The intense search for two brothers who police said were abducted earlier this week as part of a home invasion ended yesterday, when a relative brought the teens to Baltimore County police headquarters in Towson.
The teenagers were quickly ushered into interviews with detectives seeking answers to the most basic questions surrounding the case:
Who were the six masked men who burst into a home on a quiet suburban block? What happened during the eight-hour siege? And where were the teenagers the last few days, as authorities at all levels of government frantically searched for them?
"Everything has been full bore to find these two kids," said Cpl. Michael Hill, a county police spokesman. "Now we go full bore with the rest of the investigation."
The disappearance of Stephon Blackwell, 16, and his 15-year-old brother, Sterling Blackwell, appears to have been related to Baltimore's heroin trade. Hill could not say whether the teens had been injured, whether there had been any ransom requested or paid, how the teens had become free, or where they have been since they went missing on Tuesday.
When asked about the legal status of the teens, Hill said: "Right now they are victims of a kidnapping, unless other information transpires out of that interview, then we'll deal with that at that time. To say anything about that would just be improper at this point."
He also said: "We're hoping that we do get some cooperation from them and we do learn exactly what's happened and where they have been and, frankly, what they've been doing."
Police have been searching for the teenagers since they were taken from the house Tuesday morning.
Six gunmen had forced their way into the Catonsville home about 3 a.m. that morning, police had said, and had bound and gagged the 10 occupants in the house.
"I don't want to say that this is a targeted event, but we do believe the suspects and the victims have some relationship," Hill said yesterday.
Police said for the first time yesterday that they are investigating a possible sexual assault on a woman during the home invasion.
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 teens' older brother brought them to the county police station yesterday afternoon, according to a source familiar with the investigation who is not authorized to discuss an active case.
