CUMBERLAND COUNTY: When a 17-year-old boy leaves home, it may not be cause for alarm -- at first. But cutting off all ties to family and friends for over three years is uncommon for a teenage runaway, authorities say, and can be a sign of foul play.
Michael Borges was 17 when he disappeared from the Quail Ridge subdivision in Fayetteville. Authorities believe that Michael had gotten involved with the wrong crowd, and maybe even joined a gang, before he went missing.
"It would only be natural to suspect the possibility that foul play could be involved in Michael's disappearance," Detective Chuck Dew of the Fayetteville Police Department told NC WANTED.
Vanessa Borges, Michael's mother, remembers vividly the last time she saw her son. It was April 30, 2005. He had just come home from a friend's house where they had been doing yard work. Vanessa was cooking dinner.
"I said, 'Son, we're having such and such for dinner' and I said 'You don't look well,'" Vanessa recalled. "He said, 'I'm okay. I'm not feeling well.' And I said 'Well, if you're not feeling well, then why are you going out?' and he said, 'Mommy, I'll be right back.' And that was it."
Michael left with a friend, who later told police that he had dropped Michael off that evening at a stop sign near the intersection of Old Spears Road and Toll Gate Road -- just a couple of blocks from home. Vanessa said the friend was a new one, someone she had only met a couple of times. She, too, suspected that Michael's new group of friends may have been a sign of gang activity.
"It didn't dawn on me in the beginning what was going on but after a while you put the pieces together," Vanessa told NC WANTED. "I believe he got into something he couldn't get out of and didn't know how to come to me with it."
She has never given up hope that her son is alive. She spoke fondly of Michael's plan to join the military, his bright sense of humor and his giving, caring nature.
Police are looking for any information that will bring closure to a grieving mother. Det. Dew told NC WANTED that the investigation has not provided enough factual information to determine where Michael is and why he is missing. Your tips could answer these questions.
Michael is biracial -- black and Hispanic -- with a black afro and brown eyes. He is 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighs about 165 pounds. He has acne scars on his face, a gap between his two front teeth and an "M" shaped scar on his right bicep.
If you have any information on the whereabouts or disappearance of Michael Borges, call NC WANTED toll free at 1.866.43.WANTED (1.866.439.2683) or click on "Report a Tip" Your identity can be kept confidential.
