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Sheriff: Missing Grandmother, Boy Were Not Kidnapped

Missing Pair Had No Known Enemies

Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson told WKMG News Thursday night that he does not believe Joshua Bryant, 10, and his grandmother Lillian Martin, 77, were abducted from their Deltona home May 12. Johnson said that investigators have ruled out ransom because a kidnapper would have made demands by now. "I've never seen a case like this before," Johnson said. "As a matter of fact, with all of the individuals we have talked with inside and outside the department, none of us have seen a case like this." Johnson also says that the most confusing part of this mystery is that the pair had no known enemies. Earlier this week, The Volusia County Sheriff's Office released the 911 tape recorded the day that Martin and Bryant. The 911 tape contained the voice of Bryant's sister, Joanne Miller, after she returned home to find the pair missing. Miller is heard on the tape saying that when she left the house earlier in the day, her brother and grandmother were in the house. Investigators did not release comments that Miller made about how a possible intruder entered the house. Last weekend, Miller said that she had nothing to do with the disappearance of her grandmother and brother after being questioning by authorities.

"We honestly don't know what happened at this point; it's still very much a mystery,'' Gary Davidson, a Volusia County Sheriff's Department spokesman said Sunday.

Miller said that she was asked by investigators over the weekend to provide any new details that might help investigators find the missing pair. She said that they asked her and her husband, John, if anything was missing from the home and about conversations with Joshua the day before he vanished.

"It seemed like I was there for two weeks,'' she told newspaper and television reporters outside the two-story home the couple shares with Bryant and Martin. "They just wanted to ask us the questions over again.''

Miller said that investigators told her everyone has to be treated as a suspect, but she still appeared upset about the questioning.

"It's an insult,'' she said.

Sheriff's officials remained quiet about whether or not the Millers are being investigated.

He acknowledged the family has been questioned but said that was normal procedure in missing persons investigations.

"The family has been very cooperative with our investigators and has done anything we've asked them to do without hesitation,'' Davidson said.

Davidson also said that the sheriffs' department has received an outpouring of support from the Deltona community which has organized searches and distributed fliers seeking information about the missing pair.

"I wish we had something to tell the community,'' Davidson said. "I wish we knew whether or not it was a random act or something else to put everyone's mind at ease, but we simply don't know.''

The Federal Bureau of Investigations joined in the search last week.

Joanne Miller told investigators that Martin and Bryant were at home at about 7 a.m. when her husband left work and she went to a fund-raiser.

When Miller returned home, Kelley said, she discovered her grandmother and brother missing, but Martin's car still in the driveway.

The presence of the car makes investigators "highly suspicious,'' Davidson said, but they remain baffled by the disappearance.

"We always get a number of missing persons calls but nothing quite this unusual or seemingly inexplicable,'' Davidson said.

"This is about as strange as it gets."

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