-
If you want breaking news sent to your email just click here.More >> If you want breaking news sent to your email just click here.More >>
MIDLAND CITY, Ala. - Family and neighbors are speaking out about the 6-year-old whose been held hostage in an underground tunnel at the suspect's home since Tuesday afternoon.
The boy's family told community leader's the boy is "hanging on by a thread" Thursday morning.
Late Wednesday night, local media reported the suspect allowed the 6-year-old boy to receieve medicine he needed to take, but didn't elaborate.
Police say 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes apparently commandeered a school bus, killed the driver then took the boy to a bunker built into the ground beneath his home Tuesday afternoon, and has been holding him hostage ever since.
Neighbors describe Dykes as very paranoid and anti-government, and a "doomsday prepper".
Negotiators have spent the last day outside Dykes' home, demanding he end the standoff and let the boy go free.
Midland City is a rural town, about 200 miles south of Birmingham.
