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Authorities offer reward in case of boy missing for 35 years

E-mail|Link|Comments () September 23, 2009 03:21 PM

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Pictures from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website show Savoie as a child and how he might look today.

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

Hoping to shine light into a 35-year-old mystery, Revere and Suffolk County investigators are offering a $5,000 reward in the 1974 abduction of a 10-year-old boy who was last seen in the vicinity of the Suffolk Downs racetrack.

Leigh Savoie has been missing since April 1974. Revere Detective Sergeant Amy O'Hara, who has been investigating the case, recently learned there were funds available for a reward from the Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation.

Investigators said at a news conference that they were going to interview witnesses in the case again, as well as reexamine physical evidence using the sophisticated tools and techniques that have been developed in the intervening years.

District Attorney Daniel F. Conley noted a recent case in California in which a young woman was found who had been missing since she was a child.

"The case in California gives us a glimmer of hope that he is possibly still alive," Conley said, referring to Savoie.

Savoie left his Revere home at about 11 a.m. on April 7, 1974, and headed toward Suffolk Downs, where he usually shined shoes. He stopped in at Beachmont Square diner for a sandwich and a glass of milk, then asked the owner to watch his shoeshine box for a few minutes until he came back. He walked out the door and has never been seen again.

Revere Detective Larry Malta searched for the boy and ran down leads in the months and years afterward, but to no avail. The boy's family friends and schoolmates were questioned, and a thorough search of the area and surrounding towns was conducted. Flyers were sent nationwide of the boy's description.

Security personnel at Suffolk Downs checked hundreds of jockeys, trainers, exercise boys and van drivers in the stable area, hoping someone knew about the disappearance. Savoie, who was nicknamed "LeeLee," was born on Oct. 10, 1963, and was 4 feet 4 inches tall and weighted 60 pounds when he disappeared. He had brown hair and brown eyes and a medium complexion. When last seen, he was wearing blue pants, a white shirt bearing the words, "try it, you'll like it," and a blue sweater.