Man in Missing Boy Case Sought on Drug Charge

A man wanted for questioning in the disappearance of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son also is being sought on cocaine possession charges, authorities said Sunday.

Raymond Farrell, 29, was last seen Wednesday, a day after Bobby Crawford disappeared from the parking lot of a convenience store in Glen Avon.

Investigators questioned and released Farrell Wednesday night, but he failed to show up for further questioning Thursday, the same day investigators discovered a warrant for Farrell’s arrest on cocaine possession charges, Riverside County Sheriff’s Sgt. Don Bender said.

Riverside authorities alerted other police agencies throughout the state about Farrell, although Bender said he believes Farrell is probably still in the Riverside area.

“He’s here. He’s got nowhere else to go,” Bender said, adding, “We’re not calling him a suspect (in Bobby’s disappearance) because we don’t know if he has committed a crime.”

The warrant, Bender explained, was issued after Farrell apparently was stopped by police recently and cited for possession of a controlled substance. But Farrell was not arrested pending lab tests on the suspected substance.

Of the search for Bobby--missing since Monday--Bender said: “We’re at the point now where we’ve eliminated two possibilities--that he ran away, or that he was picked up in some sort of custody thing. That leaves only one possibility--foul play.”