Tot Goes Home Without Father Expert Worries For Boy Who Saw So Much Tragedy So Early In Life

The fresh-scrubbed child who wobbled on the tarmac at Spokane International Airport on Tuesday showed no sign of the unspeakable horror he’d seen in the previous five days.

Prompted by his cowboy grandfather, the boy waved to reporters just before boarding a twin-engine airplane bound for his home state of Texas.

But 19-month-old Dylan Miller will not escape without deep emotional scars from witnessing the shooting of his mother in Texas last Thursday and his father’s suicide after a three-hour standoff in the Spokane Valley early Monday, said one leading authority.

Sitting in a wrecked Nissan Maxima with blankets covering the windows, Dylan was splattered with blood when Kevin Ronald Miller, 31, pulled the trigger. Miller died 13 hours later at 8:25 p.m. Monday.

Miller had held Dylan on his lap during the standoff, with the barrel of his black handgun pointed at the boy’s head. The father was wanted for the execution-style murder of Dylan’s grandmother early this month, and for shooting Dylan’s mother three times while kidnapping the boy.

“I don’t think there’s any way to sugarcoat it. I wouldn’t be surprised if this kid has lifelong problems,” said Dr. Alan Unis, director for child psychology research at the University of Washington and Children’s Hospital in Seattle.

Spokane psychologist Dr. Laura Asbell disagreed, predicting Dylan will have no memories of the events, and therefore no significant developmental problems.

Both psychologists agreed that strong family support will be vital. And in that, Dylan may be lucky.

Texas authorities who flew to Spokane to retrieve the boy Tuesday said he greeted his grandfather Michael Kennedy with an excited “Pa!”

Dylan “was really glad to see him, had a big smile,” said Lt. Bud Baker, a Texas homicide detective who had been tracking Miller since the body of his mother-in-law, Karen Kennedy, was found bound with duct tape in a field where she’d been shot once in the head.

Dylan’s paternal grandmother and her husband, Horace and Jacqueline Geiger, also were in Spokane on Tuesday. They told authorities for the state Child Protective Services that they would like to have custody of the boy.

The couple could not be located for comment and it was not known whether they had returned to Texas. If they left, it was without the body of their son; an autopsy was scheduled in Spokane for Tuesday evening.

A Texas judge will decide who gets custody of Dylan.

“There’s going to be a (custody) challenge, but I don’t think there’ll be a battle,” said the recently widowed Michael Kennedy, 56, who wants custody for himself and his daughter.

Kennedy said he didn’t know whether Alison Kennedy understood when he stood beside her hospital bed and said he was going to get her son. A doctor hopes the 25-year-old woman will be breathing on her own by the end of the week, her father said. But there’s still no telling whether she’ll ever walk or talk or be able to raise a son.

“She’s conscious of things going on around her,” Michael Kennedy said. “Whenever you show her a finger, she holds up the corresponding finger.”

Afraid that Miller would try to hurt her or the boy, Alison Kennedy had moved in with her sister’s family in Austin after their mother’s funeral.

Witnesses say Miller bound Kennedy’s brother-in-law with duct tape and used him as a hostage to get into the apartment and snatch Dylan last Thursday.

As Miller was fleeing, Alison Kennedy fired her own gun into the air. His son in his arms, Miller spun and shot his common-law wife - who had legal custody of Dylan - twice in the head and once in the thigh.

On Friday, a frantic Miller stopped in St. Louis to visit his sister. There, he confessed to killing his mother-in-law but said he didn’t mean to shoot Alison Kennedy.

Three days later, at 4:15 a.m. Monday, a security guard found the father and son sleeping in their car behind the Super 8 Motel in the Spokane Valley. Miller fled when sheriff’s deputies responded to the routine call, bashing his car into four others and nearly hitting a deputy.

With two flat tires, Miller drove only two blocks before the standoff began. Fifteen minutes later, he fired two shots, including one that hit a patrol car. Later, he asked negotiators for a tin of chewing tobacco and indicated he might give up.

No one is certain why Miller came to Spokane.

“The prevailing theory back in the detective’s office is that he was headed for Canada,” said sheriff’s spokesman Lt. David Reagan.

Witnesses said Dylan was filthy when he was pulled from the Nissan Maxima. He was wearing only a diaper and a dirty flannel shirt.

On Tuesday, he wore white shoes and gray overalls as he boarded the airplane with men in cowboy boots and hats. Michael Kennedy and Lt. Baker beamed.

“I’m a grandfather, too, you know,” said the congenial, seen-it-all detective. “This means a lot to me.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 color)

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Dan Hansen Staff writer Staff writer Bert Caldwell contributed to this report.