Richard Wayne Landers Jr. was 5 years old when his paternal grandparents allegedly abducted him in northeastern Indiana in 1994 and the trio seemingly vanished, frustrating detectives for nearly two decades.



But Landers, who is now 24, has been found alive and well in Minnesota, where he is married and uses a name that his grandparents gave him after they abducted him, Indiana State Police said today.



His grandparents, Richard E. and Ruth A. Landers, live about eight miles from him and have been using aliases since the abduction, said Sgt. Ron Galaviz, a spokesman for Indiana State Police.



Federal prosecutors and county prosecutors in both Minnesota and Indiana are reviewing the case, Galaviz said.



"The fact of the matter is he's been found alive and well," Galaviz said. "There's a lot of policemen here in LaGrange County (Ind.) and the family here in LaGrange County who are awfully excited because 19 long years have come to an end."



Landers' stepfather, Richard Harter, said he and his wife, Lisa Harter, learned Wednesday night that her son had been found.



"It's happened so fast, and we haven't talked to him yet," said Richard Harter, who lives in Indiana. "We are planning on it. We're going to as soon as we can."



Richard Harter declined further comment and referred additional questions to the family's attorney, who could not immediately be reached.



Landers' grandparents "were allegedly upset over pending court proceedings regarding the placement of their grandson" when they abducted him on July 29, 1994, and disappeared from their home near Wolcottville, Ind., according to a news release from Indiana State Police.



The case was stalled for years until September 2012, when Landers' stepfather gave a State Police detective the Social Security card that had been issued to Landers before he was abducted, Galaviz said.



Detectives eventually found a man living in Long Prairie, Minn., who was using Landers' Social Security number and date of birth, Galaviz said.



The man's driver's license photo also looked similar to how detectives expected Landers would appear today, Galaviz said.



Police in Minnesota, as well as the FBI and the Social Security Administration, began looking into the case.



Authorities eventually found Landers' grandparents living under aliases in Browerville, Minn., Galaviz said.



The couple confirmed their true identities to investigators and verified that the man using Landers' Social Security number and date of birth was their grandson, Galaviz said.



Soon after the abduction, authorities issued arrest warrants for Landers' grandparents charging them with interference with custody, a misdemeanor, according to Indiana State Police. The charges were upgraded to felonies in 1999.



But in 2008, prosecutors decided to drop the charges because neither Landers nor his grandparents had been found.



Galaviz said he did not know if the grandparents are now in custody in Minnesota. The sheriff of the county where they live declined to comment on the case and said his department would issue a news release Friday.



Galaviz also did not know the name that Landers has been using since the abduction, or how much knowledge, if any, Landers has of his past.



"It does not appear that he was abused or anything along those lines," said Galaviz, who described Landers as "well-adjusted."



"It just appears that (his grandparents) took him out there and they raised him as their own son," Galaviz said.



Landers will have to decide if he'd like to reunite with his mother, Galaviz said.



"Being a young adult now, that's going to be up to him," he said. "We can't force him and say, 'Now you're going back with your mom.' He's 24 years old."



rhaggerty@tribune.com

Twitter @RyanTHaggerty