The Heene family’s homemade balloon floats over Colorado on October 15, 2009. On the ground, authorities suspect 6-year-old Falcon Heene is trapped inside the contraption.
EPA/CBS4DENVER.COM
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After traveling at least 50 miles across Colorado for roughly two hours, the balloon lands near the Denver airport, but the boy isn’t found inside.
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It turns out, Falcon wasn’t even in the balloon in the first place. He was napping in the rafters of his family’s Fort Collins, Colorado garage. Here he shows photographers where he hid after his dad yelled at him for crawling into the contraption while they were preparing a test launch.
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Another look at the Heene’s not-so-tidy garage where Falcon climbed up into the rafters (upper right-hand corner) and slept while a $2M+ search effort took place involving two county sherriff’s departments, the National Guard and its choppers, more than a dozen local police and fire departments and roughly 50 searchers.
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The Falcon has landed! Wearing a mischievous grin, Falcon Heene is carried out of his parents’ Fort Collins, Colorado house by his father, Richard, no doubt relieved to have found his son–in the garage.
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Larimer County Sheriff James Alderden (giving a thumbs-up) was in the middle of telling reporters that a massive ground search was about to begin when he was pulled aside and informed of the boy’s whereabouts. “Our investigator on the scene said they found him in the attic in the garage,” Alderden announced to gasps.
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Falcon addresses the media, explaining why he hid in “the attic.”
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Falcon’s mother Mayumi, who reportedly screamed when her son was discovered, embraces the boy outside of their house.
AP/The Denver Post/Cyrus McCrimmon
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The Heene family (dad Richard (second from left), his wife Mayumi, sons six-year-old Falcon, nine-year-old Bradford (center) and seven-year-old Ryo (right)) were already minor celebrities, appearing on the ABC reality show “Wife Swap.” However, they bristled at the notion that this was all a publicity stunt, with Richard calling such a question “horrible after the crap we just went through!” But investigators haven’t ruled out the possibility that Falcon’s older brothers, one of whom said he thought he saw Falcon in the dirigible, were pranking the adults.
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Back to normal: Rambunctious Falcon (left) climbs over the family car with brother Ryo, 7, as the Heenes’ dramatic day comes to an end. Falcon’s dad said he would “watch him a lot closer now,” but indicated he wouldn’t punish him. “If I scold him with a loud voice, he pouts and walks away on his own,” he said. “We don’t ground our children.”
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Falcon Heene happily shows photographers the attic where he hid while investigators searched for his whereabouts.
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The morning after Falcon was found in his own home, the entire Heene family appeared on the “Today” show, where Falcon vomited on national television.
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Media continue to swarm the Heenes’ house in Colorado, even though the believed-to-be-missing boy has been found. Could they suspect there might be more to the story?
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Weary of the spotlight, the Heenes taped this note to their door the day after Falcon’s not-so-great escape.
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As rumors circulated that the whole event had been staged, Richard Heene refused to answer questions from the media gathered outside of their house, at least not in a press-conference setting, so he instructed reporters to leave their written questions in the cardboard box in his hands. He then said he would hold another press conference that night to answer those questions. The news media heckled and shouted at him as he turned to walk back to the house. He had stated earlier in the morning that at this conference, there would be a big announcement and the media were fairly annoyed after spending almost two hours setting up to be told that they had to write their questions down and put them in a box.
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In the balloon: Falcon is shown here helping his father build the contraption he was originally said to have been trapped in.
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Larimer County Sheriff’s investigators execute a search warrant on the Heene residence early Sunday morning, October 18, 2009. The sheriff said he expects to recommend felony charges be filed against the parents, including conspiracy and contributing to the delinquincy of a minor.
UPI
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Larimer County Sheriff’s investigators remove evidence from the Heene residence early Sunday morning October 18, 2009. The balloon in which Falcon was originally believed to have been trapped is currently being held as evidence inside the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office.
UPI
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The Heenes take a trip to Wal-Mart on Sunday as the sheriff gives a press conference stating that charges would be pressed against them for what is thought to be a hoax.
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