Texas Man Says He Knew Right Away Picture Was Of Friend's Child
BOSTON (CBS/AP) -- A Texas man says the boy whose body was found on a roadside in Maine is the son of a longtime friend and that he called investigators after seeing a computer-generated photo of the child that had been released by police.
Christian von Atzigen of Irving said he called Maine state police Wednesday after he recognized the boy as Camden Pierce Hughes. von Atzigen and his wife have been friends with Hughes' mother, Julianne McCrery, for 15 years.
von Atzigen told WBZ-TV that his wife and McCrery met about 15 years ago when they were in court reporting school together. Since then, he said, they have been good friends.
"She would babysit my son, babysit my dog," he said. "If she was going somewhere she would've told us. That's why when we started to get this call from Robert (McCrery's ex-boyfriend) about Maine I flipped smooth out and got on there and saw the picture of that little boy and called the Maine police and told them exactly who it was and who she was. I didn't know what was going on."
Maine State Police released a computer generated picture on Sunday of a boy whose body had been found on the side of the road in South Berwick. On Wednesday, Massachusetts State Police took McCrery into custody and sources tell WBZ-TV that she admitted to killing her son.
von Atzigen said Hughes was a big fan of the movie Cars and when he saw the picture from Maine State Police of the Lightning McQueen shoes Hughes had been wearing when he was found, it reaffirmed what he thought.
"For her not to tell her mother she was going to Maine? That's not the way it goes," he said, adding that McCrery had a job delivering auto parts and "made good money." He said she received some extra tax money this year and bought a mobile home.
He said he is distraught over what he learned Wednesday. "It's so disheartening. It's so sad.
"He's such a precious baby."
Denise Lavoie and Russell Contreras of the Associated Press contributed to this article.
