GERREN JOSEPH ISGRIGG - "Wylie's Angel" - 6 yo - (2010) Wylie (E of Plano) TX

Wylie TX ---- Wylie police
said a child was found dead this morning in the 1900 block of Skyview
Drive, in a park by Lake Lavon.
A worker mowing at East Fork Park found the body in a pond about 9:10
a.m. Police released no details about the child's
identity, not even gender or approximate age.
They said they had not determined how the child died.
Wylie police detective Venece Perepiczka said the worker
discovered the body in a pond on property in the park owned by
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The area is frequented by
fishermen. She said the body was not submerged.
"It's horrible. It's tragic any time you find a child like this,"
Perepiczka said. "We're not ruling out anything."
She said no missing-child reports have been filed that could be
associated with the discovery.
Wylie police are working with the Collin County Child Task Force on the
investigation. Police closed off an entrance
road to the park and were expected to be at the scene through
most of the day. "We're marking anything that
could be anything," Perepiczka said. She said the
last child death in Wylie was in 2008.

Police are
investigating the death of a young boy whose body was found this
morning near Lake Lavon, and are said to be asking about a child
who may have had special needs.
A worker
mowing around a pond just south of East Fork Park near Skyview
Drive and Forrest Ross Road in Wylie found the body about 9:10 a.m.,
according to police. “It’s horrible. It’s
tragic any time you find a child like this,” Wylie police
detective Venece Perepiczka said. “We’re not ruling out anything.”
Police released a few details late this afternoon, saying
the child was white, male, and about 3 years old or older.
They said he has not been identified and autopsy results
are pending. Workers
at several Wylie preschools and day-care centers reported being
visited by police today about a possible missing child. They said
officers were asking about a boy between the ages of 3 and 5, possibly
with special needs, who may have dropped out or been absent in
recent weeks. “They didn’t give us any
information,” said Robyn Johnson, who owns Summit Private School.
Perepiczka said this morning that a worker discovered
the body near the pond on property owned by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. The wooded area with a dirt parking
lot leading to the pond’s edge is frequented by anglers.
She said no missing-child reports had been filed that could be
associated with the discovery. Men fishing at
nearby Lake Lavon shook their heads when they heard about the
gruesome discovery in their tight-knit community.
Wylie police are working with the Collin County Child Task Force on the
investigation. Perepiczka said the last
child death in Wylie was in 2008.

Police are
investigating the death of a young boy whose body was found Thursday
morning near Lavon Lake and are said to be asking about a child who may
have had special needs. A worker mowing around a pond just south
of East Fork Park near Skyview Drive and Forrest Ross Road in Wylie
found the body about 9:10 a.m., according to police. "It's
horrible. It's tragic any time you find a child like this," said Wylie
Detective Venece Perepiczka. "We're not ruling out anything."Police
released a few details Thursday afternoon, saying the child was white,
male and about 3 years old or older.They said he had not been
identified and autopsy results were pending.Workers at several
Wylie preschools and day-care centers reported being visited by police
Thursday about a possible missing child. They said officers were asking
about a boy between the ages of 3 and 5, possibly with special needs,
who may have dropped out or been absent in recent weeks. "They
didn't give us any information," said Robyn Johnson, who owns Summit
Private School. Perepiczka said no missing-child reports had been
filed that could be associated with the discovery. She said that
a worker discovered the body near the pond on property owned by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.The body was found near the edge of a
sand and gravel parking lot that leads to the pond. The stagnant water
there is covered with green algae. Trash litters the area.Brothers
Charles and Michael Martinez arrived with their friend, David Daniels,
about noon and found the road to one of their favorite fishing spots
closed by police.On Thursday evening, as they cast their lines
into Lavon Lake in search of crappie and bass, they wondered who would
do such a thing to a child."It's awful. It's terrible," said
Daniels, who lives in North Dallas.Daniels said he used to fish
at the pond years ago, but it hasn't been good fishing for a while
because the water receded.By evening the police had gone, crime
scene tape tossed in a trash bin at the park."Police have got a
job on their hands," said Bill Janecek of Murphy, who regularly fishes
at Lavon Lake."A shame, shame, shame," he said.

Unidentified
Child

COLLIN COUNTY, TX JOHN DOE DOB: Found: Apr 15, 2010 Height: 3'3" (99 cm) Eyes: Brown Race: White Age Now: 6 Sex: Male Weight: 28 lbs (13 kg) Hair: Brown Found: TX United States On Thursday, April 15, 2010 at approximately 9:10A.M. Wylie Police Department responded to a dead body in the 1900 block of Skyview Drive. The Collin County Medical Examiner was able to establish the victim was a white male child approximately 6 years of age, brown hair, brown eyes, approximately 39” tall and approximately 28 pounds. It appears the child had significant medical needs. The child shows signs of being fed through a feeding tube. The Collin County Child Abuse Task Force is asking that any persons with information about the identity of this child, specifically In-Home health care providers, school personnel, day care personnel or community based social services to contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) or contact NCMEC Cold Case Review Unit at 1-877-446-2632, ext. 6235 or 6342

