Case Puzzles Authorities : Boy, 15, Found in Field but Father Is Missing

Police and juvenile authorities are baffled by the case of a 15-year-old boy who was found sleeping in a vacant field near Knott’s Berry Farm and who claims he doesn’t know where he lives.

The boy, who said his name is Joseph McArty, was found at 4:45 a.m. Sunday draped in a plastic bag. A caller told Buena Park police he thought the boy was dead.

Joseph told police he and his father, whom he identified as John McArty, had moved to Orange County from Boron, Calif., a week earlier. He said he attended school in Boron briefly. He said his father dropped him off at Knott’s Berry Farm at about 3 p.m. Saturday but that he couldn’t find his father when the amusement park closed that evening.

He said he then decided to sleep in the vacant field.

Buena Park Police Detective Ken Ash said officers drove Joseph around the Knott’s Berry Farm area for three hours Sunday but “nothing looked familiar to him.” No one has filed a missing report on the boy, he said.

“We haven’t found anything that is even familiar. It’s gone beyond the Police Department,” Ash said.

Joseph is in protective custody at the Albert Sitton Home for juveniles in Orange while authorities try to locate a relative.

Bill Steiner, director of the Albert Sitton Home, said the boy was wearing jeans, a blue T-shirt and black sneakers when he was brought in Sunday. He had no money and no identification.

“He was dirty, but otherwise he was in good health. He has been very cooperative,” Steiner said.

The blond, blue-eyed boy stands 5-feet-4 and weighs 110 pounds. He told Steiner his parents were divorced in Las Vegas three years ago and he has not seen his mother since then. He said his mother’s name is Cleo.

Boron school officials contacted by Steiner said they had no records of the boy.

“We don’t know if he’s a runaway or if he’s abandoned,” Steiner said Wednesday. “He asks every day if his father has called or if he’s coming to get him.”

The boy does not seem “streetwise,” Steiner said. “I think he’s a little bewildered, but he’s a very nice kid.”

Juvenile Court, which allowed reporters to interview but not photograph the boy, ordered Joseph Wednesday to remain at the juvenile home. A hearing was scheduled for June 5.

But Steiner said that if no one claims Joseph by June 5 he probably will be declared a ward of the state and placed in a foster home.

Anyone who may have more information is asked to call the Albert Sitton Home at 634-7182 or investigator Ash at 521-9352.