Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Man Sought in Disappearance of 3-Year-Old Boy

Sheriff’s deputies are searching for a man who disappeared with his girlfriend’s 3-year-old grandson and her check for $2,300 she gave him to deposit more than one week ago, authorities said Monday.

Ralph Courtney Sykes, 39, left girlfriend Beverly Ann Smith’s Newhall home last Tuesday, supposedly headed for a bank to deposit a Federal Emergency Management Agency check for $2,300 into her account, said Deputy Rich Erickson of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Montice Kaylon Williams, 3, was with Sykes when he drove off in Smith’s two-door, gray 1976 Oldsmobile Starfire, which bears a California license plate number of 868-RVA, Erickson said.

Smith, 41, fears for her grandson’s safety because she said that Sykes is a cocaine addict, and may have taken the boy and the check to South-Central Los Angeles where he apparently has connections to obtain drugs, Erickson said.

Smith reported her grandson missing and her car stolen last week, Erickson said. She has discussed the disappearance of the check with detectives, authorities said.

Sykes is African American, 5-feet-9 and weighs about 148 pounds. Montice has brown hair and brown eyes, is about 3 feet tall and weighs about 35 pounds. He was wearing a white T-shirt, a gray sweat shirt, a black jacket and black tennis shoes, authorities said.