Local News

OAKLAND (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― The foster parents of a missing 5-year-old boy with cerebral palsy were arrested Friday afternoon on suspicion of murder in his disappearance, Oakland police said.

After being questioned by detectives late into the night, Louis Ross was booked into the Santa Rita Jail early Saturday on a homicide charge and was being held without bond. Jennifer Campbell was jailed on an accessory charge and was being held on $15,000 bond, according to jail records.
 
Police indicated that they believe young Hasanni Campbell is dead, although as of Saturday no body had been recovered.

"Right now, in this investigation, it's not a missing persons case anymore, it is a homicide investigation,'' Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason said. "We believe Hasanni Campbell is no longer alive and we have the people responsible."

The couple were arrested separately within an hour of each other. Campbell was arrested about 1:50 p.m. Friday at the Union City BART station, police said. At 2:45 p.m., Ross was arrested at the couple's Fremont home.

Thomason said the couple were questioned extensively by investigators after being taken into custody. Police officers also conducted a search of the couple's home on Friday evening.

Investigators declined to comment on any specific evidence in the case that led to the arrests of the foster parents.

"This investigation is still ongoing and very complex,'' Thomason said.

The couple, who are engaged, were scheduled to be arraigned in court on Monday.

The pair took custody of Hasanni and his 1-year-old sister several months ago because their mother — Jennifer Campbell's sister — had drug problems.

Hasanni's been missing since Aug. 10, when Ross left him in a car parked outside a Rockridge neighborhood shoe store where Campbell works.

Ross told authorities that he left the car to unlock the store door to give Hasanni, who wears braces on his legs, easier access. Hasanni was gone when he returned.

Investigators had said in documents filed for an earlier search warrant that they were mystified as to how Hasanni could have vanished from a "crowded business district with no witnesses."

Besides scouring the area around the shoe store, police had previously searched the couple's home, the surrounding neighborhoods and parks as well as a scrap yard in nearby Hayward.

After the boy's disappearance, his foster parents made tearful public pleas for his safe return, including vigils outside the shoe store. Dozens of volunteers handed out fliers with Hasanni's face and held a car wash to add to a $10,000 reward.

There was even a Web site — findhasanni.com — where his foster family tried to explain their role.

"We understand that there is a lot of speculation out there due to misconceptions about our family and the environment Hasanni was living in but to us he is a son, a brother, a family member and so much more and not just a foster child," a message from the site read.

Both had repeatedly denied any involvement in his disappearance.

But 10 days before the boy vanished, Ross sent an expletive-filled text message to Campbell, threatening to leave the boy alone on a Bay Area Rapid Transit station platform, according to a police search warrant affidavit.

In an interview with CBS 5 earlier this month, Ross said he sent the text message in frustration at a time when he planned to break up with Campbell, who is six months pregnant.

Ross also acknowleged to CBS 5 at the time that he had failed a lie detector test, but maintained that he was cooperating with police "100 percent."

Attorney John Burris, who had been advising the couple, said Friday he was surprised by their arrest.

"I'm not aware of any hard physical evidence that ties either one into a missing child," Burris said.

Sherri-Lyn Miller, a volunteer whose company has created T-shirts and fliers during the search for Hasanni, said Friday she's "stunned" by the couple's arrests.

"I feel that we need to look for Hasanni even harder for him now," Miller said. "I'm not going to stop looking for him."

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