Search for Boy Kidnaped From Casino Turns to L.A.

Las Vegas police said Wednesday that detectives are looking into the possibility that a man suspected of abducting a 7-year-old boy from a casino more than two weeks ago may have brought the youngster to the Los Angeles area.

Lt. David Sweikert of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said authorities have been pressing their search for Alexander Harris since the Northern California boy disappeared Nov. 27 from an arcade at Whiskey Pete’s Best Western Hotel-Casino at the Nevada-California border.

Two witnesses said they saw the boy leaving Whiskey Pete’s with a man of average build in his mid-30s, Sweikert said. “It looked like they were father and son, so no concern was raised at the time,” he said.

Nevada authorities believe the boy may be in the Southland, Sweikert said, because Whiskey Pete’s, near Jean, Nev., is a favorite spot for Los Angeles-bound motorists on Interstate 15. Also, he said, a large group of off-road enthusiasts from Southern California was at the hotel-casino at the time the boy disappeared.

The boy’s family had stopped at the hotel-casino on the way home to the San Francisco suburb of Mountain View after attending a family reunion in the Las Vegas area.

To aid the search, Las Vegas authorities have released a new composite drawing of the man suspected of abducting the boy.

The man, believed to be between 35 and 39 years of age, is described as having average height and weight--about 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds. The suspect, who was wearing sunglasses, has light brown hair and a slightly receding hairline.

The boy, who wears thick eyeglasses and whose right eye wanders noticeably, has light brown hair, brown eyes, stands about 4-foot-5 and weighs 60 pounds.

When last seen, he was wearing a red jacket with black stripes, a turquoise polo shirt, jeans and white high-top tennis shoes.

A $22,500 reward is being offered by Whiskey Pete’s, the Mountain View City Council and a secret witness program in Las Vegas for information regarding the boy’s whereabouts.

Sweikert said those with information should call police detectives in Las Vegas at (702) 799-3591 or Las Vegas’ secret witness program at (702) 386-3213.