Towanda ? A county prosecutor says the adoptive parents of an 11-year-old boy who has been missing for nearly a decade are suspects in his disappearance and could face murder charges.

Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield says no human remains have been found in the search for Adam Herrman, but there’s still a chance for first-degree murder charges, with the underlying crime being child abuse.

“They are the suspects in this case,” Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield said of Doug and Valerie Herrman.

Satterfield told The Wichita Eagle that although investigators haven’t ruled out the possibility that Adam — who would be 21 now — is alive, they have found “no indication that he exists out there.”

Adam was a toddler when he came to the Herrmans, who later adopted him.

A few years before he disappeared, Adam spent two days at the Wichita Children’s Home, the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services has confirmed, but then returned home. Valerie Herrman said Adam was temporarily removed from the home after she spanked him with a belt and a counselor saw bruises.

A few days after Adam’s disappearance in 1999 came to light last week, several of Valerie Herrman’s close relatives accused her of abusing Adam over the years — something she denies.

The Herrmans told The Eagle that Adam ran away in early May 1999 after Valerie spanked him with a belt, and he never returned. The couple said they did not report him missing because they feared that the spanking would prompt authorities to take Adam and two younger siblings from them.

Valerie Herrman, 52, and Doug Herrman, 54, now live in Derby. Investigators excavated part of the mobile home lot in Towanda where Adam was living with the Herrmans around the time he disappeared. They didn’t find any human remains.