The young boy
whose body was found Thursday near Lavon Lake was underweight and
had "significant medical needs," police said today.
The boy,
who has not been identified, showed signs of having been fed
through a feeding tube, said Venece Perepiczka, a police detective in
Wylie, where the body was found. He was 6
years old and 39 inches tall, but weighed just 28 pounds. Normal
weight for a boy of that age and height is closer to 60 pounds.
He had brown hair and brown eyes.
Police released an illustration of the boy, in the hope that someone
will recognize him. They are especially hopeful that someone working
in home health care, a school, a day-care center or social
services might know who he is.
Local
authorities are getting assistance in their investigation from the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Those with
information about the boy can call 800-843-5678.
The child's body was found Thursday around 9:10 a.m. by a worker who was
mowing around a pond just south of East Fork Park, near Skyview
Drive and Forrest Ross Road in Wylie.
Police have not said anything public about how they think the child
died; what other evidence they may have been found; or whether foul
play is suspected. They
said today there was no apparent trauma to the child's body.
The results of an autopsy have not yet been released.
Workers at several Wylie preschools and day-care centers
reported being visited Thursday by police and questioned about
whether a young boy, possibly with special needs, had dropped out
or been absent in recent weeks.
Perepiczka said no missing-child reports had been filed with police that
shed light on the boy's identity.

The man whose employees found the body of a little boy in a Wylie
park talked about the gruesome discovery Friday.
Flowers, cards and teddy bears are now at the site where the body of
the unidentified boy was found Thursday.
Gary Valentine said his workers were mowing in the area when they saw
what looked like a human leg under a pile of brush. When Valentine
arrived at the scene, he picked up what he thought was a small
mannequin.

"I said a prayer and I knew I was at a crime scene, but I also knew I
couldn't throw a child in a brush pile," he said. "So, I stepped across
the fence, laid him down, looked back [and] saw a baby blanket [and]
took it and covered up the baby and called 911."

Wylie police created a computer-generated photo and an artist sketch of
the boy they believe is about six years. Authorities said the young boy
was unusually small for his age.

"[He was] approximately 39 inches tall and weighed about 28 pounds,"
said Det. Venece Perepiczka, Wylie Police Department. "It appears as if
the child had significant medical needs. The child showed signs of being
fed through a feeding tube."

Helene Auriemme brought her three-year-old son to site where the boy was
found to place a teddy bear at the memorial for a child they never
knew.

"It was just so sad," she said. "I have little kids, and just to find a
little boy is so sad and we just wanted to bring him a present."
Valentine, a grandfather, said Thursday left him distraught and
angry.

"It's sad that anyone could ever think of doing that to a child," he
said.
Investigators believe his body was at the park about 24 hours before
it was found.
The Collin County medical examiner performed an autopsy, but it did
not reveal the cause of death. There were no obvious signs of trauma.

Someone knows
this little boy with the soulful brown eyes. Someone
knows how he ended up alone, his underweight body dumped near a
stagnant pond.Someone knows answers to the many questions being
asked after the body's discovery Thursday morning by a mowing crew in
Collin County.Autopsy results have not been released, but police
in Wylie say there were no obvious injuries.They now believe the
boy was about 6. Earlier they had estimated he was half that age because
he weighed just 28 pounds. Normal weight for a 6-year-old is closer to
50. He probably had "significant medical needs" and showed signs
of having had a feeding tube, Wylie police Detective Venece Perepiczka
said. To learn his identity, the Wylie Police Department and the
Collin County Child Abuse Task Force have enlisted the help of the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The center's
forensic artists created an image of the boy based on police photos.
It's being distributed across the country."Someone out there
knows who this child is," said Robert Lowery,
executive director of the center's missing children division. The
medical staffers who surgically inserted the feeding tube might
recognize him. Or the doctor or nurse who was monitoring his health.
Given his age, he may have been enrolled in school. Maybe his family had
contact with social services workers.It's too early to say what
might have happened. But those involved in caring for children with
chronic health problems say the few details released suggest that the
boy needed round-the-clock care. And they say his caregiver probably was
under a lot of stress."It's next to impossible to care for
children with substantial medical needs if you don't have support," said
Richard Robison, executive director of the Massachusetts-based
Federation for Children with Special Needs.That support can be
hard to come by, and statistics show that a majority of couples with
special-needs children end up divorcing, according to Patsy Arnold,
founder of a Tarrant County nonprofit called Texas' Special Kids."There's
an 80 percent chance this was a single parent with little to no
support," she said. "A lot of responsibility and stress comes with
raising a child who's that medically fragile.

"'Truth"
The boy's body was found on a quiet gravel turnoff just south of Lavon Lake. Bottles, yard trimmings
and broken tiles pepper the lot. Nearby is a dingy green pond that
sometimes draws anglers.By Friday, passers-by had placed a few
tokens in the boy's memory next to a rusty railing: a bouquet of
daisies, a stuffed bear wearing a cross that said "Truth," and a card
addressed to "Wylie Baby Boy."A few miles away on Ballard Avenue,
Wylie's main drag, traffic streamed by as usual. Signs touted this
weekend's Taste of Wylie and an upcoming charity run.Beth
Hoffard, who owns a sweet-smelling candle shop called The Ole Back
Porch, knew something had gone wrong late Thursday. A friend spotted a
television news truck, and traffic was heavier than usual."It's
just so sad. In fact, it makes you sick, really," said Hoffard, 55. "I
really hope they find out what happened and who did this."Others
echoed her feelings at the Ballard Street Café & Grill, a local
favorite known for its giant slices of chocolate pie.Brandy
Brown, a 29-year-old café worker who has lived in the area her whole
life, said she felt awful, even fearful."You can be in the
smallest of towns," she said, "and the biggest of crimes happen."Such
reactions are understandable, said Dawn Davis, a senior case manager
with the Texas-based Laura Recovery Center for Missing Children. "The
community wants to be the person in this boy's life that cares for him,
that worries for him, because the adult in his life didn't do that,"
she said. "This child was thrown away without regard, and that's
shocking.

