Nevaeh Buchanan is Missing: Mother's Boyfriend, Sex Offender, Arrested for Possible Parole Violation

Nevaeh Buchanan is still missing. The Detroit Free Press reported that the 5-year-old girl went missing Sunday evening in Monroe, Michigan, and the FBI-led investigation has turned up nothing. They have arrested George Kennedy, Nevaeh's mother's friend and a registered sex offender, on suspicion that he may have violated his parole.

At a press conference Wednesday, FBI Agent Andy Arena told reporters that with each passing hour the chances of finding Nevaeh Buchanan alive grow smaller. "But you never give up hope," he said, adding that when a child went missing "there is no tomorrow. You put forward all your resources and you go at it hard."

Arena also added that investigators were looking into a "number of pieces" of evidence but would not elaborate. He did punctuate his words by saying that statistics show kidnap victims usually know their abductors. Arena did not say that anything linked Nevaeh's disappearance with her mother's friend.

Various members of law enforcement and volunteers have been and continue to search wooded areas and neighborhoods near the Charlotte Arms apartments where Nevaeh Buchanan lived. Monroe County Sheriff's Office Major Dan Motylinski said that authorities were also searching two Dixie Highway quarries in the vicinity as a precaution.

Jennifer Buchanan, Nevaeh's mother, insists that she has had no intimate relationship with George Kennedy, although he called her every morning and befriended her child.

It is reported that Jennifer Buchanan met George Kennedy in a parole office after she had been convicted of a home invasion connected to a problem with drugs. Buchanan said that Kennedy was the only male figure in her life because her father had "wanted to disappear."

George Kennedy, 39, is being held without bond while police investigate whether or not he actually violated his parole, which was set to expire in July. Kennedy was convicted in 2002 of home invasion and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was paroled in 2007 and told to register as a sex offender. His parole agreement indicates that he is not to be around a person under the age of 17 without an adult present, must remain at least 1000 feet from schools and playgrounds, and is forbidden to have a relationship with a person associated with a child.

Kennedy helped in the searches for Nevaeh Buchanan until he was arrested. Jennifer Buchanan said that he had acted as if she were joking about Nevaeh being missing when she first contacted him.

Many are simply outraged that a mother could even allow a known sex offender near her daughter. Jennifer Buchanan has admitted she knew that George Kennedy was indeed a sex offender.

Jennifer Buchanan has also taken a polygraph test. She says she believes she passed although Nevaeh's father and family have been saying that she did not. Shane Hinijosa, Nevaeh's father, arrived from Toledo and has camped out in a tent with his mother and fiancee at Charlotte Arms since Monday night.

I'm sick to my stomach," said the unemployed landscaper and maintenance worker, who hasn't seen his daughter in three years. "I haven't seen her in so long and this is the way I have to see her -- it hurts so bad."

And as Michigan authorities and the FBI search for Nevaeh ("heaven" spelled backward) Buchanan, the search for 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings continues in Florida. Haleigh disappeared in the middle of the night in February, supposedly under the sleeping nose of her live-in babysitter. Although the babysitter has since married Haleigh's father, Ronald, speculation still centers around her. Authorities have now questioned her at least ten times. Hundreds of other leads have led nowhere for Putnam County, Florida, and FBI law enforcement agents who have yet to declare the 3-and-one-half-month-old case cold.

More recently, an Amber Alert was issued for 8-year-old Julia Rakoczy after police in Philadelphia responded to the scene of an rear-ending accident on Tuesday afternoon and found nothing there. Six subsequent 911 calls from Bonnie Sweeten, Julia's mother, have led Pennsylvania authorities to believe that Sweeten and her daughter were abducted. Bonnie Sweeten told the police that she had been forced into the trunk of the black Cadillac that had rear-ended her. Witnesses at the scene said they saw two black men force Sweeten into the trunk of the Cadillac while forcing the little girl into the back of her mother's SUV.

The SUV was found early Wednesday morning. One of the 911 calls was traced to an area 20 miles from the scene of the accident.

Pennsylvania authorities, along with the FBI, are still searching for the missing mother and daughter. Anyone with any information is asked to call 911.

Nevaeh Buchanan is described as being 3 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 45 pounds. She was last seen wearing a light blue sleeveless shirt with red and white horizontal stripes and knee-length jeans. Authorities are asking anyone with any information regarding missing Nevaeh Buchanan to contact the Monroe County Sheriff's Office at 734-243-7070.

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Sources:

Freep.com

6ABC.com

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