Boy From the Woods

[For The Kids]

What I dont get is..although this boy may be a minor..he may not be also..and in this case I am not sure it matters anyway - I really think his photo should be publicised internationally as personally I think this would be better as theres a big chance someone could recognise him and solve this mystery.

 

[raeann]

http://www.missingpeople.org.uk/stevenbell

Age is pretty far off however my son who is 22 years old looks 14 or 15 years old. The ears do not seem to match but the nose, mouth and eyebrows to me do.

That person (Steven Bell) would be 37 or 38 years old by now......so not likely to look like a teenaged boy at all anymore.....


jmo

 

[Lera213]

That person (Steven Bell) would be 37 or 38 years old by now......so not likely to look like a teenaged boy at all anymore.....


jmo

Unless SB had a child while he was missing and this is Ray's father. *shrug*

 

[Lera213]

my last two post are ridiculous. I'm clearly in need of a break from this case. At least a day or two. LOL

 

[mysteriew]

I don't think his real name is Ray, or his father is Ryan. My instinct tells me the father picked those names out of a hat because they are more geared towards English heritage.

I'm going to start searching for missing adults to see if any reveal anything.

That's an interesting idea. And if the father wasn't a native English speaker, but was fixated on the English language he could have been speaking English to the boy from a very young age. Since the father was not a native English speaker, some of his accents would carryover. Thus the confusion over his origins.

Still if he had carryover from his dad that should be recognizable shouldn't it?
I don't know. I wonder how much familiarity the linguists had with the Romany language? For some reason I keep going back to that.

It would take some knowlege to exist out in the woods. Hunting, trapping, what plants are edible. Where to find shelter, how to locate water. How to read the weather. Skills that our forefathers knew, but skills that are mostly lost now. For some reason I am thinking that a more mobile society might still practice some of those skills.

 

[Kat]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...live-in-the-woods-for-five-years-2358793.html

The linguists should be able to identify the origin of the english that this boy did learn.

Because, even if this boy isn't a native english speaker and did learn it at a younger age, he would have adopted the accent of the person he learned from (english speaker) or he would have adopted the accent of the area where he spoke english.

IMHO the source of the english shouldn't be difficult to establish. JMHO.

I don't have any formal knowledge about this but personal experience from having lived in Europe and also interacting with a great many people over the years that spoke English as a second language. Even if the english is spoken without a residual accent from their orginating country (accent from native tongue). You can always without error identify where the person that they learned their English from was from.

Example: In Germany I had a friend that spoke English with a distinct and heavy Georgia (USA) accent. I had another friend who spoke english with a British accent. Both were German.

IMHO the linguists have to know, they need to release that info in order to help narrow down where to look in order to ID this young man.

 

[~n/t~]

This article says Berlin detectives have contacted all police departments in Europe and the US. Fingerprints and photo were sent to foreign police forces via Interpol.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/uk...QLDQwrJt_soIuQEtA?docId=N0528691316686013362A

 

[~n/t~]

If they think he's from the Czech Republic , why don't they get someone from there to talk to the kid to see if he reacts to the language?

 

[Nova]

My cousin is the Army attache to the Czech Republic. Now that the Czechs are involved, I'll ask him if he has an opinion on this case. (I don't expect him to tell me classified info, of course, but this doesn't seem to be a U.S. Army matter.)

Dead end there. I'm not sure what papers my cousin reads (though he and his family usually try to keep abreast of the local papers wherever they are stationed), but he hadn't even heard of the case. He does say the Czech forests are fertile and that a survivalist could easily live off the land in one.

 

[Wondergirl]

-The father's body needs to be found, and I presume LE is searching, but, the media is not reporting it

-The COD for the father may not be what the boy says it is

-Specialists should be brought in to help try and peel back the layers on this boy and his past

Where on earth is the boy from? :waitasec:

Really. It's driving me crazy!!!

 

[Wondergirl]

German Forest Boy story doubted

"The Ore mountains are so full of tourists. The area is simply too densely populated to make living in a tent or a hole in the ground possible for any length of time. You would be noticed if you did that."

His opinion was supported by Ronny Schmidt, a former German army paratrooper, who runs Team Survival, a school specialising in survival training courses in the woods close to Germany's border with the Czech Republic. On his week-long survival courses, he teaches pupils to dine on maggots and start fires Stone-Age style, with a friction bow and pieces of wood.

Mr Schmidt dismissed the idea of living rough for a protracted period anywhere in Germany. "This would be possible in remote regions of, say, Canada, where one could survive on the wildlife if one had the right rifle, but in Germany there is not really enough wildlife to go round," he told The Independent. "Even if you spent five years camping out, in a civilised country like Germany at some stage you would end up having to go to a supermarket. I just don't believe it."

Mr Nixdorf said that there was a slim possibility of being able to live rough and undetected on the Czech side of the Ore mountains which lost most of its original German-speaking population after the Second World War and has since been only sparsely repopulated with Czechs.