"Photo is key"
Davis said investigators have a challenge on their hands. The best thing they
can do is get the boy's photo distributed as widely as possible. She
said that was the key to determining the identity of Baby Grace, a
2-year-old whose body was found in a box in Galveston Bay in October
2007. Sheryl Sawyers, who lives in Ohio, saw a composite sketch
on the Internet and recognized her granddaughter, Riley Ann Sawyers.The
toddler's mother and stepfather were sentenced to life in prison for
her murder.The Wylie case is less than 48 hours old this morning.
But for Pam Cude, an investigator with a Houston nonprofit called Child
Search, that's too long."It's really unnerving to know that
someone has not come forward," she said. "I can't imagine being
desperate enough to lay a child on the side of the road."

Wylie
police pressed a platoon of volunteers into duty Saturday to
canvass neighborhoods, churches and shopping centers so people
throughout the community could see the doleful face of an unidentified
boy whose body was found near a dingy pond south of Lavon Lake last
week.Volunteers from the Wylie Citizens Police Academy Alumni
Association and the Collin County Citizens' Sheriff's Academy Alumni
Association carried with them a sketch of the boy, who authorities
believe was about 6 years old. Earlier, they had thought he was
about 3 because he weighed just 28 pounds.He showed signs of
having used a feeding tube, and Wylie police Detective Venece Perepiczka
said he probably had "significant medical needs." Police said
the boy's body showed no obvious injuries. Results of an autopsy that
could determine how he died were pending. Saturday's community
effort was launched in hopes of finding someone who may have given the
boy medical treatment, seen him at a school or known his family and
might have information that could help identify him. "We've all
heard about this, and it's touched everybody," said Donna Valdepena, the
police liaison for the Wylie Citizens Police Academy. "Everybody wants
to help. I don't think anybody could feel right saying no."The
effort is being matched nationally by the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children. Forensic artists created a sketch of the boy
Friday, and it is being distributed across the country. In Wylie,
people have come to the site where his body was found to drop off
stuffed animals and flowers. "We are a pretty tight-knit
community, and I think somebody is going to come forward with some kind
of information," Valdepena said. "The only way to do that is to get the
information out."

He is listed as “John Doe” on a national missing
children's website, but people in Collin County are calling him "Wylie's Angel."
Mowing crews found the abandoned body of a 6-year-old near Lake Lavon last week. But investigators say
they are no closer to identifying the child, despite more than 100 tips
from around the country.
“As an investigator and a mother, it doesn't make me sleep well to know we haven't identified this
child,” Detective Venece Perepiczka said.
A worker discovered the body of the brown-haired, brown-eyed child five days ago. Investigators said
they believe the body had been there less than 24 hours.
“To sit here and think that some sick person dumped their child off dead, it makes me want to cry,”
said Wylie resident Ashley Whitmire.
The medical examiner has not released a cause of death, but said there were no signs of physical
trauma. It appears the child had severe medical needs and was fed at
some point through a feeding tube.
”Parents that love their children don't do stuff like this,” said Lavon mother Maria Mercado. “You don't just come and
throw them away like trash.”
Mercado brought her 6-year-old daughter and her friends to the Wylie field where the child
was dumped to leave their favorite teddy bears at the site.
“We know he's a little angel,” Mercado said. “That's what I have been teaching the kids, that
he's a little angel and God took him home.”
The First Baptist Church in Wylie has offered to cover the cost of giving the little boy a proper
burial, but it's too soon to say if the offer will be accepted.
Between Schepp’s Dairy and Crimestoppers, there is a $20,000 reward for information that leads to
the child's identity.
A vigil for Wylie's Angel is planned is for Thursday night from 7 to 9 p.m. at East Fork Park on
Lake Lavon, where his body was found.
Dallas resident Malorie Martinez is organizing the event.
She also created a Facebook page hoping to generate new leads in the case. The group already
has around 6,000 members.

A $20,000 reward is now being offered for information leading to the
identification of "Wylie's Angel."
Police say the young boy whose body was found near a Texas lake had
"significant medical needs" and likely was fed by a feeding tube.
The boy, who is believed to be 6, has not been identified. He was
found Thursday near Lavon Lake in Wylie, about 20 miles northeast of
Dallas.
Police say there are no missing children reports matching the boy's
information.. There were no apparent signs of trauma.
But the boy, who was 39 inches tall, weighed just 28 pounds.
A Facebook group has been created to gain awareness and circulate a
digital rendering of the child as much as possible. Click here to join the group and to receive any
updates on the child, or just search Wylie's Angel on Facebook.
The Collin County Child Abuse Task Force is asking that any persons
with information about the identity of this child, specifically in-home
health care providers, school personnel, day care personnel or
community-based social services to contact: 1-800-THE-LOST
(1-800-843-5678).
If you have a child with special needs go to http://www.thearcoftexas.org/
for support and information.

