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PRESS CONFERENCE
1ST JANUARY
SHERIFF - .... 5 yr. old at 12.28 yesterday, once law enforcement deputies got on the scene they cleared the residence with RPS just to make sure that the children weren't hiding in the house. We were able to determine that the children wasn't hiding inside the residence. We got our drones in the air; aviation support from Aliyah, Jefferson County, so we've been working ground crews since about 1.15 and drones and aviation, using thermals and things of that nature, used Donaldson K9s yesterday.
We went all the way through the night to about 3 o'clock in the morning. The aviation went to refuel, we started back up this morning. This morning, we had an overwhelming response of individuals from the community/surrounding communities, who wanted to come out and help search and help us find this missing 5 year old.
Now, as far as an update, obviously, this morning, when we briefed we made sure that people understand that the father has been charged. It's nothing to do with the connection of the missing child, it's something totally separate, but it is still a factor that is hindering our search. We're still... we have a search warrant for the property that they're having to take care of some explosive devices before we can actually get inside the residence and start doing a thorough search.
There's been evidence of explosive devices on the property during the search, and we have suspended the search for civilians. We've asked them to refrain from searching at this time, until we're able, we have identified at least eight other potential explosive devices. We do not believe that they're charged, but I cannot say that to be sure until they're examined by the FBI bomb explosives team. So we've got those eight spots that's across the street, marked and identified, waiting on them to assess the situation.
REPORTER - Do you guys have any kind of information on why these explosive devices were on the property to begin with?
SHERIFF - The father's prior military, you know, it's just something that neighbors have said they've been hearing explosions for weeks now, they didn't really know where it was coming from. The morning before the report came in one of the neighbors reported that they heard an explosion about 4 am that morning but they just didn't know where it came from. Can't say that it's any kind of connection to the missing child. I will say this, that we have been going on now well over 24 hours of looking for the child and we have not gotten really any indication of the child being in the woods. We've got no thermal, no imagery from the helicopter and drones. Ground searches hasn't revealed anything, to my knowledge. If it has, it's nothing that incident command has made me aware of at this time, but other than the potential for explosive devices found on the other side of the roadway from the original property that we started at.
REPORTER - And are those eight devices, are they near any homes? or is there any concern for the people who live in that area?
SHERIFF - Wooded areas.
REPORTER - Sheriff, you mentioned that the civilian search has been suspended, are law enforcement still out looking...
SHERIFF - So right now it's law enforcement, first responders, fire departments, we're still doing our stuff as far as just the citizens and volunteers, the volunteers who've come to volunteer - we're going to put that to a halt for right now.
REPORTER - Are you asking for anything? I know, you're not asking for volunteers right now but is they're food donations, water donations, anything people can do to support the officers?
SHERIFF - Yeah, so we do have a group of volunteers here. They're accepting food, trying to make sure that everybody's here that's fed and hydrated throughout this process, and like I said, it's been an overwhelming response. Everybody's concerned about this child, obviously, when we talk about the last 24 hours, the weather conditions and things of that nature, for it to be a 5 year old out there is very concerning.
REPORTER - Want to ask you about the dog that the child was reported to be seen with - you mentioned that the last time the dog had been seen on a neighbor's camera was the 26th.
SHERIFF - Yes.
REPORTER - Can you kind of just clarify that?
SHERIFF - Yes, so the canine has not been located as well, so the canine is still missing. Talking to one of the neighbors - is that dog showed up pretty much every day on their game cameras at their corn feeder. The last time that he has the dog on his camera was on the 26th, the afternoon of the 26th.
REPORTER - And you mentioned at the beginning about children. So were there other children in the home with the father?
SHERIFF - No, it was just a brother.
REPORTER - So there were 2 children in the home?
SHERIFF - Aged 5 and 6.
REPORTER - And I know that the parent's are separated - did the father have custody of the children? was he just taking care of them for the holiday?
SHERIFF - Yeah, to my knowledge of the custody situation was the father got five days of custody a year.
REPORTER - And has he been cooperative? has he said anything throughout this?
