Published September 14, 2005
New search
• A search for Ricky Holland coordinated by bounty hunter Mike Wellman will launch Monday. He said teams will look 24 hours a day for one week.
• For more information, go to cbhmi.tripod.com.
• Anyone with information on Ricky's disappearance is asked to call 676-8211.
Bounty hunter to look for Ricky
Local man says teams to search for boy for 1 week
By Kevin Grasha
Lansing State Journal
DeWITT - A local bounty hunter announced Tuesday that he was organizing a new ground search for a missing William-ston boy.
His main motivation: God's will.
"The Lord has placed it on our hearts, and we're answering that call," said Mike Wellman of Cherokee Bounty as he sat behind a table draped with a flag featuring Michigan's state seal, and flanked by a Bible on one side and a pair of handcuffs on the other.
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Reading from a handwritten news release, Wellman asked for volunteers to help in a new ground search for 8-year-old Ricky Holland, who was last seen July 1 when he went to bed at around 9:30 p.m.
The Ingham County Sheriff's Office called off its ground search on July 10.
The case has since shifted from a missing person investigation to a criminal probe.
Ingham County sheriff's Lt. Jeff Joy, who watched the afternoon news conference, said police would not get in Wellman's way.
"We're not condoning the effort," he said, "but we're not prohibiting it."
Joy would not comment about last week's search of the Holland home, when police served Ricky's parents with search warrants and confiscated two vehicles and a computer.
The hunt for Ricky, which Wellman said is his company's first missing-person search, is scheduled to begin Monday and last a week. He said he is not working with any police agency and any information collected would be turned over to the Ingham County deputies.
He said he decided to organize the search about a month ago, but it had taken this long to coordinate it.
"It's never too late," he said. "We're going to start in Williamston and literally go to every county if we have to." Wellman added that free Bibles will be passed out to all volunteers.
Neil Rockind, the attorney for Tim and Lisa Holland, Ricky's parents, said he supports the new search.
"We welcome the help from anybody who's willing to help," Rockind said.
Matt Caswell, 27, who said he's the fiance of Ricky's biological mother, plans to participate.
"I will put my heart and soul into it," he said.
Still, he can't help but think something bad happened to Ricky.
"My mind says one thing ... but my heart says, no, it's going to come out all right."
Contact Kevin Grasha at 267-1347 or
kgrasha@lsj.com.