Somebody HAS to know who this child is! This one is really bothering me....

Brown hair, Brown eyes. Makes me think of Zane. I dont understand. You know it has to be the responsible party that placed that child there or someone would have reported him missing. I dont understand.....makes me so sad. I sure hope he was not left there alone to die. I hope that he passed before he was left all alone.

Like Mimi said, the perp is the caregiver. Parent or Relative, Most likely not under CFS custody or they would be missing a child to go with the file. I am surmising from a totally different area. His needs were unique and people around there would have come forward by now. He was "too much to handle" for the caregiver and they could see no other way out. The shame of it is, there are some fosters out there who would give the care this child needed and do it gracefully and gratefully.

kiwimom wrote:Unidentified
Child

COLLIN COUNTY, TX JOHN DOE DOB: Found: Apr 15, 2010 Height: 3'3" (99 cm) Eyes: Brown Race: White Age Now: 6 Sex: Male Weight: 28 lbs (13 kg) Hair: Brown Found: TX United States On Thursday, April 15, 2010 at approximately 9:10A.M. Wylie Police Department responded to a dead body in the 1900 block of Skyview Drive. The Collin County Medical Examiner was able to establish the victim was a white male child approximately 6 years of age, brown hair, brown eyes, approximately 39” tall and approximately 28 pounds. It appears the child had significant medical needs. The child shows signs of being fed through a feeding tube. The Collin County Child Abuse Task Force is asking that any persons with information about the identity of this child, specifically In-Home health care providers, school personnel, day care personnel or community based social services to contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) or contact NCMEC Cold Case Review Unit at 1-877-446-2632, ext. 6235 or 6342

Bumping the pic forward. Someone must recognize him.

The case of
the unidentified little boy whose body was found a week ago in Wylie
is unusual but hardly unique. There's the
preschool-age boy whose body was found in a laundry bag just
outside Chicago in 2005. From 2002 is the case of a newborn boy found
dead in front of a repair shop in Weld County, Colo. And still
unidentified after more than 45 years is a toddler whose body was
fished out of a reservoir in the mountains near Ashland, Ore., in
1963. The National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children's website lists 142 cases of unidentified
children, some of them found alive as infants but many dead and
still nameless. "You think, 'How in the world could a
child go missing without someone knowing it?' " said Scott Davis
of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office in Tennessee,
who has volunteered for the past decade on missing children's cases and
hosts an online web series called The Missing. Davis said the best-case scenario is that the dead
child is local and will be recognized by someone in the community.
If he's not local, Davis said, the question becomes where
to expand the search. "Do you look in
surrounding cities, surrounding states?" Davis asked.
He started The Missing program on YouTube last year to
feature unsolved cases in hopes of reaching people who might know
something and hadn't heard about them through traditional news
media. "One person is all it takes," Davis said.
But, he concedes, these cases are tough to solve.
"The person that put this John Doe beside
the road does not want to come forward," Davis said.
On the case

Wylie police say the boy found
seven days ago by a crew mowing around a pond near Lavon Lake
had "significant medical needs." He also showed signs of having
had a feeding tube. The brown-haired, brown-eyed boy was small
for his age, measuring 39 inches tall and weighing 28 pounds. He's
believed to be about 6 years old. Wylie police
Detective Venece Perepiczka said Wednesday that investigators
have received more than 400 tips so far.
"Everything we're getting in is helpful," she said. "Eventually we'll
get the one to help find out who this boy is."
Wylie investigators are working with the Collin County Child Abuse
Task Force and the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children. The center's forensic artists created an image of the
boy, based on police photos, that is circulating around the
country in hopes that someone will recognize him. America's
Most Wanted is featuring the boy's image on its
website. And a Facebook
page called Wylie's Angel, started by a Dallas woman, has grown
to more than 27,000 members. Photo comparisons

Tips that come in to the National Center's
24-hour hotline are given to staffers who compare the details
provided with the case. If enough information matches, callers
are asked to provide a recent photo to do what's called a
forensic overlay. Staffers look for points of comparison on the
face in the submitted photo and that of the unidentified child,
said Jerry Nance, supervisor of the center's forensic services unit.
But the photo comparisons aren't always easy.
"It can be tricky," Nance said, because children younger
than 10 have growth spurts that can change their facial features.
If the photos are similar enough, Nance said,
the information is sent to local investigators for further
review. A positive ID will be made only through DNA or dental
records. Nance said finding the Wylie boy's body
so soon after his death gives investigators their best chance at
identifying him. Authorities say he'd been dead less than 24
hours. The state's Department of Public Safety
Missing Persons Clearinghouse serves as the central repository
for information on missing and unidentified people in Texas. Its
database lists 891 unidentified remains statewide, but program
supervisor Heidi Fischer said the actual number is likely far
greater because local agencies don't always report their cases to
the state. The majority of the remains on record
in Texas are adults. Children's cases are relatively rare,
Fischer said. But all of them are listed on the center's
searchable website in hopes of eventually identifying them.
"A case is never closed unless identification is made,"
Fischer said. Nationwide, an estimated 15,000 to
40,000 sets of remains are unidentified, according to the federal Bureau
of Justice Statistics. Of the 4,400 cases of
unidentified remains reported by medical examiners across the country in
an average year, about 1,000 remain unsolved after a year, the bureau
reported.
Years of waiting

