Found Deceased NC - Maddox Ritch, 6 w/Autism, Gastonia, 22 Sept 2018 #2

[LietKynes]

Holy smoke that is such a bad*** reporter! I love his expressions and phrasing of questions is so thorough. idk what I think of Dad. Idk my questions now are why does his “gf” want to stay anonymous and where are all of these people at the boat rental spot!!?? I thought this happened in the way back, secluded? I’m sorry if my version is old news. I’ll catch up.

It's possible that reporter (DB) has children of his own-- he comes across as very concerned !

 

[insearchoflight]

It's possible that reporter (DB) has children of his own-- he comes across as very concerned !

I think he had a bad cold poor guy. And I think he gave the cold to Dad shaking his hand

 

[rosesfromangels]

My daughter is Norah. It does get easier, but it never goes away.

I think it is wonderful you are both here doing good, offering support and ideas. I think there are two little angels in heaven proud of what their earth parents are doing. Bless you both.

 

[LietKynes]

I think he had a bad cold poor guy. And I think he gave the cold to Dad shaking his hand

Hmmm... Well, ok. That was worth a chuckle.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

CBS Charlotte affiliate WBTV spoke to Jeremy Day, who lives with his family about 150 yards away from where Maddox was found.

"Knowing that he was found right there is kind of unsettling," said Day.

Day said he knows the area well, and he described the terrain where the boy's body was found as "very thick."

"Tall grass, thick brush. It is swampy, and you usually have water down there year-round," said Day. "The brush is so thick down there it is hard for anyone to walk through there."

Investigators search for clues after body believed to missing 6-year-old boy found

 

[JuneRose]

I just remember a missing childs case a few years ago from a town about 15 miles from where I live. This child was also autistic and his mother found him gone when she woke up in the morning.He too was non verbal, but knew his name and a few words that he could udder if worked with. He was also found 3 days later in a retention type pond 5 blocks from his house. The pond had a tall fence all the way around it yet he found his way in somehow and drowned.

 

[Alethea]

I was out all day, I'll go back and read the thread tonight but any new LE releases today?

 

[imstilla.grandma]

GASTONIA, N.C. -- Just a week after 6-year-old Maddox Ritch and his mother moved out of their apartment in Concord, Emma Alexander now finds herself heartbroken about her former neighbor.

“My heart burst,” Alexander said about the discovery of the boy’s body Thursday.

Khdija Wakefield said she feels the same way. The woman was at Rankin Lake Park Saturday around the time Ritch disappeared.

It hurts. It really hurts my feelings,” she said.

She believes she may have seen the boy.

“I saw a man and a woman and a little boy. They were walking towards the dock as we were leaving and they had stopped to look at the water moccasin and the geese because we stopped too,” she said.

"He was bending down to play with the rocks," she said.

Wakefield said she's shared that information with police.

“Whether it was their family or not, they were the only ones that I saw at the park."

Maddox Ritch Investigation: FBI looking for more witnesses
Open quote box for possible witness info.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Law enforcement agencies in central Virginia are reminding families about a small device that can track loved ones who wander off following the disappearance of a six-year-old North Carolina boy.

It’s called Project Lifesaver, and in the 19 years the international program has been up and running, more than 3,400 people have been rescued, with a 100% success rate.

“The individual wears a transmitter on their wrist or ankle," said Chesterfield County Police Corporal Matt Rogers. "We have receivers we can plug in the individual’s unique number assigned to their transmitter and our piece of equipment can pick up the signal that they’re transmitting.”

More than 100 people in Chesterfield County are enrolled in the program through the police department.

"It works great,” Rogers said. “Every time we've had to go out we've always located them. It works very well."

"That's awesome, and if I have to help donate I will," said Lydia Green, of Richmond.

Green interacts with children on a daily basis.

Device can track elderly, children with disabilities who wander

 

[JuneRose]

I was out all day, I'll go back and read the thread tonight but any new LE releases today?

no we are waiting, but nothing.

 

[MsMarple]

I can't believe that with all the publicity in msm none of the witnesses have come forward. I guess it's possible that the man with the kayak and white pickup isn't local and hasn't heard or read that LE is trying to find him but the jogger is most likely local. I haven't seen much about the man on the bench or the photographer, it seems LE is mainly looking for the jogger and the kayaker with the white pickup.

Chief among the possible witnesses appeared to be a man who was seen at the park in a white pickup truck, loading a kayak at a boat ramp. Kaplan said investigators “believe he’s a witness who might have seen Maddox for the last time.”

Police have said they were also looking for a male jogger who was in the area.

Potential witnesses still needed after boy’s body found, Gastonia police say
The article also says LE said it’s possible Maddox walked along Long Creek from the park and under U.S. 321 to where his body was found. So they haven't confirmed that was the route but it's likely. I can't see an easier way to get there - I'd think Maddox would have chosen an open path rather than trying to navigate heavy shrub. IMO.

Also I went back and checked and Amonet is correct. I found the dad himself saying it was their first time at the park. I didn't link the YouTube video since it inserts into my post but you can go there and search " RAW: Father of Maddox Ritch explains how his son disappeared in Gastonia park " which was posted by WCNC. It's at 2:02.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Here’s the video with the family with three autistic children.

 

[DisturbedConcerned]

Where is the video where he says they had been there several times before?

5.04 to 5.10

I can't believe that with all the publicity in msm none of the witnesses have come forward. I guess it's possible that the man with the kayak and white pickup isn't local and hasn't heard or read that LE is trying to find him but the jogger is most likely local. I haven't seen much about the man on the bench or the photographer, it seems LE is mainly looking for the jogger and the kayaker with the white pickup.

