HONOLULU — A Seattle man charged with the international kidnapping of his 9-year-old son could have sailed with the boy to Hawaii or other Pacific islands, the FBI said Wednesday.
Jeffrey Ford Hanson, 46, set sail from Seattle with his son Billy Hanson possibly in early September, the FBI said.
A federal arrest warrant was issued for Jeffrey Hanson on Sept. 12, after Billy didn’t board a flight back to Pennsylvania to his mother on Sept. 4.
Hanson is accused of abducting Billy from Shilshole Bay Marina. The boy was last seen wearing black knee-length surf shorts, with no shirt or shoes.
Last month, agents in Seattle said they could be heading toward Mexico or islands in the South Pacific, but that the “possibilities are endless.”
The FBI doesn’t know where they went, but Coast Guard nautical experts told agents that they could have traveled to the Hawaiian islands and beyond based on Hanson’s sailing skills. The experts didn’t tell agents how long it would take the sailboat to arrive in Hawaii or elsewhere, said Ayn Dietrich, FBI spokeswoman in Seattle.
On Wednesday, FBI agents in Honolulu began asking Hawaii’s sailing community to look out for Hanson’s 1976 White Cooper sailboat, “Draco.” It’s described as having a 6-inch red stripe along the side with a white fiberglass hull. It has a Washington state license of WN6753NZ.
“Our focus is on helping the agents at the Seattle FBI recover Billy safely, so he can go back to his mom where he belongs,” said Tom Simon, a FBI spokesman in Honolulu. “Hawaii and the islands of the Pacific have a vibrant sailing and nautical community, and we are appealing to that community to be on the lookout for this sailboat and contact authorities with leads.”
The FBI is also reaching out to authorities in American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and nations in the Pacific.
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