The cases that drag on for years are some of the most difficult.
On April 28, 2001, the naked and headless body of a black
girl was found in a wooded area in Kansas City, Mo. Three days
later investigators found her head wrapped in a trash bag.
"I was convinced in the beginning that it would be a matter of
hours before someone would call in and report her missing," said Sgt.
David Bernard
with the Kansas City Police Department's homicide unit. "I was
wrong." Bernard said investigators enlisted experts
to create two graphic drawings and two facial reconstructions
over the years. With each new image of the child came more tips.
But still, the little girl, dubbed Precious Doe, remained
unidentified. Investigators were considering
what's called an isotope analysis of teeth and bones to determine
which part of the country she was from. But an ad published in a
weekly newspaper generated a tip from Oklahoma that broke open
the case. Three-year-old Erica Michelle Marie Green was
identified nearly four years after her body was found. Her mother and
stepfather were arrested in her death. Both are now in prison.
Bernard said, "It was a long, hard four years to finally
get that call." Illinois case

DuPage County Sheriff's Commander Mark Edwalds
is still waiting for answers in an Illinois case that has
stretched nearly five years. A man walking his
dog on Oct. 8, 2005, found a blue canvas laundry bag containing
the remains of a little boy. The body was too decomposed to
determine how he died. Investigators believe the
dark-haired boy is between 3 and 5 years old. They filed his DNA
with a national database and had forensic artists do sketches and
clay renderings to circulate to the public. Hundreds of tips
poured in. They traced the boy's dark blue button-down
shirt and pants to Wal-Mart,
which sold that Faded Glory brand exclusively. Edwalds said
investigators found three instances in the country where the shirt and
pants were purchased together. The two credit card purchases were ruled
out. The one in the Chicago area, though, was made with cash. Detectives saturated the area around that Wal-Mart with the boy's
images in hopes someone would recognize him.
The case remains unsolved, though tips still come in occasionally.
Edwalds remains hopeful. "Somewhere along
the line, somebody's going to get a conscience."

Healing was the theme at a Wednesday evening prayer service in Wylie,
a city filled with hearts aching over the death of the child who
remains unidentified.
"Two weeks ago, this community was at odds because of political
campaigns," said Donna Valentino. "This has brought this community back
together the way it should be."
Pastors from half a dozen churches took turns leading the prayers,
said in part for the child who has become known as "Wylie's Angel," a
six-year-old with a feeding tube found dead in this Collin County town
two weeks ago.
But the prayers were also for the living — folks like Fire Chief
Randy Corbin, attending the service as a private citizen, but well aware
of the stress felt in the department he leads.
"It hurts every one of them when things like this happens," Corbin
said. "It’s a shame it takes tragedy to make us remember we're all in
this together."
Frustrated by the lack of clues in the case of the unidentified
child, authorities are now turning to the TV show "America's Most
Wanted" for help.
A Facebook page devoted to Wylie's Angel now has 25,000 friends. Page
host Malorie Martinez is overwhelmed.
"I just hope somebody sees this and knows his face and calls the
number and identifies him so we can bury him with his name," she said.
First Baptist Church of Wylie is sponsoring the funeral for the boy.
They have scheduled a memorial service for Thursday evening.
On Wednesday, residents prayed to know who the child is, but for now,
that prayer has gone unanswered.

As hundreds of people gathered in Wylie to remember a nameless child,
a team of investigators and child advocates made a direct appeal to the
boy's family to come forward.
No one knows who the boy's parents are — or if they are even from
North Texas.
But Dan Powers, the clinical director of the Collin County Child
Advocacy Center said he hopes they get the message: Help give your child
an identity.
The mysterious case of "Wylie's Angel" is new territory for area law
enforcement officers. Usually, they try to find missing children. But in
this case, they're in the unusual position of trying to locate the
parents or relatives of a child who was found dead near East Fork Park
one week ago.
"You would think someone would come forth when there's a missing
child," Powers said. "There are people who are concerned. But in this
case, no one's coming forth."
Powers said with few similar cases and little evidence, it's nearly
impossible for investigators to come up with a profile of the boy's
parents.
"I hope it's somebody who loved this child very much and didn't know
what to do," he said.
First Baptist Church of Wylie pastor Kris Seagrest says the boy's
parents or relatives are welcome to find help and comfort at his church.
"Maybe they're afraid of litigation," he said. "They should reach out
to law authorities, or a church. It could be this one."
The pastor said a local attorney has offered to help with any legal
concerns the child's parents might have. "He would be willing to consult
with them and give any help he could," said the pastor.
The organizers of Thursday night's candlelight vigil also have a
message for the boy's parents.
"All we need is his name," said Malorie Martinez, one of the
organizers. "Come forward we'll help you out. Just let us bury him."
Ten investigators from the Collin County Child Abuse Task Force are
working diligently on the case around the clock. Powers said no one
wants to learn the boy's identify more than they do.

