DENTON - A mystery remains as to where two children vanished after their adoptive parents were taken into custody in North Texas and then taken to Colorado Springs.
Authorities believe Edward Dylan vanished in 2001 when he was nine. Austin Eugene vanished in 2003 when he was seven. They would now be 18 and 15.
Edward and Linda Bryant, who were the children's adoptive parents, moved to North Texas in 2005 with six children. The Bryants lived in the Monument area near Colorado Springs
between 1999 and 2005. Family friends told News 8 that the two missing boys did not make the move to Texas with them.
The family had moved from Colorado Springs, Colorado to the Lake Kiowa community near Gainesville before the couple split.
"We were shocked, totally shocked," said Jan Dalton, a former neighbor of the family at Lake Kiowa.
Mrs. Dalton and her husband, Bill, said they liked the Daltons, and had even placed a gate opening on their fence to allow their six foster children, all boys, to use their pool.
"The children were very, very disciplined," Mrs. Dalton said. "It was just remarkable ... Beautiful children."
The Daltons said prior to the Bryants move to Lake Kiowa, they had heard that eight children would be making the move from Colorado to Texas.
"They did tell me at one time that some of them wanted to stay in Colorado," Mrs. Dalton said.
They said it was their first and last hint of any mystery, until revelations that the two children were missing.
The investigation started Jan. 22 when someone reported a suspicious incident involving the alleged disappearance of Austin, Sevene said. Investigators checked it out and discovered that the boy was last seen sometime between 2003 and 2005. In follow-up interviews, including with his family, investigators determined Edward was also unaccounted for, Sevene said.
Linda Bryant, 54, was arrested at a lake-front house near Gainesville; Edward Bryant, 58, was arrested at a Denton house. They are both being held on $1 million bail each on charges, including theft and forgery.
The six children are now in foster care.
Authorities in Colorado Springs said the Bryants have told them the boys ran away from home years ago. However, authorities said they gave conflicting dates and never reported them missing.
The Bryants have not been charged, and are currently under investigation for taking money to raise the two boys who vanished years ago.
In documents from a 2007 bankruptcy filing, the couple listed a total of $126,125 in adoption monies as part of their income for 2005-2006. They listed eight sons, ages 7 to 15, and an 87-year-old mother as dependents.
At the time, the elder Edward Bryant said he was an electric engineer technician for the city of Denton, Texas, and Linda Bryant's occupation was listed as "housewife."
Sheriff's deputies were outside the Bryants' former home in Monument Thursday in a neighborhood set amid an evergreen forest against the foothills. Narrow paved roads lead to homes nestled in the trees.
A neighbor who didn't want her name published said the Bryants had kept to themselves and that her interaction with them was mostly just waving to them.
"We as a neighborhood are circling the wagons" to protect the family who lives in the home now, she said.
A spokeswoman for the public school district in the area said she couldn't release information on whether the boys had attended its schools.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
