SAMUEL JONES - 4 yo - Carlsbad NM

Amber Alert Issued for Missing Boy

Sat, Mar 3, 2012


POSTED AT: 10:25 pm



The Carlsbad Police Department and State Police have issued an Amber Alert
for 4-year-old Samuel Jones, who may have been abducted by a non-family
member, a news release from the state Department of Public Safety said.

Jones is about 3 feet tall and weighs 40 pounds. He has hazel eyes
and short brown hair. He also has scratches on the left side of his chin
and is missing his four front teeth.

He was last seen wearing a blue and gray striped long-sleeve shirt,
blue jeans, a blue and white baseball cap and black Converse tennis
shoes.

According to the release, the child was last seen around 6:30 p.m.
Saturday near the 100 block of Taylor Circle in Carlsbad. A child
matching his description was seen walking in the area with a white bald
man wearing a red shirt.

Officials believe the child may be in danger.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the child are asked to
call Detective Tanya Tiller with the Carlsbad Police Department at (575)885-2111

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/03/03/abqnewsseeker/amber-alert-issued-for-missing-four-year-old.html

AMBER ALERT UPDATE



March 4, 2012 by Lieutenant Robert McDonald, NMSP




Carlsbad —The Carlsbad Police Department has located a 30’ hole near the area
where Samuel Jones went missing in Carlsbad. They have confirmed what
appears to be a body at the bottom of the hole and efforts have begun to
recover the body.

A projected time frame of approximately 1 day has been given by mining personnel in the effort to reach the body safely.

The Amber Alert for Samuel Jones will remain active through a 24-hour
period from the time it was activated. At the end of the 24-hour period
the case will be re-evaluated.

Anyone with information about this missing child should immediately
call Detective Tanya Tiller with the Carlsbad Police Department at
(575)885-2111.

http://www.dps.nm.org/index.php/amber-alert-update/

OMG.

This is so sad. Here is another article about the discovery and recovery efforts (bold is mine):

"Police in New Mexico find child’s body in hole next door to home of missing 4-year-old boy

By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, March 4, 5:38 PM

CARLSBAD, N.M. — A search for a 4-year-old New Mexico boy led authorities Sunday to a deep, narrow hole in a neighbor’s backyard where a police spokeswoman says a detective located the body of a child.

Carlsbad police said they are fairly sure the body is that of 4-year-old Samuel Jones, who was reported missing from his home next door Saturday. An Amber Alert that was issued for him late Saturday will stay in place until late Sunday, when it will be reevaluated, New Mexico State Police said in a statement.

“We have reports of one missing child, and this child is right next door to the missing child’s house,” Carlsbad police spokeswoman Lt. Jennifer Moyers said, while adding that authorities cannot be positive the body is Samuel’s until the body is retrieved.

Recovery efforts began Sunday afternoon, with a large tracked excavator on scene along with metal shoring typically used in pipeline construction projects.

A specialized search and rescue team from Roswell was headed to Carlsbad at midday to oversee the operations. State police said the recovery could take a day.

“It’s a little tricky in that you have to start to dig kind of away from the hole and dig at a slant until you get down deep enough to go laterally,” Moyers said. “They’re going to have to put in retaining so that the dirt doesn’t cave in on what they’ve dug out.”

A renewed house-to-house search had just started shortly after daybreak Sunday morning when a detective found the 14-inch-wide hole in the backyard of the home next door to Samuel’s house, Moyers said.

The detective shined his flashlight down the hole and saw what appeared to be a body dressed in clothing Samuel was last wearing, Moyers said. Searchers later sent a camera down the hole and confirmed a child was about 30 feet down. Temperature and oxygen levels were later taken and showed no signs of life.

“The conditions are not favorable, not survivable,” Moyers said.

The boy’s mother and father were told of the discovery and were at the scene.

There is no indication of foul play, and police know of no history of child abuse at the home, but detectives are treating the case as a homicide as a precaution, Moyers said.

Samuel lived in the home with his parents and two older siblings, a boy and girl ages 6 and 7, Moyers said. Some young cousins were at the house Saturday when the boy was last seen playing in the yard.

