More than 40 years after a 17-day-old was ripped from his family in Southern California, authorities hope a new age-progression image could be the key to finding the now-adult man who likely has no idea about his real parentage.
The FBI and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children have released a new rendering of what Kevin Art Verville Jr., now 44, might look like if he’s still alive like they believe.
Kevin was abducted from his mother in San Diego County on July 1, 1980, by a woman posing as a social worker who claimed to be offering parental assistance to low-income military families near Camp Pendleton.
The unknown woman showed up at the doorstep of Angelina and Kevin Verville in Oceanside, and identified herself only as “Sheila.”
She said she came from an organization called “HELP,” offering financial assistance and newborn supplies to local military families.
For the young parents, the offer seemed like a dream come true. But it quickly turned into their worst nightmare.
Sheila agreed to come back later and take Angelina and Kevin Jr. to her organization’s headquarters to enroll the newborn in the program.
The mother and the infant rode with the stranger to a location in a remote, rural area in northern San Diego County. Sheila pulled over and asked Angelina to knock on the door of a nearby house where she said another mother enrolling in the program lived.
“But when Angelina got out, Sheila sped away with baby Kevin,” a profile on the NCMEC website reads.
Angelina was left alone in the middle of nowhere. It was the last time she saw her son.
Local authorities searched for “Sheila” and Kevin Jr., but were unable to find any sign of them. The FBI later got involved in the search.
Investigators later learned that the woman had been lurking in the off-base apartment complex for days leading up to the abduction, specifically looking for a child that met her criteria: under 6 months old and part Filipino.
She spoke with dozens of people in the apartment complex before finally identifying the Vervilles as her target. She was seen by so many different witnesses in the preceding days that authorities were able to create a detailed description and a composite image of what she looked like.
“From the Vervilles’ accounts, along with other residents, investigators say they’re looking for a [white] woman who was in her twenties back in 1980, with red or blonde frizzy hair,” NCMEC said. “She had a tattoo on her left hand in the webbing between her thumb and index finger. It was described as a circle with an ‘X’ inside. [She] also appeared pregnant.”
The search continued with sparse leads that became dead ends. Days turned into weeks, and years turned into decades, with no arrest made or suspect ever identified.
Now, 44 years later, the search for Kevin Jr. has been renewed.
Unlike many missing child cases from decades ago, investigators believe Kevin Jr. is likely still alive, taken by his abductor to be raised as her own.
According to 60 years’ worth of data, NCMEC says the profile of a “typical” infant abductor is usually “a woman of childbearing age, who appears pregnant, and may be trying to replace a baby lost through miscarriage.”
If alive like investigators believe — and his surviving family members hope — it’s possible that the now-44-year-old has no idea about his real identity, the parents he lost or the sibling he never met.
“It’s likely Kevin Jr. doesn’t know what happened to him, or that his biological parents are still searching for him. Today, he could be anywhere, so we’re asking everyone to be part of this search,” said Angeline Hartmann, NCMEC’s director of communications. “We need your help to bring him home.”
On Tuesday, the FBI and NCMEC released a joint news release announcing the renewed efforts to locate Kevin Jr., which included a new age-progressed image that shows what he may look like as an adult man in 2025.
The FBI is continuing to offer a $10,000 reward for information in the case. Officials for the Bureau say they are just as committed to finding him today as they were four decades ago.
Among those most desperate to find him is Angelica Ramsey, the biological sister he never met, who has continued to reach out to investigators for updates on her brother’s case.
Anyone with information about the abduction of Kevin Verville Jr. is urged to contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 or the FBI at 1-800-225-5324. Tips to the FBI can also be submitted online.
“Although baby Kevin was abducted 45 years ago, FBI San Diego’s work to reunite him with his family has not ceased,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Houtan Moshrefi.
For more information on Kevin’s story, click here.
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