DeJada Daily
Staff Writer
January 9, 2019
Five years after Bryeon Hunter’s mother beat him to death, a local man keeps watch over every court hearing and appearance, making sure no one forgets the 20-month-old Maywood boy.
Robert Larson never knew Hunter or his mother, Lakeshia Baker, but when the Amber Alert went out in 2013 about the missing baby, the Westchester man put everything aside for 30 days to find him. He used a donated canoe, then a kayak to search the nearby Des Plaines River day and night.
On May 16, 2013 – 30 days after Baker falsely reported that three Hispanic men in a SUV had abducted the child — he found Hunter’s deteriorating body, unclothed and face up in the mucky, cold water. The boy had been stuffed into a backpack and thrown in the river.
Remembering that day still makes Larson tremble with emotion. “I can’t even look at a backpack anymore without thinking of Bryeon,” he said in an interview last month.
Baker and her boyfriend, Michael Scott, were both charged with murder. Baker was sentenced to prison for 35 years in May of 2018 while Scott’s sentencing is rescheduled to November 15th.
The judge referred to Scott as the lowest of humanity, and Larson as highest of humanity.
Throughout all of it, Larson kept showing up at every court appear, every hearing, every trial. “Little Bryeon needed someone to fight for him and that is what I am doing,” he said, his voice shaking with emotion. Larson himself had a rough childhood, suffering frequent beatings from his step-father. But he is still not sure what led him to search full-time for a stranger’s child. “You have to ask God that question,” he said. The search profoundly changed Larson’s life.
Beforehand, he would spend his days training his search dogs, playing pool, drinking and occasionally getting into trouble. However, the search for Hunter gave Larson more meaning to his life, “I gave up everything I got to find one kid,” he said. Larson lost his home, things he can never replace and two teeth – knocked out when the donated search canoe flipped. Afterwards, the city of Maywood gave him an award, but Larson still struggled. He was homeless for three years, living in his truck with two dogs. He even attempted to live in a storage place, but it was a short stay due to flooding. Now,he lives with his three dogs in a trailer that also serves as his office. He keeps watch over a truck lot and does other odd jobs, such as collecting rent on the Southside of Chicago for a close friend. He still keeps the kayak he used to find Hunter and will never give it up. And he can never forget Hunter’s July 9 birthday. “I can’t remember my own brother’s birthday, but I can remember Hunter’s.” On what would have been Hunter’s second birthday, Larson and his 12-year- old son placed a banner that read “Happy Birthday Bryeon. We Will Miss You” along with balloons on the side of the bridge over the Des Plaines River.
After all the searching and the troubles that followed, Larson has no regrets.
“I would do it all over again,” he said. There is another hearing for Scott on Nov. 15 in the Maybrook Courthouse, and Larson plans to be there once again, in memory of Hunter. “I’m gonna be here till the end,” he said.
daildeja@my.dom.edu
