Suspect Named In Boy’s Abduction, Both Missing

A 19-year-old man was charged Thursday with second-degree kidnapping in the abduction of an 8-year-old boy, whom he was previously accused of molesting.

Jason Murphy, named in an arrest warrant Thursday, and young Nicholas Sullivan, who vanished Wednesday morning after his mother dropped him outside his school in Edmonds, were still missing late Thursday.

Robin Hickock, deputy police chief in Edmonds, said he doubted the boy was in immediate physical danger.

“I personally don’t think so, but this is pretty bizarre behavior,” Hickock said. “How do you predict human behavior? I don’t think he would do anything to hurt the boy.”

Sullivan’s family went to authorities after being notified at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday that the boy had not appeared for classes at Hazelwood Elementary School, a Snohomish County sheriff’s spokesman said.

Murphy, a former friend of the child’s family, was immediately identified as a suspect in the boy’s abduction. He had told his parents he was going to spend Wednesday with the boy, sheriff’s officers said.

“We’re very anxious to find him,” Jorgensen said. “We’re concerned about the little boy.”

Murphy befriended the boy and then got to know the family while doing community volunteer work about two years ago, Hickock said.