FORT COLLINS, Colo. - -The flight of a runaway balloon purportedly holding a 6-year-old boy was actually a publicity stunt intended to get the family a reality television show, but instead could result in felony charges, authorities said Sunday.
Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said at a news conference that the boy's parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, had planned the charade for at least two weeks before they launched the home-made weather balloon Thursday. Alderden said his office is likely to recommend that the parents be charged with felonies. He also said that they may have had help from others, even from within the media.
"There is absolutely no doubt in our minds that this was a hoax," said Alderden, who had defended the family until his office interviewed the Heenes for several hours over this weekend.
Investigators are examining the possibility of other conspirators, "including the possibility that even some of the media outlets may have had some knowledge about this," Alderden said.
Documents show that a media outlet has agreed to pay money to the Heenes with regards to the balloon incident, Alderden said. He didn't name the media outlet, but said it was a show that blurs "the line between entertainment and news." It wasn't clear whether the deal was signed before or after the alleged hoax, or whether that media outlet was a possible conspirator.
The Heenes have not been arrested and have insisted they perpetrated no hoax. On Sunday, a reporter from the Associated Press confronted them as they shopped at a local Wal-Mart. The AP reported that Richard Heene teared up and said the family was "seeking counsel," though it was unclear if he was referring to an attorney.
"This thing has become so convoluted," he told the AP.
Later Sunday, David Lane, a locally prominent First Amendment attorney, issued a statement that the Heenes had retained him and that he had advised them to turn themselves in and to make no more public statements.
Last Thursday, the search for the weather balloon and its supposed passenger, Falcon, captivated the nation for hours. One of the Heenes' elder sons had said he saw his brother crawl into the balloon's basket before it launched. Air National Guard helicopters joined in the search, and Denver airport traffic was disrupted for hours.
But when the spaceship-shaped balloon landed - empty - in a field 50 miles from the Heene home, Falcon turned up safe inside the family house. He said he had hidden in a box in the garage.
