On the eve of Kevin Art Verville Jr.’s birthday, representatives from the FBI’s San Diego Field Office and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children announced a new push to solve the decades-old cold case.
Kevin Verville Sr. speaking Tuesday at a press conference for his abducted son in Oceanside. (Photo by James Miller/Times of San Diego)The organizations made the announcement at a press conference in Oceanside on Tuesday, releasing a new age-progressed image of Verville Jr.
Born at Camp Pendleton June 14, 1980, Verville Jr. was abducted by a woman posing as a social worker.
The woman — described only as white, in her twenties at the time, possibly pregnant, and calling herself “Sheila,”spent time before the abduction casing Sterling Homes — a federal housing project with 644 units in Oceanside that has been demolished — and lured the Vervilles with free diapers, formula and even money, according to Angeline Hartmann, NCMEC‘s director of communications.
Speaking briefly at the press conference in a low voice, Verville Jr.’s father, Kevin Art Verville Sr., said he wasn’t sure whether to take Sheila up on her assistance, but that a brother-in-law in the military reassured him, saying that enlisted soldiers were underpaid.
After his birth, Verville Jr. spent a few extra days in the hospital with infant jaundice and had only been home for about a week when “Sheila” picked him and his mother up on July 1, 1980, promising to drive the family to a program center where they could weigh the baby, Verville Sr. said.
On the drive, Sheila stopped the car outside a home where another young woman they would purportedly pick up another young mother, and since she was pregnant, Sheila asked if Verville’s wife would knock on the door for her. She could watch Verville Jr., she said.
“After she got out of the car, the lady took off,” Verville Sr. said.
Verville Jr.’s mother didn’t catch Sheila’s license plates or know what car she drove, Verville Sr. said. He added that the abduction changed the lives of his family members.
“We were both not from cities like this,” Verville Sr. said of himself and Verville Jr.’s mother. “We lost a lot of our trust for people in general after that […] it’s changed the way we think, the way we talk.”
Drawings of Sheila, Kevin Verville Jr.’s perpetrator, from early investigative efforts. (Photo by James Miller/Times of San Diego)Sheila had been baby shopping, Hartmann said, approaching dozens of young families at the Sterling Homes complex. “She was knocking on doors until she could find the specific baby she was looking for,” Hartmann said. “Under six months, and part Filipino.”
Hartmann said that some neighbors reported that Sheila spoke some Tagalog and had mentioned traveling to the Philippines.
FBI San Diego Acting Special Agent in Charge Houtan Moshrefi said Sheila was approximately 20 years old in 1980, around 5’2″ and 130 pounds. She was described as having a small tattoo on her left hand, in the web between her thumb and index finger.
Moshrefi said that Verville Jr. could be anywhere, and that the FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads the FBI to him and the perpetrator of his abduction.
“Anyone could potentially recognize Kevin or the perpetrator who took Kevin from his family,” Moshrefi said.
Moshrefi said that relatives of Verville Jr.’s have submitted DNA to the FBI for testing against federal databases. Verville Jr.’s sister said she has used personal genetics company 23andMe‘s products. She and her parents are also registered with Ancestry, she said.
Verville Jr.’s case is one of about a dozen unsolved infant abduction cases in the U.S., Hartmann said.
“We’ve seen it over and over again, where these decades old cases can be solved, Hartmann said. “So that’s what we’re thinking can happen here today.”
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