Brothers Reunited With Family Boys Found In New Orleans; Fbi Arrests Ex-Con

With a happy squeal of “Mom!,” two little boys from Michigan were reunited with their parents Tuesday, hours after they were taken from a man accused of kidnapping them 10 days ago.

The boys’ mother, Maria Alvarado, picked up 3-year-old Eleazar and wouldn’t let him go. Her husband, Martin, grabbed Adan, 11, in a big bear hug. Elder brother Omar wrapped his arms around all four to make a huge family huddle.

Both parents cried almost uncontrollably, and spoke mostly in Spanish as they posed for pictures.The family was reunited at New Orleans’ Lakefront Airport, where the parents’ plane arrived an hour before the boys were brought to them. It was unclear where the boys were or what caused the delay.The family left for home about 15 minutes after the reunion.

The Alvarados are migrant farm workers from Texas who have traveled to Michigan the past four years to pick fruits and vegetables. They have nine children and live in a two-room wooden hut on a farm.

Adan and Eleazar disappeared while buying potato chips at a convenience store in Benton Harbor, Mich., while their mother washed clothes at a coin laundry next door.

They were found safe Tuesday, and the FBI arrested an ex-con just weeks after a priest bailed him out of jail on child-fondling charges. The FBI said Boyd Dean Weekley, 24, was arrested as he stood outside a stolen car. The boys were inside the car.

He was charged in August with fondling an 8-year-old girl at a Sioux Falls, S.D., swimming pool. He was released in September after relatives and a prison chaplain, the Rev. Larry Rucker, raised $500 to secure his $5,000 bail.

“I was burned. I’m sorry it ever happened,” said Rucker, who met Weekley when the man was serving time a few years ago for forgery and attempted escape. He insisted Weekley was not violent.