By Annie Linskey, Julie Bykowicz, Gus G. Sentementes and Jennifer McMenamin , Sun reporters|April 04, 2008
Sherl Rogers sobbed yesterday when she talked about her two nephews, teenagers who were snatched from a Catonsville house in a kidnapping that appears to be linked to Baltimore's heroin trade.
"We just want our kids to come home," Rogers said in an emotional phone interview. "We're scared that something might happen to them. We don't know where they are. We don't know where they are."
Authorities at all levels of government continued yesterday to search for Stephon Blackwell, 16, and his 15-year-old brother, Sterling Blackwell, the brothers and sons of convicted drug distributors from East Baltimore.
Baltimore County's police chief said the joint investigation is one of the most extensive in recent memory.
Police, in public comments and private conversations, have expressed frustration that they are not getting more cooperation from the boys' family and from other people who were in the house but were not abducted.
"This is a very daring and violent crime that we are intent on solving," said county police Chief James W. Johnson. "The focus of the agency is on locating the Blackwell brothers."
Six masked gunmen forced their way into a Catonsville house about 3 a.m. Tuesday and bound and gagged the 10 occupants.
A woman was sexually assaulted, according to a source familiar with the investigation who is not authorized to discuss an active case.
Johnson said yesterday that no motive for the abduction is known but that police are investigating the possibility that the kidnapping is related to the drug trade. Detectives think at least one person in the house knows the assailants, he said.
Police were still seeking a gray or silver Chevrolet Suburban believed to have been used in the kidnapping. Johnson declined to answer more specific questions about the incident.
The abducted boys' older brother Steven "JR" Blackwell Jr. has been convicted of drug distribution. Their father, Steven Blackwell Sr., 48, is serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison for heroin offenses, records show.
The source familiar with the investigation said that the eight-hour home invasion Tuesday ended when the older brother drove up to the house. At that point, some of the abductors drove off in a BMW convertible that was at the home - and later found in East Baltimore - with the two brothers, firing at least one shot.