The rural neighborhood is a mix of homes and vacant lots, and a 4-foot chain link fence separates the boy’s home from his neighbor’s. It’s possible the boy could have climbed the fence and simply fallen into the hole, which was dry and may be deeper than where the body was wedged, Moyers said. There are no curbs or sidewalks in the neighborhood on the city’s south side.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/police-in-new-mexico-find-childs-body-they-believe-is-that-of-missing-4-year-old-boy/2012/03/04/gIQAyF99qR_story.html?tid=pm_national_pop

The Amber Alert says he may have been abducted.

Is this an abduction or accident?

I think at first they thought he had to have been abducted because there was no sign of him anywhere. Also there had been a report of being seen walking with a "bald white man". Then they found his (probably) little body down the hole. So it seems that either he climbed the fence or was abducted and then put down the hole. Either way with all the kids playing outside together it seems like one of them would have seen something either way. Just really, really sad. All of these stories are.

Abducution? Accident? I don't think we'll know until the body is recovered and an autopsy is performed.

Let's leave this here in AA until the morning we may know more by then.

CARLSBAD, N.M. - Crews are trying to reach a child's body, believed to be that of a missing 4-year boy, discovered wedged into a deep and narrow hole in the backyard of a southern New Mexico home.
Carlsbad police said Sunday that they are fairly sure it's the body of Samuel Jones, who was reported missing from his home next door Saturday.
An Amber Alert that had been in effect for him was canceled Sunday night.

"We have reports of one missing child, and this child is right next door to the missing child's house," Carlsbad police spokeswoman Lt. Jennifer Moyers said, while adding that authorities cannot be positive the body is Samuel's until the body is retrieved.
Recovery efforts began Sunday afternoon, with a large tracked excavator on scene along with metal shoring typically used in pipeline construction projects.
A specialized search and rescue team from Roswell was headed to Carlsbad at midday to oversee the operations. State police said the recovery could take a day.
"It's a little tricky in that you have to start to dig kind of away from the hole and dig at a slant until you get down deep enough to go laterally," Moyers said. "They're going to have to put in retaining so that the dirt doesn't cave in on what they've dug out."

A renewed house-to-house search had just started shortly after daybreak Sunday morning when a detective found the 14-inch-wide hole in the backyard of the home next door to Samuel's house, Moyers said.
The detective shined his flashlight down the hole and saw what appeared to be a body dressed in clothing Samuel was last wearing, Moyers said. Searchers later sent a camera down the hole and confirmed a child was about 30 feet down. Temperature and oxygen levels were later taken and showed no signs of life.
"The conditions are not favorable, not survivable," Moyers said.
The boy's mother and father were told of the discovery and were at the scene.
There is no indication of foul play, and police know of no history of child abuse at the home, but detectives are treating the case as a homicide as a precaution, Moyers said.
Samuel lived in the home with his parents and two older siblings, a boy and girl ages 6 and 7, Moyers said. Some young cousins were at the house Saturday when the boy was last seen playing in the yard.
The rural neighborhood is a mix of homes and vacant lots, and a 4-foot chain link fence separates the boy's home from his neighbor's. It's possible the boy could have climbed the fence and simply fallen into the hole, which was dry and may be deeper than where the body was wedged, Moyers said. There are no curbs or sidewalks in the neighborhood on the city's south side.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57390436/no-signs-of-life-after-n.m-boy-falls-down-hole/

Body of Samuel Jones, 4, recovered from hole in Carlsbad, N.M.

March 5, 2012, 2:02 p.m. EST

The body of a 4-year-old boy was pulled from a 27-foot hole in
Carlsbad, N.M., almost two days after the child went missing from his
home next door, police said Monday.

The boy was identified as Samuel Jones, the subject of an Amber Alert, Capt. John Moyers said in a telephone interview.
The incident is still under investigation but it appears to be a tragic accident, Moyers said.

The hole is beside a fence
near the house in which the boy, his parents and two older siblings
live, Moyers said. The boy was last seen playing in the yard with
relatives on Saturday.

Police believe the boy fell down the hole, which is 12 to 14 inches wide at the top and about 27 feet deep, Moyers said.
Initial reports said an Amber Alert had been issued because authorities feared that Johnson had been abducted.

On Sunday morning authorities found the hole and saw a body that was
believed to be the boy’s. The alert was canceled Sunday night.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-carlsbad-boy-20120305,0,7002084.story