Persistence Pays--Kidnaped Boy Is Found

A mother’s persistent hope that her son would be found alive and a detective’s dogged investigation paid off when 13-year-old Robert Smith Jr. turned up in Rhode Island, nearly two years after he was kidnaped from his Long Beach home.

“I’d had hopes,” Doris Smith, 54, said Tuesday. “I’ve had a feeling maybe someday he’d come home. . . . I’m still in shock. I can’t believe they found him.”

The Smith boy was found and a suspect was arrested Monday.

The boy’s father, Robert Smith Sr., 43, left for Providence, R.I., Tuesday afternoon to be reunited with his son, whom Rhode Island authorities described as in good health.

If all goes well they will fly home today for a reunion with the rest of the big family. Robert Jr. is one of seven children in the Smith family, ranging in age from 10 to 23.

The alleged abductor, David R. Collins, 52, was arraigned Tuesday in Providence District Court on charges of first-degree sexual assault and as a fugitive from justice in California, where Long Beach police had obtained a warrant for his arrest last May on suspicion of felony child stealing.

Rhode Island State Police Capt. John T. Leyden said his officers were investigating an auto accident in which Todd LaRue, 17, was killed when the car he was driving smashed into a tree in the town of Foster after a high-speed pursuit by police through four towns.

Officers traced the car to its registered owner--Collins--and found the Smith boy. Collins had used the alias of Robert Hickox to register the car and was living under that name in Providence. Police said Collins has used 25 different names over the years and has a long criminal record.

Collins, a thin, balding man with gray hair, was a casual friend of young Smith and lived in an apartment a few blocks from the boy’s home in downtown Long Beach.

The boy’s parents said they knew of the relationship, but did not know the man’s name--which turned out to be an alias--until after their son was taken on April 10, 1983.

Lt. Russell Cross of the Long Beach Police Department’s sexual offenders section said the stubborn investigative efforts of Detective Bruce Bradley played a large role in finding young Smith. He said Bradley had developed and checked out dozens of leads.

Among other things, Cross said, Bradley notified the FBI’s National Crime Center, which put the boy’s name and description into its computers. His photo also was sent to Washington and published in a book featuring information about missing children.

It was through the computer that the boy was connected to the Long Beach child-stealing case.

Talked on Phone

Mrs. Smith said in an interview Tuesday that she had talked to Bobby, as he is known in the family, by telephone on Monday, shortly after he was found.

She said he told her he had tried to contact the family several times, but was never able reach them.

“He sounded scared,” she said. “I started crying when I heard his voice. And he started crying. He said he didn’t want to be with him. “

The reference was to Collins, who had been known to the Smiths as Donald Hunter.

Mrs. Smith said her son was taken after spending the night at the home of a young friend. The boy left the friend’s house and never came home.

She said she and her husband did some checking on their own after they recalled that their son had occasionally spent time doing chores for a man who lived and worked near their house.

Mrs. Smith said she and her husband found the man’s apartment and were told by neighbors that the man had left earlier that day with a boy who fit their son’s description. The next day, she filed a missing persons report with Long Beach police.

Mrs. Smith said Tuesday that at times she feared for her son’s life.

“I didn’t want to think about it,” she said. “So many people who have missing children are finding them dead. . . . When he was first gone, I cried all the time. But you can’t do that. You’ve got to go on with life. . . . It was hard, but you’ve got to keep on going.”

She described her son as a quiet boy who enjoys playing video games. She said he had problems in school “but he was not in trouble”

Despite her worst fears, Mrs. Smith kept believing that he would be found safe.