EATON COUNTY, Mich. — A family is frantically looking for their missing teen. 18-year-old James Stone was supposed to be extradited from North Carolina to the Eaton County jail. However, for weeks family members had no idea where he was.
They reached out to Fox 47 because they were worried about their loved one's safety.
Stone's family said they couldn't get any answers from the jails since they were told he was heading back to Michigan, to be tried for a crime he allegedly committed two years ago. So we made some calls to try to help put this family's concerns to rest.
"Even as a person being incarcerated you still have rights. Or your family should still be able to know what's going on," said Richard Sampson, uncle of inmate James Stone.
From point A at Alamance County Jail in northern North Carolina to point B at Eaton County Jail in Charlotte, family members aren't sure why extradition for Stone is taking so long.
"It's only a 10-hour drive from there to there. Which we do understand it's a process, but during the process, we think we should be able to know something," said Sampson.
Alamance County Jail confirms Stone was picked up on April 19th and going to Eaton County. The family said that's the last thing they were told.
"I'm feeling lost we don't know what else to do to try and find out if he's somewhere. We just need to know something. This is 13 days that's a long time to not know something," said Sampson.
Fox 47 started making calls, the first one was to Eaton County. We were told that Stone had a May 5th delivery date. The county contracts a company called U.S. Prisoner Transport to pick up and deliver inmates.
Fox 47 then called that company and they confirmed they did pick up Stone on April 19th.
They told us they stopped at two housing units, one in Georgia and the other in Missouri.
The company said it's common to take around 2 weeks from pickup to delivery. The company confirmed Stone is expected on Thursday. We called Stone's father in North Carolina who was relieved to hear the news.
"I appreciate you so much you just don't even know," Stone's father told Letang via phone call.
Stone is currently awaiting trial on four charges including third-degree criminal sexual conduct.
