Deputies arrest couple in boy’s 2006 disappearance
WEWOKA — Nearly 10 years after the disappearance of a 9-year-old boy, his adoptive parents have been arrested and their property was searched by authorities Friday.
Colton Levi Clark disappeared from his rural Seminole County home on April 20, 2006, and authorities reopened the investigation in September, said Paul. B. Smith, Seminole County assistant district attorney.
Seminole County sheriff’s deputies and other law officers arrested James Rex Clark and Rebecca Clark in connection with the boy’s disappearance. Details about the complaints on which they were arrested or possible charges against the two were not made available Friday afternoon.
Agents with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation were assisting the sheriff’s office with the search of the couple’s property, spokeswoman Jessica Brown said.
Brown said investigators were working a large area, and had brought in special equipment to help with the search.
“We have ground-penetrating radar there in case we can narrow down an area to search for any possible remains,” Brown said.
Colton was scheduled to go to a counseling session in Norman the day he disappeared. Rebecca Clark, who is also the boy’s aunt, said earlier that Colton did not want to go to counseling, nor did he look forward to a visit that day from the state Department of Human Services.
He was last seen in the living room of their home about 1 p.m. April 20.
A national Amber Alert was not issued after Colton’s disappearance because there was no evidence of an abduction. However, the state issued its own version of an Amber Alert and posters were plastered throughout the area. The family offered a $10,000 reward.
After about two weeks, former Sheriff Joe Craig asked the adoptive parents to take a polygraph test, but they refused, and then stopped talking to the sheriff’s department.