Authorities were searching Friday night for nine teenagers reported missing from a ranch for troubled youth despite an earlier statement from the facility's attorney that the boys were safe and being returned to their parents. New Mexico State Police said they executed a search warrant at the Tierra Blanca High Country Youth Program as part of an investigation of abuse. But the teens between the ages of 13 and 17 weren't at the 30,000-acre compound in Sierra County and neither was program operator Scott Chandler. Police said Children Youth and Families Department officials also went to the ranch to serve orders to Chandler to hand over the custody of the teens. "At this time, Scott Chandler is a person if interest in this case," said Sgt. Emmanuel Gutierrez, a state police spokesman. "This is an active investigation and all leads are still being followed. At this point and time, State Police has not been able to confirm a location or the safety" of the teens. Program operators had been ordered to send the kids back to their parents or surrender them to the state after staff members were accused of beating and shackling students. Ranch attorney Pete Domenici Jr. said in a statement earlier Friday that the boys had been "on a previously scheduled activity away from the ranch for several days. They are safe and have already been picked up by their parents, or their parents are en route to pick them up." Domenici accused the state of escalating the situation by failing to agree to an emergency hearing in a lawsuit the ranch filed earlier this week over what the suit contends was an improperly handled investigation. "We attempted to avoid exactly this type of situation by requesting an emergency hearing," he said...
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