Police have identified the small child found dead in a park
near Wylie, authorities announced Friday night.
Known as "Wylie's Angel," police said the boy who was found dumped on
April 15 is six-year-old Gerren Joseph Isgrigg.


Police were led to the identity of the child through a tip made to
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Wylie
authorities said in a statement.
Investigators have been working long hours trying to identify the
boy. Authorities said in the 36 hours before the conclusive
identification, investigators were following new leads they considered
promising.
Authorities said they are now investigating to determine exactly what
happened during Isgrrigg's final days.
A $20,000 reward was offered in the case.

The maternal grandmother of Gerren Joseph Isgrigg was arrested on murder charges late Friday Evening at the Children's Advocacy Center of Collin County. She is identified as 63 year old Darlene Phillips.
http://www.the33tv.com/news/kdaf-wylie-angel-gerren-joseph-isgrigg-story,0,2882948.story

After eight
days, he has a name: Gerren Joseph Isgrigg.Late Friday, Wylie
police investigators confirmed the identity of the 6-year-old
whose body was found by a mowing crew April 15 near a Collin County
pond.Gerren's maternal grandmother and primary caregiver,
63-year-old Darlene Phillips, was arrested after 10 p.m. on a murder
charge. Her bail was set at $500,000."We're going straight on
that she murdered Gerren by her actions," Wylie Detective Venece
Perepiczka said. "This was a very unfortunate circumstance. Gerren was
not taken care of well."Police said the boy's parents are
separated. The father lives in California and the mother in Oklahoma.
Their names were not released. Police didn't say where the grandmother
and Gerren lived.Police said a tip to the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children's hotline led to the identification of
Gerren, whose story has left its mark on the hearts of thousands around
the world.Investigators said they were looking into what happened
in the final days before Gerren's death. Autopsy results are pending,
but police have said there were no obvious injuries.Wylie police
had worked around the clock with the national center and the Collin
County Child Abuse Task Force since last week, checking hundreds of tips
to learn the boy's identity.An image of Gerren that the center's
forensic artists created based on police photos was circulated
worldwide in hopes that someone would recognize him.In announcing
Gerren's name Friday, investigators also released a photograph provided
by his father. It was taken three years ago while the boy was in the
hospital.As news of Gerren's identity spread, relief poured
through the comments on the "Wylie's Angel" Facebook
page started by a Dallas woman. Malorie Martinez said her
mission was simply to give Gerren a name."I can't even describe
how much this means," Martinez, 20, said through tears.Membership
for the online group topped 44,000 and was still growing.Martinez
and Donna Valentino of Richardson have barely slept over the last week
as they monitored the comments online to ensure that the messages
remained positive. They also organized a candlelight vigil Thursday at
East Fork Park that attracted hundreds of people who prayed for answers."There
is a God," said Valentino after learning the boy had been identified.
She said she had put in countless hours simply because "somebody had to
know him."Police said the brown-haired, brown-eyed boy was small
for his age, measuring 39 inches tall and weighing just 28 pounds. He
had "significant medical needs" and showed signs of having had a feeding
tube. Police believe his body had been abandoned less than 24 hours
before it was found.Gary Valentine
of Lavon, who found Gerren's body while mowing on Army
Corps of Engineers land, said he was relieved to learn
the boy had been identified."I was so sad for the child. I
couldn't imagine somebody not wanting a baby," said Valentine, who was
an EMT for years."No matter what, you don't throw children in
brush piles."

A north Texas woman has been arrested and charged with murder in the
death of a 6-year-old boy whose body was found in Wylie near Lake Lavon
last week. Investigators say Darlene Phillips, 63, is the maternal
grandmother of the victim, Gerren Joseph Isgrigg. The boy was
known only as "Wylie's Angel" until Friday when investigators announced a
tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had
helped them identify the child. Phillips is being charged with
Murder and is currently being held in the Collin County Detention
Facility. Her bond has been set at $500,000.00. Police say
Phillips was Isgrigg's primary caregiver. They say the boy's parents
live in other states and are separated. The Collin County Medical
Examiner says there were no injuries on the body and they have not yet
determined a cause of death. Investigators say Isgrigg was very small
for his age and there is evidence he needed a feeding tube to survive.

Exactly how
Gerren Isgrigg's frail body ended up near a Collin County pond on April
15 is still a mystery. But a clearer picture is emerging of the
fractured family life that followed the 6-year-old to his death.His
maternal grandmother and primary caretaker sits in the Collin County
Jail facing a murder charge. His maternal grandfather thought the boy,
who was blind and deaf, had been left with a social worker. And Gerren's
paternal family believed he was living with his mother, who got sole
custody of the boy after a 2006 divorce."We're still in shock and
disbelief," said Linda Isgrigg, Gerren's paternal grandmother in
Arizona. "All they would have had to do was bring him here. ... I could
have been there every day to see that he was taken care of."Gerren's
severe medical problems began shortly after his birth in September
2003. He required around-the-clock care and a special diet provided
through a feeding tube. He couldn't do anything for himself."All
he could do was lay there," Isgrigg said.Police have said the
actions of his maternal grandmother, Darlene Phillips, led to Gerren's
death, but they declined to elaborate. Phillips, 63, is being held on
$500,000 bail."Little Gerren was not taken care of well, and it
ended up ... murder," Wylie Detective Venece Perepiczka said in
announcing the arrest late Friday. The investigation is ongoing,
she said, as the task force that has been working nonstop since Gerren
was found tries to determine what happened.
From weeks to years


