MARIETTA, Ga. — Neighbors are stunned by the death of a 2-year-old boy who was reported missing Friday afternoon from a Marietta apartment complex, and they’re determined to get answers.
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Police say Messiah Harris was being watched by a male caretaker who reported the child missing just before 2 p.m. Friday at the Briggs at Powers Park apartment complex off Franklin Gateway. The caretaker told police he last saw the child at the apartment around 1:30 p.m., wearing blue and white striped pajamas.
Officers and first responders poured into the community, looking for the boy. At about 7:20 p.m., they found his body in a wooded area behind the apartment building where he lived. Marietta police spokesperson Chuck McPhilamy said early indications are that “his body had been in the woods a considerable amount of time” and was likely dead before the caregiver called 911.
Matt Ducre lives next door and said Messiah lived with his mother and her boyfriend and a couple of other small children. He said he last saw the child Thursday evening with the boyfriend.
“He was holding him and saying he was fixing to be three,” Ducre said.
Police have not said whether the caretaker is the boyfriend, but they have been questioning the couple. McPhilamy said investigators are working with the medical examiner to figure out how the child died and what led to the death.
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“This is the worst end that we could possibly have asked for,” he said Friday night.
Ducre said the couple moved in from out of state about a month ago. “They were always quiet; he was always quiet,” he said, referring to the boyfriend.
When he learned Messiah was dead, “that crushed me because first it was a missing child. That’s what everybody was thinking. So everybody was just looking around, looking around.”
McPhilamy said Saturday that it’s early in the investigation and “there are more questions than answers.” He said it could be at least Sunday before there are any developments.
Neighbors are heartbroken. One placed a couple of stuffed animals outside the child’s apartment.
“Very heartbroken,” Ducre said. “He was a little kid; he was a child. What could make anyone do that?”
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