Child missing following visit with mother | Crime

The search is on for a missing Region 8 boy.

Franklin Holder of Desha says the last time he saw his five-year-old son, Mason, was on November 17, when his ex-wife Stephanie Holder picked the child up for visitation.

On December 5, Holder called the Independence County Sheriff’s Department when his wife failed to return the child.

It’s believed Stephanie Holder and her boyfriend, Royce Porter, have left the state with Mason.

Investigators spoke with Porter’s grandfather, Bobby Calaway, who reportedly said the last time he saw the couple and Mason was on November 17.  He claims they did not say where they were going.

On December 4, Calaway told deputies he was contacted by Stephanie Holder asking him to send a $100 money order to Apalachicola, FL.

Calaway said he did not know where Holder and Royce were staying; but, he told investigators he “remembered them saying something about a state park in the Apalachicola area.”

Stephanie Holder and Royce Porter were last seen driving a 1999 maroon Ford Ranger pickup truck with Tennessee tags.

According to the sheriff’s report, Mason’s name and information has been entered into the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children database and the Arkansas Crime Information Center.

If you have any information on their or Mason’s whereabouts, you are asked to contact your local police department or the Independence County Sheriff’s Department at (870) 793-8878.

Photos provided by Jennifer Rorex.