06/10/2001 - news

Police still baffled by Benton Twp. boy's disappearance
By TAMARA PARUCH / H-P Staff Writer

BENTON TOWNSHIP -- There was snow on the ground and ice on the ponds when 12-year-old Steven Kraft II went outside to play with his two dogs.
The dogs came home, but nearly four months later, the boy remains missing, leaving his family worried, a community concerned and police absolutely baffled.
Despite the best efforts of police dogs, dive teams and the FBI, the fact remains: No one knows what happened to the boy called "Stevie."
"We have no physical evidence," said Detective Lt. Delmar Lange of the Benton Township Police Department. "There are no other witnesses, no trail of clothes, nothing. That's what makes this case so unusual."
Now the weather's warm and the leaves are green, Steven's brown-haired, green-eyed face is still seen on posters around local police stations and on utility poles, a reminder of the boy who vanished February 15.
Steven and the dogs went outside his home at 2103 Holly Drive about 6:30 p.m. to play before dinner.
The investigation began with an extensive ground search. Volunteers and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force, combed 10 square miles, or a third of the township. They searched woods, streams, fields, and four miles of Blue Creek.
"The volunteers, about 50-100, were assigned specific areas. They formed a line and went forward," Lange said. Lange said a police helicopter scoured the area in February, and if there had been something in the snow, they probably would have seen it. "(The pilot) was able to make out rabbit tracks in the light snow."
Now that the snow is long gone, Lange said searching for the missing boy is even harder, since "everything's overgrown."
Jeff Faraone, Violent Crimes Task Force agent and Benton Township police officer, said he devotes about six hours every day to the investigation. "We're exhausting everything," he said.
On May 2, the Berrien County Sheriff's Department dive team searched four miles of Blue Creek and the pond behind Harbor Haven Ministries, where Steven's father thought his son might have gone that February night. The pond was covered with ice when Steven disappeared, and at the time police didn't find cracks in the ice or indications the boy had fallen through.
Faraone explained the dive team's search.
"They make a type of grid formation and walk," he said. "It's very murky water, almost like a marsh. But it's only about waist deep."
Their efforts turned up nothing.
On June 4, state police from the Lansing headquarters brought their "cadaver dog," a German shepherd trained to sniff out bodies.
Faraone said these type of dogs are "very successful, especially in water. They let the dog loose, and it will alert the handler, even if a body has been moved or is in a shallow grave." However, the dog found nothing.
Benton Township police don't think it likely Steven was picked up by a stranger because "the street is a dead end, nobody's driving by," Faraone said.
Lange said six FBI agents have helped local authorities throughout the investigation.
"When you have a potential kidnapping, a missing child, there are laws that allow the FBI to get involved right away," Lange said. "They have a lot of resources."
FBI agents in Milwaukee also joined the search for Steven, who has family in the city.
"Initially there was some concern (Steven) might be in Milwaukee," Lange said. "We got a suggestion we should check there, but it didn't turn up anything. We eliminated a few things."
Lange and Faraone said they originally had about 200 leads to wade through, but such tips have tapered off to a typical three a month.
"Most have been dead ends," Faraone said. "Just theories, but you have to follow up on them. We're hoping that a particular lead will come in."
Although none of the tips has led to Steven, the leads help police narrow the list of possibilities.
"When you start off, you have 100 choices," Lange said. "You can eliminate certain things -- in that aspect, the tips are good."
Lange said police have "focused on some people (as possible suspects), but obviously nobody's been arrested. We haven't narrowed it down."
"The leads don't come in as much, but you still put in the same amount of effort," Faraone said. "I'm pretty confident. I do feel that he's alive."
The police remain in weekly contact with Steven Earl Kraft, the boy's father. "There comes a time as a parent -- what can you do?" said Lange. "You wait and you pray."
The Herald-Palladium's repeated attempts to reach the boy's father for comment were unsuccessful.
When will the police call Steven's case closed? "Not until he's found," Faraone said.