SHERIFF - I can't speak on that, you know, the FBI did an interview last night. Obviously, they will follow up once we get our timeline and everything in order. Where they'll do some more in-depth interviews and see what we can come up with.
REPORTER - (inaudible) cold again overnight - is there any other plans to use those thermal drones again?
SHERIFF - Yes so, the aviation landed; they're bringing their helicopter out of Montgomery to get started back up with the air searches and thermal searches.
REPORTER - Can you give us an idea of the number of resources out here? do you know how many total law enforcement? we're seeing a lot of different departments out here.
SHERIFF - Yeah so we've got agencies from, just the ones I've seen, and I'm sure there's some here that I haven't seen: we have the FBI here, we have SBI here we have Aliyah here, we have Stonington Police here, Jasper Police Department, Adamsville Police Department, Jasper. PD, you know, just locally, I don't know outside in the Jefferson County, what agencies that we have here. I've seen some Jefferson County deputies earlier.
REPORTER - We saw some connections to Florida on the mom's side. So is the boy from here, or is he from Florida?
SHERIFF - No, the boys.. the mother, from my knowledge, moved to Florida about a year ago, and the dad gets visitations, like I said. My understanding of the visitations is five days per year.
REPORTER - I know the father that's been charged - you've mentioned that there's no connection to the disappearance. Is there any indications of a criminal element to this disappearance, or is it still too early in the investigation?
SHERIFF - It's still too early to say one way or the other. Obviously, the concern is, as you can see, the resources that we have put in to searching, the amount of people that we've had out searching, the grid patterns that we have searched. When you take the ground searching, plus the air searches, the fact that we haven't found the child is a concern.
REPORTER - At this point, is it still a search or is it turning into recovery?
SHERIFF - We're still going to remain optimistic and we're going to call it a search.
REPORTER - And you mentioned that there were eight explosive devices on this side of the road, do you know how many were at the property?
SHERIFF - I have not briefed.. we're briefing here in the next 30 minutes or so with the FBI and all the agencies to kind of get that. Everybody is doing their own thing. The FBI has been processing the house, trying to get the explosive devices contained and out of the residence since, I guess, about 8.30/9.00 o'clock this morning. So they're still working on that, so once we get everybody back in, all the agencies together, and kind of go over what we have accomplished today and see where we're at and see what the next phase of this is going to be.
REPORTER - Sheriff, can you give a plea to the public who is in this area? you've been mentioning a lot about trail cams, deer cams, everything, so I just want to give you a chance to kind of talk about how important it is to turn over that video and where to turn it to.
SHERIFF - So, yes. So right now we're working on a a tip line with the FBI, that way individuals and ... we'll release that information when we get it available, to where we can get a centralized... where all the tips aren't getting spread out to everywhere, where there'll be one hub of information we'll be able to go to, and they will be able to send it to that. You know, I encourage the public to one - if you live in this area, be vigilant, look under your cars if you haven't drove them in a few days, look in your garages, look in your car ports. Look anywhere where a child will be looking to get out of the elements.
REPORTER - And is the mother here? have you spoken to her? how is she?
SHERIFF - The mother did make it in last night from Florida. We have spoken to her, and she has cooperated with us to the best of her abilities.
REPORTER - How big is the search here?
SHERIFF - I don't know exact mileage or route at this present moment, without talking to incident command, they're mapping. They've got a mapping program that they're mapping everybody and their searches.
REPORTER - (inaudible)
SHERIFF - We're just out here working. We have a lot of resources out here. We're committed to doing everything that we can, we don't want people getting burned out. I know that we have a lot of people that want to help and they're here, but what we don't need is people that are willing to volunteer to get here day one and day two and get burnt out, and this thing turn into a week long search, and then we get toward the end of the week, and we don't have additional resources, and we don't have help from the community.
REPORTER - Sheriff, can we expect any more updates from you tonight?
SHERIFF - Yeah, once I'm able to get our briefing done here in the next 30 minutes or so, and I get more information, I'll be more than willing to update everybody.
