Richard Wayne Landers Jr. was taken by his grandparents on July 29, 1994 after they got upset over child custody arrangements for their grandson.
The boy was just five then and soon an investigation was launched with information about Richard released to the public.
His details were shared to the missing children clearing houses.
The boy was considered to be in danger.
Arrest warrants were issued for his grandparents with the initial charge being interference with custody.
That was a Class B Misdemeanor in Illinois but in 1999, those were raised to a Class C felony.
Attorney Richard Muntz said that when Harter and Landers Sr. divorced, Harter moved temporarily into a group home which wasn’t equipped for children.
So the boy’s grandparents obtained custody and filed for guardianship.
When Harter moved into an apartment, she gained custody of her son on weekends.
She then filed a petition to expand her custody rights when she remarried.
That’s when the grandparents took Richard and left.
The charges were dropped in September 2008 because Richard nor the grandparents were ever found.
“I’m not sure that they (the grandparents) ever had legal custody,” said John R. Russell.
He spent several months investigating Landers’ disappearance in 1994, being a road deputy for the LaGrange County Sheriff’s Department.
Richard’s mother and stepfather, Lisa Harter and Richard Wayne Landers Sr., were unemployed at the time, and living in a car.
“These people (the grandparents) were nice people. It was wrong for them to do it, but I can understand why,” he continued.
“But I also didn’t think the child would be in any danger at all with them.”
It was in September 2012 when Richard’s stepfather contacted the Indiana State police.
He gave them Richard’s Social Security card.
An investigation was carried out and soon, they found that a man in long Prairie was using the same Social Security number and birth date.
When the man’s driver’s license was brought up, it showed a close resemblance to the missing boy.
Richard was living with his paternal grandparents in the small central Minnesota town of Browerville this whole time.
In 2006, he changed his name to Michael Jeff Landers.
And it was a lot of information to take in when he found out.
However, he accepted the circumstances, even posting about it online.
Michael Landers said, “For you people who jump to conclusions you should find out the whole story I was where I needed to be. My ‘grandparents’ were in the the right I don’t care what anyone else thinks.”
Then his wife, Bobbie Landers, said, “His ‘grandparents’ didn’t follow the law, but they did what was right. …. He was 5. He remembers his birth parents and what they were like. … He was where he WANTED and NEEDED to be to be safe and become the man he is today. My husband & my best friend.”
But his parents were very eager to see him again.
No one knows if and how a reunion was carried out.
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