Authorities on Friday continued to look for a Lakeville father accused of abandoning his 11-year-old son after their home was sold in a foreclosure.
Meanwhile, neighbors, a consumers group and a private investigator have offered to help find Steven Alexander Cross, 60, or to help care for the boy.
Cross went missing July 18 after leaving two notes for his son: One explained he couldn’t find work and that they were being evicted. It instructed the boy to go to a neighbor’s house. The second asked the neighbor to take guardianship of his son.
Cross, whose last known whereabouts were in California, has been charged in Dakota County with gross misdemeanor child neglect.
Police also were investigating Cross’ connections in Boise, Idaho, said Lakeville Police Chief Tom Vonhof.
People in their neighborhood want to help the boy, said Hilary DeVary of the Lakeville-based Financial Integrity Foundation, which provides education for consumers on mortgage crime and foreclosures.
DeVary, who also works as a licensed private detective, said the foundation wants to help locate Cross and reunite him with his son.
“There’s just a lot of people that want to come together to help (the boy),” she said.
DeVary said the foundation would like to store Cross’ belongings left in the house at no charge. The family lived in the home since 1995, records show.
DeVary also is independently trying to locate Cross.
“Right now, we’re trying to find him,” she said. “If he comes back, which we hope he does for the sake of the family, his items are there and we would like to work with them.”
Cross, an architect, used to work at Vanney Associates, an architecture firm in St. Paul, according to a company official, who refused to comment further about Cross. On a social media site, Cross lists himself as employed at Steve A. Cross Architects.
Cross owed nearly $35,000 to financial companies since 2007, according to court records. A bank purchased Cross’ home Jan. 25 for $336,925, property records show.
When Cross left, police tracked his credit cards and bank accounts but found no activity, according to the criminal complaint. Authorities also analyzed his home computer and found a possible reservation dated Aug. 1 in Morro Bay, Calif.
California police tried unsuccessfully to locate Cross.
A week after his disappearance, the neighbor who took in Cross’ son for about a month received a call from a woman who said she was Cross’ ex-girlfriend, the complaint stated. Cross sent her an email from a library in Carmel, Calif., saying he left his son and was depressed and sleeping in the streets, the complaint said.
“I probably only have a couple of days,” Cross said in the email. “No one I called would help me. … I didn’t know what to do. I am scared and hopelessly depressed.'”
DeVary said she also found correspondence between Cross and a former classmate on an online social network site. The woman was located in California.
“This whole situation, it’s tough,” DeVary said. “Not only are you dealing with someone who’s lost his home. He clearly thinks he’s lost everything. And now he left his son.”
If convicted of the charge, Cross could face up to a year in jail. Anyone with information about Cross can contact the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office at 651-438-8477.
http://liarcatchers.com/missingpersons.html
