Neighbors often saw the young man in the yard, relentlessly grooming the dirt and grass in front of the prim house on Duke Court. None of them could tell something might be wrong.
“Junior” was skinny, not too tall, quiet but seemingly friendly — he waved hello back, had friendly words with the 10-year-old boy across the street. He kept that yard immaculate. It didn’t stop there. Look up and amid a dozen towering pine trees, the roof was swept clean. He’d get up there with a broom, a neighbor said, to collect the pine needles.
No one imagined he needed to be rescued. That when Clayton County police knocked on his father’s door early Saturday morning, his 13-year-old son would be hidden behind a false wall in a closet, clutching a cell phone after a desperate call to his mother.
Reported missing four years ago, mother and son are now reunited.
Police are trying to piece together what happened since the boy’s father, Gregory Jean, slipped away with the boy in 2010.
Officials declined to name the boy or the mother, citing the ongoing investigation. They would only say the mother lives out-of-state. Police arrested Jean, 37, and 42-year-old Samantha Joy Davis and charged them with false imprisonment, obstruction and cruelty to children. Three other people taken into custody at the house Saturday were juveniles and faced similar charges, Clayton County police Sgt. Kevin Hughes said.
Few other details were available, other than the police account for how they found the boy and neighbors’ recollections of the boy, his father and Davis. Neighbors said no other children appeared to live with them.
The family had moved in about six months ago, and neighbors said the house — on a quiet dead-end street in Elon Farm, an older subdivision in Jonesboro — was a rental property. Neighbors said Davis told them the boy was schooled at home and enrolled in a cyber academy. The family was unobtrusive; one neighbor said Davis knocked on her door at Halloween to acknowledge a party at the home might mean more cars than usual parked on the street.
On Saturday, a festively bowed wreath hung on the door. Holiday lights covered the shrubs. In the yard, besides a row of loose bricks, grooves from the tines of a rake were visible besides the driveway.
“The young man didn’t sound like he was in distress or anything,” said Julie Pizarro, who lives three houses away and had already received an RSVP from the family for a Christmas party. Pizarro said the couple called the boy Junior. “If there were any issues, he didn’t show it. Maybe he was too scared.”
Police first received a call about a problem at the house Friday before 11 p.m., although it is not clear who made it. According to Hughes, “several occupants” at the family’s house denied anything about the young man. So, after a brief search, they left.
Then, about 2 a.m. Saturday, police received a second call and returned.
“While at the location during the second call, the victim was able to establish phone contact with his mother and she in turn passed on additional information to the officers on the scene,” Hughes said. “The victim was found behind a false wall within the residence.”
Police told Channel 2 Action News that the young man’s mother apparently reported him missing to child welfare authorities but not previously to police, possibly because she is an immigrant unfamiliar with the system.
Investigators said there were many unanswered questions as to who has custody of Junior and why police weren’t brought in earlier. They said he will likely stay under the protection of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services to ensure his safety.
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