Potential witnesses still needed after boy’s body found, Gastonia police say
The article also says LE said it’s possible Maddox walked along Long Creek from the park and under U.S. 321 to where his body was found. So they haven't confirmed that was the route but it's likely. I can't see an easier way to get there - I'd think Maddox would have chosen an open path rather than trying to navigate heavy shrub. IMO.

Also I went back and checked and Amonet is correct. I found the dad himself saying it was their first time at the park. I didn't link the YouTube video since it inserts into my post but you can go there and search " RAW: Father of Maddox Ritch explains how his son disappeared in Gastonia park " which was posted by WCNC. It's at 2:02.

 

[JuneRose]

Maddox Ritch Investigation: FBI looking for more witnesses
Open quote box for possible witness info.

Im so confused, we keep hearing that there were lots and lots of people at the park that day but, in this video the lady who was at the park with her son for his birthday and took pictures of the two of them out on the dock just said......I saw a man and a woman and a little boy cause they stopped to look at a moccasin,and the geese, I know cause I stopped to look at it too, then she says, whether that was them or not those were the only people I saw that day at the park. So with all the people that was supposingly there, these 3 people were the only ones she saw????

 

[Stunned]

Yes. Most nonverbal autistic children are not mute. In fact, they can be very noisy! They are just unable to form and use words. I think if Maddox was unable to make noise, mom, dad and LE would refer to him as “mute” instead of nonverbal. JMO

When you walk into our school...you will immediately know when our little supposedly non verbal girl, is not there that day. You don't hear humming or babbling. The same way you know it’s cereal, because you don’t sell breakfast cooking. It’s a large school, but our little Miss Non verbal can be heard, believe me she is heard! And oh my goodness, outside she loves to run, if it’s windy all the better. She has learned to climb, so she tries climbing on everything always with her head towards the sky humming and babbling! And last but certainly not least the water table.......constant belly flops!

 

[Stunned]

One of my hs pals has a 14yo w/ autism. He’s also non-verbal. Last week, he got out of their locked house, circumventing their alarm system somehow, and they found him (alive) swimming in their pond.

At 3am.

They have no idea how he got out. Terrifying for them. (He was happy as could be bc he loves to swim.)

Thank God he knew how!

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Brooke Sheppard returned to Rankin Lake Park Friday, after a week of praying and helping investigators search for Maddox Ritch.

Sheppard is one of the people who says she saw Maddox in the park the day he went missing.

She was there for a church picnic and remembers going for a walk around Rankin Lake with her mom and daughter.

It was on that walk, Brooke says, they ran into little Maddox. She says he came up behind them on the path around the lake, and her mom tried to talk to him.


“I can remember her looking over and asking him ‘hey buddy are you tired?’ because he had just been skipping, jogging, being a kid,” Sheppard said.

Sheppard said he didn’t say anything back, and they kept an eye on him as he ran toward the park office.

They figured he was on his way back to his parents, or whoever he came with, but later that day, when they heard people were looking for a little boy with blonde hair and an orange shirt, she just knew.

Woman remembers day she saw Maddox Ritch at park

 

[Gardener1850]

Where is the video where he says they had been there several times before?

It doesn't exist. It was written in an article that he said it but the wording was later changed when the reporter realized they had made a mistake. In the video he actually says how it was their first time at that park and they often went to other similar area parks. All this is in the first thread, I believe. Someone copied the original words and link and not long after our discussing it the words were changed. It was a reporter error, that's all.

ETA: here is where it was discussed: Found Deceased - NC - Maddox Ritch, 6 w/Autism, Gastonia, 22 Sept 2018
If you click on the article link in the quote box, you will see they changed the wording after osu posted about it.

 

[Steelslady]

About the adult man found deceased- Maybe I can help the hurt and add some perspective.. This same thing just happened regarding a missing man's case in my private community. I had always said he drove off into deep water accidentally and drowned. They could not find his truck even when we had critical water low marks in the area.

About 3 weeks ago, a totally unrelated man drove off into the Trinity River in Dallas during a flood after a heavy rainstorm. There were witnesses to his drowning. A State Policeman told me that the road literally ended in the Trinity River many times a year, at which point I asked " When are you going to 1) Use whatever means necessary in the Trinity River to look for bodies of missing people and their vehicles?" and 2) "Why don't you put up barriers permanently so this can't recur?"

When they were diving for the man witnesses had seen drive off into the fast- moving Trinity River floodwaters, they found my sweet, elderly, long- missing neighbor's truck and partial skeletal remains. His name was William Moore, and his case is here in the 2010 " Missing But Not Forgotten" section.
We are awaiting final DNA confirmation, of course, but there's really no doubt but that it's him.

My point is- They were looking for a little boy and also found a man in NC. This is a blessing to the missing man's family, isn't it? They won't have to wait and wonder and grieve for years like Mr. Moore's family did, not knowing what happened to him.

Maddox Ritch, the most innocent of innocents, helped another person get a proper burial, and most likely, also there will be justice on down the road for this hit and run victim.

I pray for both families. I don't want to walk in their shoes, but I cry with them. God bless all.

I am so very sorry about the loss of your neighbor, may he rest in peace. I am glad for his family and friends that they finally have an answer to this poor man's disappearance into the water. I can't imagine the torture you all went through all these years.

 

[jpo74]

Also look up the correlation between autism and water related deaths. Autistic kids are often drawn to water. )-:

i wonder why that is? that autistic kids are drawn to water? is it water in general or water that is shiney?