Patrick Phillips
said he and his wife were asked by their daughter, Nyki Phillips, to
take Gerren for a couple of weeks. Those weeks turned into years. "My
wife doted on that boy," Patrick Phillips said from the motel in The
Colony where he and his wife had been living recently. "They're making
her out to be a murderer. It's heart-wrenching."Nyki Phillips,
who police say lives in Oklahoma, couldn't be reached for comment.Patrick
Phillips said he doesn't know what happened to Gerren. He said that his wife said she left Gerren with a social worker. Marissa
Gonzales, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, said her agency
had no contact with the family.Records show Darlene Phillips was
once a caregiver for an assisted living center in Arizona that may have
been owned by relatives. It was unclear whether she had any medical
training.

Tip leads to DNA test


Gerren's
body was discovered at the edge of a parking lot just after 9 a.m. by a
mowing crew on federal land. Small for his age, he measured 39 inches
tall and just 28 pounds. He remained unidentified for more than a week
as investigators with the Wylie Police Department and the Collin County
Child Abuse Task Force searched for clues to his past. A
computer-enhanced image of Gerren was plastered on the news and on
fliers all over the community south of Lavon Lake. A Facebook
page dubbed "Wylie's Angel" took the little boy's story global
in hopes that someone would recognize him. A tip to the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children's hotline gave police the
break they needed to track down his family. Investigators contacted
Gerren's father in California early Friday. Jerry Isgrigg provided a DNA
sample that confirmed Gerren's identity.Linda Isgrigg said her
son was making regular child support payments to his ex-wife and thought
Gerren was still living with her. He was the couple's only child
together. She believed the marriage ended over Gerren's medical
problems.Her son saw Gerren when he could, she said, but it was
infrequent because he was in the military. A staff sergeant in
the Marines, Jerry Isgrigg recently returned from a brief tour in Korea,
Linda Isgrigg said. He served in the Persian Gulf War, left the
military for about a decade, then re-enlisted and served in the Iraq war.
He is stationed at the Marine base in Twentynine Palms, Calif. Father's concerns
Jerry Isgrigg was
at his parents' home in Arizona on Saturday and making plans to come to
Texas, his mother said. He declined to comment.Linda Isgrigg said
she didn't know when her son last saw Gerren, but she knew that it had
been awhile. "He was always concerned" about Gerren's well-being,
she said. Isgrigg said that at one point Gerren was staying at
the Truman Smith Children's Care Center in Gladewater, Texas, but she
wasn't sure for how long. Officials at the nursing home declined to
comment, citing health care privacy laws."I called one day to
check to see how he was, and they said that he wasn't there," Isgrigg
said. "I said let me talk to the nurse, and they said that he wasn't
there anymore, that she [his mother] came and got him."Isgrigg
said she last saw Gerren about two years ago."I don't understand
why didn't they just contact somebody and say, 'I can't handle this.
Will you please take him?' Or call his dad," Linda Isgrigg said. "These
children do not have a voice."

This story has been gut wrenching. I can't even put words to it.

If there is anyone out there who doesn't want their child anymore, CONTACT ME. I will care for your child. Please don't kill them. Please don't throw them away like they are garbage. Someone wants them. Someone will care for them.

"These children do not have a voice."

~Well, we are here to change that.~

The woman who
cared for "Wylie's Angel" told her husband from jail Sunday that she
left 6-year-old Gerren Joseph Isgrigg in the park hoping that somebody
would pick him up. Nobody did.And the boy – who was
physically disabled, had seizures daily and was fed through a tube in
his stomach – was found dead. The caretaker, Darlene Phillips,
the boy's 63-year-old grandmother, is charged with murder in his death.
She was taken into custody late Friday, eight days after Gerren's body
was found near Lavon Lake.Phillips' husband of 30 years, Patrick,
said that his wife cried and expressed regret during the 25 minutes he
spent with her Sunday morning at the Collin County Jail. He said that
stress from around-the-clock care for the boy was probably too much for
his wife to take. "From our conversation today, she knows it was a
big mistake," Patrick Phillips said. "She never planned on this to
happen."She thought somebody would come along right away and he
would be taken care of," he said. "Stress does terrible things."The
boy's father, Jerry Isgrigg, finds the story unbelievable."I
can't fathom it. Honestly, I just can't fathom a person doing it, let
alone a family member doing it and let alone somebody who's actually
been caring for him day in and day out doing it," he said. "If
it's too much to handle, there are ways to find me. You can't tell me
they couldn't find me."Authorities said it's still unclear how
the boy died. There were no signs of trauma on his body. Results from an
autopsy are pending. Isgrigg is at his parents' home in Arizona
and is making arrangements to be in Dallas by Tuesday. If possible, he
wants to take his boy's body back to Arizona.

