Provo police apologize: boy reported missing was in their custody the whole time

PROVO — The aunt and uncle of a 13-year-old boy are upset with police after reporting him missing and then finding out much later he'd been in police custody the whole time.

Provo police were quick to apologize, saying the policy of always contacting a parent when a juvenile is detained was not followed.

Lance Colvin and his wife, Lilian, said Wednesday her nephew Lucas came to live with them three months ago from Argentina. They said he does not yet speak English and has never been in trouble with the law.

Lilian Colvin said the police officer at Centennial Middle School called her Tuesday afternoon and asked if he could interview Lucas, and she agreed. But when Lucas did not come home from school, she had no idea what had happened to him.

The couple called police about 5:30 p.m. and reported him missing. Lance Colvin said an officer came and took a report and a picture of the boy.

The couple then began scouring the boy's Facebook account and contacting his friends. Then they called hospitals and then police again about 10 p.m. to see if the police department had any information yet.

"After midnight, Lilian left the house to go look for him again," Colvin wrote in a letter to Provo Police Chief Rick Gregory. She noticed a police car and asked the officer to accompany her to a field where she thought the boy might be. "After looking in the field for a time, she insisted the officer look up his name to see if any further information had been found on him. As soon as the officer entered Lucas' name, it showed that he had been detained at approximately 1 p.m. that day and was being held at the youth detention center.

"Imagine our complete and total surprise to find out that, after talking to three different officers, including the arresting officer and the one with whom we filed a missing person report, that he had been arrested and in custody and in the system since the afternoon," the letter continues.

Lilian Colvin said she finally got to talk to Lucas about 2 a.m. "He sounded very scared and humble."

Lucas was still being held in the county's juvenile detention center late Wednesday, though police to not release any information about investigations or charges involving juveniles.

The chief sent a response to the Colvins on Wednesday, saying he would launch an "immediate and extensive review" to see if procedures or processes needed to be revised.

Police spokesman Sgt. Mathew Siufanua said many of the officers are also parents and would have had the same trauma the Colvins experienced if they had been in the family's shoes. "We are sorry the Colvins experienced the fear and anxiety they experienced."

The department's initial findings "indicate we made some mistakes in the process," he said. "We didn't call the parents like we should have."

The Colvins said they would likely accept the police chief's invitation to talk about the procedural breakdown. "I think they need to change their policies or buckle down on their policies," Lance Colvin said.

E-mail: sfidel@desnews.com Twitter: SteveFidel