be in bad physical condition from the bitter cold that blew into Southwest Michigan Friday and lasted through Monday morning. Steven was last seen wearing an aqua Charlotte Hornets jacket, tan pants, a tan and white striped shirt, and black lug boots. He did not have a hat or gloves, according to his father's recollection.
"We're rapidly running out of places where he could be hiding," Lange said.
Leo Cloman, principal at Hull Elementary School where Steven is a student, said Steven's classmates have been interviewed but "don't seem to have any information as to his whereabouts."
The students at Hull are "kind of sad, especially those who live in the area (Steven) lives in," Cloman said this morning. He added Steven is "very quiet, a loner, but a nice kid. We miss him dearly."
John Vojtko, Steven's teacher, said Steven is "a pretty good student ... a pretty intelligent kid, in our higher rating group. For the most part he is well behaved in class."
Vojtko said he planned to talk about the situation today with Steven's classmates, and that support staff will be available if any need to talk further. "A lot of kids are telling me, 'This is what we saw on the news,'" he said.
Vojtko said he took part in the search for Steven on Monday, and "covered miles of ground and not even a clue." The search covered ground that was both wooded and swamp, he said.
"It was frozen so it was not real wet, but a young man could fall into some of that stuff," Vojtko said.
Police have crawled through dry storm drains as far as 11/2 miles from the Kraft house. Police and civilian volunteers have combed barns, factories, abandoned buildings, ditches, fields and swamps over 9 square miles surrounding the Benton Heights neighborhood where Steven was last seen.
"We've taken a particular look at the pond closest to his house," Lange said.
The boy's father, Steven Kraft, said his son's footprints led past that pond to Harbor Haven Ministries on Irving Street, one block south of Holly Drive.
"We haven't found an indication he went through the ice," Lange said Tuesday. "Had he gone through and the ice refrozen, we've been told there would have been evidence of the break in the ice."
But Lange said just in case, his department has located resources for an underwater search "if we need it."
He said searchers had also focused on the bottomlands around Blue Creek, where Kraft's puppy was found. It was slow searching.
Lange said the terrain is swampy, with trees and overgrown brush, and surrounding fields have standing water.
Two groups of searchers fanned out from the point where the puppy was found. Lange said they found no evidence that Steven had been there.
Lange said Maurice Bishop, head of Citizens Against Violent Crime, told him Tuesday that the group has raised a $500 reward for any information that leads to finding Steven.
That follows a $1,000 reward fund launched by Kraft family members and their friends.
Searchers have used flashlights donated by Lowe's, Kmart and Meijer stores. The Benton Township Pizza Hut contributed pizzas for search teams.
Two young girls, also Hull Elementary School pupils, were reported missing just after midnight Friday, Feb. 15, within 45 minutes of Kraft reporting his son missing. Lange said both girls have been returned home and there was no connection with the missing boy.