CBS 19 - The Eye of East Texas News - Boy Found Alive in Hidden Wall

Boy Found Alive in Hidden Wall

It was September 2007, during a heated custody battle, when Mike Chekevdia last saw his son Ricky.

"I turned him back over to his mother and never saw him again," said father Mike Chekevdia. 

Chekevdia always suspected his son was alive and close, turns out he was right. On Friday, a tip led police back to home of Ricky's grandmother, just a few miles away near Royalton, Illinois. This time, they discovered the boy hidden behind a false wall.

"Basically it was a hidden compartment, you move a panel and inside of a wall," Illinois State Police Stan Diggs explained. 

Investigators say Ricky's mother and grandmother kept him in a room just 12 feet by 5 feet with a ceiling only four feet high. He wasn't allowed to look out the windows or go outside unless it was nighttime.

"I saw him and he's pale, white as my car. He can't get enough of outside right now from what I can tell," Chekevdia said.

The boy's mother, Shannon Wilfong and grandmother, Diane Dobbs, are now under arrest. Police say despite the ordeal, the boy is in good shape.

"Surprisingly Ricky is in very good spirits. Ah, for someone who's been isolated in that house with no other outside, ah, beings he's very, very social," Diggs added.

Ricky is staying with one of his father's relatives for time being, as officials want to move slowly, but Ricky's dad waits anxiously for a reunion... just in time for his son's 7th birthday next week.