1ST JANUARY
SHERIFF - .... 5 yr. old at 12.28 yesterday, once law enforcement deputies got on the scene they cleared the residence with RPS just to make sure that the children weren't hiding in the house. We were able to determine that the children wasn't hiding inside the residence. We got our drones in the air; aviation support from Aliyah, Jefferson County, so we've been working ground crews since about 1.15 and drones and aviation, using thermals and things of that nature, used Donaldson K9s yesterday.
We went all the way through the night to about 3 o'clock in the morning. The aviation went to refuel, we started back up this morning. This morning, we had an overwhelming response of individuals from the community/surrounding communities, who wanted to come out and help search and help us find this missing 5 year old.
Now, as far as an update, obviously, this morning, when we briefed we made sure that people understand that the father has been charged. It's nothing to do with the connection of the missing child, it's something totally separate, but it is still a factor that is hindering our search. We're still... we have a search warrant for the property that they're having to take care of some explosive devices before we can actually get inside the residence and start doing a thorough search.
There's been evidence of explosive devices on the property during the search, and we have suspended the search for civilians. We've asked them to refrain from searching at this time, until we're able, we have identified at least eight other potential explosive devices. We do not believe that they're charged, but I cannot say that to be sure until they're examined by the FBI bomb explosives team. So we've got those eight spots that's across the street, marked and identified, waiting on them to assess the situation.
REPORTER - Do you guys have any kind of information on why these explosive devices were on the property to begin with?
SHERIFF - The father's prior military, you know, it's just something that neighbors have said they've been hearing explosions for weeks now, they didn't really know where it was coming from. The morning before the report came in one of the neighbors reported that they heard an explosion about 4 am that morning but they just didn't know where it came from. Can't say that it's any kind of connection to the missing child. I will say this, that we have been going on now well over 24 hours of looking for the child and we have not gotten really any indication of the child being in the woods. We've got no thermal, no imagery from the helicopter and drones. Ground searches hasn't revealed anything, to my knowledge. If it has, it's nothing that incident command has made me aware of at this time, but other than the potential for explosive devices found on the other side of the roadway from the original property that we started at.
REPORTER - And are those eight devices, are they near any homes? or is there any concern for the people who live in that area?
SHERIFF - Wooded areas.
REPORTER - Sheriff, you mentioned that the civilian search has been suspended, are law enforcement still out looking...
SHERIFF - So right now it's law enforcement, first responders, fire departments, we're still doing our stuff as far as just the citizens and volunteers, the volunteers who've come to volunteer - we're going to put that to a halt for right now.
REPORTER - Are you asking for anything? I know, you're not asking for volunteers right now but is they're food donations, water donations, anything people can do to support the officers?
SHERIFF - Yeah, so we do have a group of volunteers here. They're accepting food, trying to make sure that everybody's here that's fed and hydrated throughout this process, and like I said, it's been an overwhelming response. Everybody's concerned about this child, obviously, when we talk about the last 24 hours, the weather conditions and things of that nature, for it to be a 5 year old out there is very concerning.
REPORTER - Want to ask you about the dog that the child was reported to be seen with - you mentioned that the last time the dog had been seen on a neighbor's camera was the 26th.
SHERIFF - Yes.
REPORTER - Can you kind of just clarify that?
SHERIFF - Yes, so the canine has not been located as well, so the canine is still missing. Talking to one of the neighbors - is that dog showed up pretty much every day on their game cameras at their corn feeder. The last time that he has the dog on his camera was on the 26th, the afternoon of the 26th.
REPORTER - And you mentioned at the beginning about children. So were there other children in the home with the father?
SHERIFF - No, it was just a brother.
REPORTER - So there were 2 children in the home?
SHERIFF - Aged 5 and 6.
REPORTER - And I know that the parent's are separated - did the father have custody of the children? was he just taking care of them for the holiday?
SHERIFF - Yeah, to my knowledge of the custody situation was the father got five days of custody a year.
REPORTER - And has he been cooperative? has he said anything throughout this?
