Washington, October 17: The family in Colorado’s runaway balloon saga will be quizzed by detectives following a comment from the boy at the centre of the drama that fuelled suspicions of a hoax, police say.
Larimer County sheriff Jim Alderden said police were convinced the event that gripped US media yesterday was legitimate, but officers would seek clarification of remarks made by six-year-old Falcon Heene.
“Clearly with the statements last night we hope to re-interview the family and explore that possibility (a hoax) to try to get to the bottom of this and resolve it one way or another,” Mr Alderden said.
Tiny Falcon became the subject of a massive rescue operation and a media feeding frenzy after he was initially believed to have flown away on a home-made helium balloon built by his father for a weather experiment.
Falcon was later discovered hiding in the attic of his garage to the relief of investigators and the boy’s family.
However Falcon Heene raised suspicions that the incident may have been an elaborate hoax during an interview on CNN’s Larry King Live.
Asked by his father Richard Heene why he had not come out of his hiding place as the tension mounted, Falcon replied: “You guys said that we did this for the show.”
The remark has been seized upon by commentators and bloggers as evidence of a hoax, suggestions Richard Heene has angrily and repeatedly denied.
When asked for his view on the comments, Mr Alderden stressed that officers who had interviewed Heene believed the family was telling the truth.
“What I can tell you is that our investigators were there from the onset,” Mr Alderden said. “They’re very experienced investigators. They can do forensic interviews, they’re well-trained in looking at body-language and verbal communication to look for deception.
“And their reaction to this thing was that it was legitimate, that it was not a hoax.
“And after the boy came out they did a forensic interview with the boy and they again thought it was a legitimate thing from his perspective. So the investigators read into it that it was legitimate.”
Asked what he thought Falcon may have meant by the remarks, he added: “I have no idea what he was talking about but he had been doing a lot of interviews. After three hours of dealing with the media I can’t tell you what he meant.”
—Agencies