Two half-starved brothers who emerged from the bush two weeks ago are telling an astonishing tale of growing up in complete isolation in the remote backwoods of B.C.'s Interior.
Initially, the story of Tom and Will Green seemed like Swiss-Family-Robinson fiction.
But now a wide-ranging group including a young mother, lawyer, counsellor, Salvation Army
staff and the local member of Parliament have come to believe it might be true.
"They are not like other street kids," says Carol Anne, who once ran a group home for runaways
and now works as a receptionist for local Canadian Alliance MP Darrel Stinson.
"They don't have that what's-it-to-you, in-your-face demeanour."
The kind-hearted group of residents put the brothers in a hotel and provided them with food.
They are also fiercely protecting the privacy of Tom, 22, and Will, 16. None would arrange an
interview, for fear of spooking the boys back into the bush...
They say they have never been to school, seen a doctor, watched television or made a childhood
friend...
Will says he was ordered to leave home this summer when he became a vegetarian and his
mother declared him an "alien influence" in the home, says Rhelda Evans, a case worker for
Stinson.
Tom followed, and the brothers hitched a ride to Vernon, in B.C.'s Interior about 80 kilometres
northeast of Kelowna, where they surfaced about four months ago.
They spent the summer in the bush, begging fruit, vegetables and money from local farmers...
The brothers are protective of their parents and refuse to divulge their location, says Evans.
"We're still trying to win their trust so they will allow us to help them," she says.