The Associated Press
DETROIT Ÿ A 15-year-old boy who was missing for at least six months had been handed by his mother over to a drug dealer to settle her $1,000 crack cocaine debt, police said after finding the boy yesterday.
Investigators sorted through conflicting accounts of whether he went voluntarily, sold drugs, was used as a sex slave or was forced to smoke crack himself when he was hungry so his captors could save on food.
Acting on an anonymous tip, police found the boy in a small, run-down house in a neighborhood thick with drug dealers and prostitutes.
His grandmother said he appeared addicted to crack. He had lost a lot of weight but seemed otherwise OK, she said.