Health problems
Gerren was born to Nyki Phillips and Isgrigg at Camp Lejeune,
N.C., in September 2003. He was one month premature. "He was
fine for about a month," Isgrigg said. "He cried like a normal baby
does, did everything a normal baby does. There was no sign of anything
odd."It wasn't long before the seizures started. At first, they
were once or twice a week: Gerren's body would stiffen, his eyes would
roll back into his head and he would stop breathing. Then they became an
everyday occurrence. He also became blind, deaf and had no function of
his arms or legs.Doctors diagnosed Gerren as having West
syndrome, a somewhat rare epileptic disorder in infants, Isgrigg said.
Patrick Phillips said doctors told the family that Gerren would be lucky
to live past the age of 4. At birth, the umbilical cord was
wrapped around Gerren's neck three times, which Isgrigg believes may
have caused Gerren's medical condition.Gerren wasn't even a year
old when Isgrigg, a Marine, was deployed to the Iraq war,
leaving his wife at home to care for their profoundly ill infant. "The
hardest thing I've ever had to do was leave him here," he said. Isgrigg
returned stateside in February 2005, but by then, the marriage was on
the rocks and the couple soon separated. The couple divorced in 2006,
and Nyki Phillips was awarded sole custody. By then, Isgrigg had taken a
military job in California and Nyki Phillips had moved to Texas. In
2007, he learned that his son was being cared for in the Truman Smith
Children's Care Center in Gladewater, Texas. That June, he visited
Gerren while he was in the hospital after having choked and nearly
asphyxiated. Not long after, he said his ex-wife told him she had taken
him out of Truman Smith and that her mother had moved to Texas to help
take care of Gerren. Isgrigg said he had a hard time keeping up
with his ex-wife because she moved frequently. On an enlisted man's
salary, he also didn't have the funds to track her down. He said he
continued to send more than $700 a month to state child support
authorities. During their infrequent communications, he said, his
ex-wife never let on that her parents were Gerren's sole caregivers and
that she had moved to Oklahoma. On Friday morning, sheriff's
deputies showed up at Isgrigg's workplace on a Marine base in California
asking questions. They showed him a photo of a frail boy found near a
Collin County pond. He later realized he was looking at a photo of his
dead son.Later that night, he spoke to Nyki Phillips. He said she
offered no explanation as to why her parents had Gerren. "The
only thing she said was, 'Thank you for not yelling at me,' " he said.Nyki
Phillips left Gerren at her parents' home three years ago, hoping that
would buy her a few weeks to find other caretakers, Patrick Phillips
said. Despite Gerren's ailments, Patrick Phillips said his wife
cared for Gerren meticulously since he was 3. She was up every night
feeding him through his tube, medicating him and soothing him during
seizures, Patrick Phillips said.

'She loved him'
"She's a loving mother, grandmother, not the
monster she's portrayed as," the grandfather said. "She loved him. I
think he lived longer because of the care she did give to him." "If
she thought for one lucid moment that Gerren was going to die she
would've never left him out there. I know it looks bad, but it wasn't
like she thought out, 'I'm going to kill Gerren.' "On the morning
of April 15, mowers discovered Gerren's body at the edge of a parking
lot on federal land. Small for his age, he measured 39 inches tall and
just 28 pounds. He remained unidentified for more than a week as
investigators with the Wylie
Police Department and the Collin County Child Abuse Task Force
searched for clues to his past. A tip to the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children's hotline gave police the break they
needed to track down his family. Isgrigg provided a DNA sample that
confirmed Gerren's identity.Later that day, investigators tracked
down the grandparents. "If you know my wife you'd know what an
angel she is," Patrick Phillips said. "You can't care for somebody for
three years and click," he said with a snap of his fingers, "you're
going to kill him."Phillips said he and his adult son are being
evicted from their extended-stay hotel room in The Colony although he
said he's paid up through next week. He said he thinks that the
management is tired of the media trucks and television cameras there. He's
still in shock about how it all came to this. What he said he thought
would be a blessing caring for Gerren has turned into a nightmare he
can't wake up from."We always thought God had a purpose for
Gerren being with us," Patrick Phillips said. "Then this happens?"

A North Texas grandmother told police she felt burdened with her
special needs grandson so she left him in a rural area with a note for
someone to find, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

CLICKHERE TO READ AFFADAVIT (PDF)

Darlene Phillips, 63, is charged with the murder of 6-year-old Gerren Joseph Isgrigg, who
was nicknamed "Wylie's Angel" after his body was found April 15 in a
pond near Lake Lavon. According to the affidavit, Phillips said
she left the boy in a park on April 12 with a note that said, "I'm 6, I
have seizures, I need medication and a feeding tube." When police
found Gerren's blanket-covered body, they found no note, papers, or
medical supplies. A tip to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children led investigators to Gerren's mother, Nyki Phillips.
Police confirmed that Nyki's mother Darlene had been caring for her son.
Darlene Phillips' husband, Patrick, told officers that the child had
been living with them until about two weeks before. He said Darlene
told him she'd given Gerren to a social worker, according to the
affidavit. The court papers also indicate the child was
profoundly disabled. Patrick Phillips said Gerren was unable to make any
noise, had no control over his limbs and was unable to move. Darlene
Phillips told police the little boy had the mental capacity of a
2-month-old baby.