A former police officer accused of kidnapping his friends' 12-year-old son drew a map in his jail cell that led officials to the boy's body - about 250 miles away in another state, police say.
The remains of Samuel McKay Everett were found Sunday in high weeds off a highway near Baton Rouge, La.Hilton Lewis Crawford, a close family friend whom the boy called "Uncle Hilty," was charged Friday with aggravated kidnapping.
Carl and Paulette Everett say the ordeal began Tuesday night when they returned home from an Amway meeting to find their only child missing. Within hours, they had received a ransom call from a woman demanding $500,000 in $100 bills, police said. They refused to pay.
The initial evidence suggests Crawford masterminded a kidnapping scheme to pay off debts totaling $300,000, police said. He and his wife had filed for bankruptcy protection in May.
Authorities did not say what led them to arrest Crawford, who was a police officer in Beaumont for three years in the early 1960s.
The 56-year-old security guard told them about the body Saturday, saying he wanted "to get this off my chest," but he said he did not kill the boy, Sheriff Guy Williams said.
Williams said he didn't believe the family's failure to pay the ransom led to the boy's death.
On Saturday, another suspect in McKay's disappearance - Irene Flores - was arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping. She was the voice that demanded the ransom money from the Everetts, police say.