FRANCISCO SOTO - 16 yo - Brewster NY

A Brewster boy has been reported missing from his home, Putnam
County Sheriff Donald Smith said Wednesday. No indications of foul play
have been reported in the case, but officials are seeking the public’s
help in locating Francisco Noe Lopez Soto, 16, who recently arrived
from his native Guatemala and lives with an adult brother and his
family in Brewster.
He was last seen at about 11 p.m.
Saturday, August 15 standing outside the Xtra-Mart convenience store at
Main Street and Michael Neuner Drive. The boy’s brother reported him
missing on Monday.
Soto is Spanish-speaking and does not
speak English. He is five feet, five inches tall, weighs 140 pounds,
and has brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing an orange
shirt with brown stripes and tan pants.
Anyone with information about the youth or who may have seen him is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 845-225-4300.

Putnam sheriff’s
deputies and local police and firefighters are searching for a missing
Brewster teen who may have developmental disabilities.The
search, in full force at 10 a.m., included ATVs and K-9s and centered
on a wooded area of Brewster near the railroad tracks along North Main
Street to Nelson Boulevard.Francisco Noe Lopez Soto, 16,
was last seen on Saturday, around 11 p.m., standing outside the
Xtra-Mart on Main Street in the village. His brother reported him
missing on Monday.Officers at the scene said he doesn't speak English, may have developmental issues, and was a native of Guatemala.
He stands 5-foot 5-inches, 140 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.
He was last seen wearing orange shirt with brown stripes and tan pants.
Anyone with information can call 845-225-4300.

A 16-year-old Brewster boy who was believed to be
missing yesterday was actually being held in the Putnam County jail on
a charge of criminal possession of a weapon.
Dozens of volunteers and police officers searched into the afternoon yesterday
for Francisco Noe Lopez Soto, who had been seen Saturday night near the
Xtra-Mart convenience store at Main Street and Michael Neuner Drive.
A correctional officer who saw the missing-person flier yesterday noticed
that it was that of a person in the jail, county Sheriff Donald Smith
said. The boy had identified himself as Noel Garcia and had given a
birthdate of Oct. 12, 1989, Smith said.
The teen was arrested this past weekend after a fight in the village and
charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He is being
held on $25,000 cash bail. He also has a detainer warrant issued
against him by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because it
is believed he is in the country illegally.

Two opponents of Putnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith
ripped him today for mounting a massive search yesterday for a missing
16-year-old Brewster boy who, it turns out, was being held at the
Putnam County jail, which Smith oversees. Former New York City
police captain Andrew DeStefano of Patterson and former Southeast town
justice James Borkowski took the opportunity to blast Smith for
spending thousands in taxpayer dollars to search for the boy in
Brewster while he was being held all the time at the jail in Carmel
under an false name and birth date .
"This is what happens when you don't have a law enforcement commander as a sheriff," DeStefano said at an 11 a.m news conference in Brewster.
"Why did this happen? How did this happen?" Borkowski asked at a 12:30 p.m.
news conference outside the Sheriff's Department and county jail in
Carmel. "Because of the gross neglect and incompetence of the sheriff
of Putnam County."
Francisco Noe Lopez Soto, 16, of was last seen around 11 p.m. last Saturday at
Main Street and Michael Neuner Drive in Brewster. Two days later, his
brother, with whom he lived on Oak Street in Brewster, reported him
missing.
Police, fearing the worst, mounted an all-out effort to find him as roughly 100
volunteer firefighters from throughout the county and dozens of police
officers from several departments mounted a search on land and from the
air, with a state police helicopter, for the missing boy, who is
mentally disabled.
Searchers braved hot, humid weather to search thick woods and along the Croton River.
The search was called off around 4 p.m. Around that time, Smith said, a
corrections officer saw a flier that contained a dated photograph of
the boy and said he resembled a jail inmate. Police later brought
Soto's older brother to the jail and he identified him as the boy
thought to be missing.
Smith today defended his department's handling of the matter, noting that
Soto repeatedly tried to conceal his true identity, not only to jail
staff but also to a federal immigration
officials who came to interview him at the jail before lodging an
detainer warrant. In addition, jail staff sent the boy's fingerprints
to state and federal data bases, but he was not in either system. The
boy also declined when given a chance to make a phone call to family ,
Smith said.
"Investigators requested yesterday's search in Brewster and I approved it, based upon
the information that had been gathered in the course of their
investigation, which reasonably led them to believe that Mr. Soto was
missing and that he was possibly lost and lying hurt somewhere in the
woods around the village," Smith said.