The mother of the six-year-old US boy once feared missing inside a runaway helium balloon admitted the whole saga was a hoax, according to court documents.

US investigators pored over e-mails, phone records and financial documents from the home of Richard Heene as they weighed felony charges and sought to determine who else might have helped the alleged balloon-boy hoax get off the ground.

A SHERIFF has said he was pursuing criminal charges in Colorado’s “balloon boy” saga, which first sparked fear for the child, then relief and now suspicions of a hoax.

THE father of a 6-year-old boy who was thought to be in a helium balloon that floated away and was pursued by military helicopters said yesterday accusations that the ordeal was a publicity stunt are “extremely pathetic”.

A TODDLER missing for three-and-half years whose tattered clothes were discovered last week was probably attacked by a mountain lion, authorities said. Three-year-old Jaryd Atadero vanished on October 2, 1999, while on a hiking trip with a church group. He had been running ahead so he could find hiding places and say “Boo!”.