"The Czech side is just as forested but there are less people living there. There is just a remote possibility of being able to camp out there without being seen, but it is really remote," he said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10753595

 

[Wondergirl]

LE is checking the USA.

Police in Europe and America have been sent his fingerprints to try to identify him.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/273069/Forest-Boy-walk-riddle

 

[ClaireNC]

I find it interesting that there is not speculation here that the boy could be from the US. I see there is some discussion about the different accents depending on where you are in the US, but it has not been expanded on. I recently moved from New Jersey to North Carolina an I honestly can't even understand what many of the people here are saying. There are so many accents in the US, that it may be hard for a linguist specializing in British or European accents to distinquish between them.

The names, Ray and Doreen are pretty common in the New York area among middle aged people - like over the age of 45. But Ryan is a pretty popular name with the next generation, which is the population that is now in the 15 to 25 age group. So could Ray be that father's name and boy's name is actually Ryan?

With that said, the names Ray, Doreen and Ryan appear to be more common among Americans of Irish decent.

 

[mysteriew]

LE is checking the USA.

The bad part about that is that unless he has committed a crime and been caught his fingerprints aren't likely to be in the system. And at his age it is even less likely.

 

[gitana1]

The linguists should be able to identify the origin of the english that this boy did learn.

Because, even if this boy isn't a native english speaker and did learn it at a younger age, he would have adopted the accent of the person he learned from (english speaker) or he would have adopted the accent of the area where he spoke english.

IMHO the source of the english shouldn't be difficult to establish. JMHO.

I don't have any formal knowledge about this but personal experience from having lived in Europe and also interacting with a great many people over the years that spoke English as a second language. Even if the english is spoken without a residual accent from their orginating country (accent from native tongue). You can always without error identify where the person that they learned their English from was from.

Example: In Germany I had a friend that spoke English with a distinct and heavy Georgia (USA) accent. I had another friend who spoke english with a British accent. Both were German.

IMHO the linguists have to know, they need to release that info in order to help narrow down where to look in order to ID this young man.

I read on this thread that the Brits wanted to send someone over to determine whether the kid's accent was British but German authorities said they have it handled and don't need the help. Yet, they can't determine his accent. Why not give it a shot?

I have had this feeling about German governmental arrogance for a while. It stems from the fact that although a member of the Hague convention, they have a horrible track record when it comes to international kidnappings over there, evidencing, in some cases, a belief in the superiority of the language and culture. I can't say I know much about German culture or government so I may be way off base and unfair, but a few cases I have read about have really, really pizzed me off! Like this case: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20128246,00.html

So, I have this irritated feeling when the authorities over there state they don't need help yet apparently have not solved the case yet.

 

[NoraEltrain]

The bad part about that is that unless he has committed a crime and been caught his fingerprints aren't likely to be in the system. And at his age it is even less likely.

Somewhere, as part of the KidID system, my fingerprints are floating around in a database in case I ever got kidnapped.

This would have been in 1995 (I was in school when it started), so it's not unlikely that this kid had some done too.

 

[belimom]

Has this been discussed yet? It's not 'new info' but it has stuck in my mind (bbm):

A police spokesman said yesterday that there was a "low probability" that he was British but refused to say how this conclusion was reached.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...d-boy-from-woods/story-e6frg6so-1226142447003

 

[Jackalyn]

Why on earth, as well as releasing other information, don't they release a tape of the boy speaking to all the suspected countries? That might solve the origin more easily. Also, surely there are some native English speakers actually IN Berlin?

If he is from the UK and has never been in trouble there will not be any fingerprints.

 

[~n/t~]

I find it interesting that there is not speculation here that the boy could be from the US. I see there is some discussion about the different accents depending on where you are in the US, but it has not been expanded on. I recently moved from New Jersey to North Carolina an I honestly can't even understand what many of the people here are saying. There are so many accents in the US, that it may be hard for a linguist specializing in British or European accents to distinquish between them.

The names, Ray and Doreen are pretty common in the New York area among middle aged people - like over the age of 45. But Ryan is a pretty popular name with the next generation, which is the population that is now in the 15 to 25 age group. So could Ray be that father's name and boy's name is actually Ryan?

With that said, the names Ray, Doreen and Ryan appear to be more common among Americans of Irish decent.

I think the reason it's not being speculated that he's from the US is because they keep saying he has an English accent and he may be British. The reason why many speculated early on that he could be Ben Needham. They could be totally wrong and he could be American or Canadian. Who knows. Until they release more information about this kid, where does one even begin to start speculating where he's from. Many here have gone through possible theories like war torn countries as an example. The dad fleing with his son or Ray could be an abducted missing child.

One of the clues is his dad apparently told him English is an important language so that leads me to believe the kid is not from any English speaking countries. Was he taught English by his dad or did he go to school and learned the language?

:banghead:

 

[~n/t~]

Interesting article.

Following in the footsteps of Forest Boy

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3833326/Following-in-the-footsteps-of-Forest-Boy.html


After reading it, I'm now leaning more towards Ray's story as a hoax.