CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A desperate search for a missing, vulnerable little boy ended in tragedy Sunday evening.
Clayton County PD announced that divers had found the body of 6-year-old John Ross III in the pond the divers had been searching in for hours, Channel 2’s Susan Hendricks reported from the scene.
“There are no words that can adequately express the heartbreak of losing a child. The Clayton County Police Department extends its deepest condolences to the Ross family and all of John’s loved ones during this unimaginable time. We ask that the community continue to keep John’s family in their thoughts and prayers and respect their privacy as they grieve,” the police department said in a statement.
Divers were earlier searching a small, murky pond at a Clayton County apartment complex Sunday for the boy.
John was reported missing at around 7:45 p.m. Saturday.
Clayton County police and sheriff’s deputies had been searing the Meadow Springs Luxury Apartment Homes in the 6000 block of Riverdale Road. The child is nonverbal because of a developmental disability and was last seen wearing blue shorts and no shirt and no shoes.
Channel 2’s Bryan Mims was at the Meadow Springs apartments Sunday morning where he spoke with the child’s mother, who did not want to be identified or be interviewed. She declined to discuss who the child was with and where he was last seen, saying she only wants to focus on getting her son safely back home. Several of the boy’s schoolteachers were also at the apartment complex during the search.
Police also have not released information about the circumstances surrounding the boy’s disappearance. But a flyer being distributed says he was last seen outside his apartment at about 7 Saturday night.
The search has included police, firefighters, K9 units and thermal imaging cameras. Channel 2 photographer Donnie Tuggle, who was on the scene Saturday, said one of the boy’s teachers and several neighbors assisted in the search.
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