Balloon Boy Update
The mother of Colorado “balloon boy” Falcon Heene is a stoic, hardworking woman who is loyal to her family and sometimes subservient to her husband, those who know her say.
She now could face charges along with her husband in last week’s runaway balloon spectacle.
Six-year-old Falcon Heene was reported trapped in the saucer-shaped balloon as it floated across the Colorado plains but was later found alive and well at the family home in Fort Collins, about 60 miles north of Denver.
Authorities say Falcon was a pawn in a hoax hatched by his parents to get publicity for a reality TV show. They say the parents could face criminal charges and be asked to pay restitution for the cost of the massive search-and-rescue operation.
The couple, who have two other sons, have denied staging the incident.
Richard Heene, 48, is the public face of the family, and his aspirations to become a reality TV star and television scientist are well known. Mayumi Heene, 45, has been mostly in the background.
Friends say she emigrated from her native Japan — it’s not clear when — and met Richard at an acting school in Hollywood. Public records show they married in October 1997 in Clark County, Nev., which includes Las Vegas.
The couple ran a film-editing business in Los Angeles for a while, renting a house in 2006 and 2007 from Carrie Cavalier, a Burbank-based photographer who takes publicity headshots.
“When they had their editing business, she was doing all the work. She was in the back guest house doing editing and working on the footage all the time,” Cavalier said.
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