SHERIFF - I can't speak on that, you know, the FBI did an interview last night. Obviously, they will follow up once we get our timeline and everything in order. Where they'll do some more in-depth interviews and see what we can come up with.
REPORTER - (inaudible) cold again overnight - is there any other plans to use those thermal drones again?
SHERIFF - Yes so, the aviation landed; they're bringing their helicopter out of Montgomery to get started back up with the air searches and thermal searches.
REPORTER - Can you give us an idea of the number of resources out here? do you know how many total law enforcement? we're seeing a lot of different departments out here.
SHERIFF - Yeah so we've got agencies from, just the ones I've seen, and I'm sure there's some here that I haven't seen: we have the FBI here, we have SBI here we have Aliyah here, we have Stonington Police here, Jasper Police Department, Adamsville Police Department, Jasper. PD, you know, just locally, I don't know outside in the Jefferson County, what agencies that we have here. I've seen some Jefferson County deputies earlier.
REPORTER - We saw some connections to Florida on the mom's side. So is the boy from here, or is he from Florida?
SHERIFF - No, the boys.. the mother, from my knowledge, moved to Florida about a year ago, and the dad gets visitations, like I said. My understanding of the visitations is five days per year.
REPORTER - I know the father that's been charged - you've mentioned that there's no connection to the disappearance. Is there any indications of a criminal element to this disappearance, or is it still too early in the investigation?
SHERIFF - It's still too early to say one way or the other. Obviously, the concern is, as you can see, the resources that we have put in to searching, the amount of people that we've had out searching, the grid patterns that we have searched. When you take the ground searching, plus the air searches, the fact that we haven't found the child is a concern.
REPORTER - At this point, is it still a search or is it turning into recovery?
SHERIFF - We're still going to remain optimistic and we're going to call it a search.
REPORTER - And you mentioned that there were eight explosive devices on this side of the road, do you know how many were at the property?
SHERIFF - I have not briefed.. we're briefing here in the next 30 minutes or so with the FBI and all the agencies to kind of get that. Everybody is doing their own thing. The FBI has been processing the house, trying to get the explosive devices contained and out of the residence since, I guess, about 8.30/9.00 o'clock this morning. So they're still working on that, so once we get everybody back in, all the agencies together, and kind of go over what we have accomplished today and see where we're at and see what the next phase of this is going to be.
REPORTER - Sheriff, can you give a plea to the public who is in this area? you've been mentioning a lot about trail cams, deer cams, everything, so I just want to give you a chance to kind of talk about how important it is to turn over that video and where to turn it to.
SHERIFF - So, yes. So right now we're working on a a tip line with the FBI, that way individuals and ... we'll release that information when we get it available, to where we can get a centralized... where all the tips aren't getting spread out to everywhere, where there'll be one hub of information we'll be able to go to, and they will be able to send it to that. You know, I encourage the public to one - if you live in this area, be vigilant, look under your cars if you haven't drove them in a few days, look in your garages, look in your car ports. Look anywhere where a child will be looking to get out of the elements.
REPORTER - And is the mother here? have you spoken to her? how is she?
SHERIFF - The mother did make it in last night from Florida. We have spoken to her, and she has cooperated with us to the best of her abilities.
REPORTER - How big is the search here?
SHERIFF - I don't know exact mileage or route at this present moment, without talking to incident command, they're mapping. They've got a mapping program that they're mapping everybody and their searches.
REPORTER - (inaudible)
SHERIFF - We're just out here working. We have a lot of resources out here. We're committed to doing everything that we can, we don't want people getting burned out. I know that we have a lot of people that want to help and they're here, but what we don't need is people that are willing to volunteer to get here day one and day two and get burnt out, and this thing turn into a week long search, and then we get toward the end of the week, and we don't have additional resources, and we don't have help from the community.
REPORTER - Sheriff, can we expect any more updates from you tonight?
SHERIFF - Yeah, once I'm able to get our briefing done here in the next 30 minutes or so, and I get more information, I'll be more than willing to update everybody.
