02-08-2011, 03:40 PM
NEW BRAUNFELS — The search for missing tot Joshua Davis Jr. continued Tuesday with parallel efforts to locate the 18-month-old who vanished late last week.
The high-profile task has been the macabre search for a tiny, lifeless body hiding somewhere in plain sight. The other part involves investigators back at the police station poring over witness statements and trying to find any evidence of an abduction.
New Braunfels Police continued their door-to-door, inch-by-inch search for the boy in his neighborhood, a mobile home community on the town's south side.
An eight-officer team led by Sgt. Chris Snyder was knocking on doors and combing through yards.
“We're leaving nothing untouched or unsearched,” he said.
The boy disappeared from his parents' home Friday night, mother Sabrina Benitez said. Nine people were in the house at the time.
“We were watching ‘Toy Story,' and usually he comes in and grabs a toy and watches,” she said. “I noticed he wasn't there, so I went looking for him and couldn't find him.”
If the boy slipped out on his own, police say, he's small, frail and wasn't dressed for the temperature in the 20s. He may have curled up for warmth against the cold.
“We're looking for a tiny object,” Snyder said in explaining that the search is now an act of recovery rather than rescue.
Inside, they poked through closets and hampers, under furniture, and in attics and crawl spaces. Outside, they looked in garbage cans, playground equipment and storage sheds and crawled under and into any structure they came upon.
“The neighbors here have been great and helpful,” Snyder said. “They let us in and let us search anything. They're very cooperative. Some of them have been leaving to go to work or on errands, and they'll say, ‘Here, take my house keys and search.'”
The boy's parents have spent their time handing out fliers, doing interviews, and suffering.
“It's been hard,” Benitez said. “We should have been getting somewhere by now.”
While eternally grateful for the support from police and the community, the family is frustrated that so much effort has been spent on searching.
Cadaver dogs could not pick up the boy's scent in the yard, Benitez said, which she interpreted as another indication the boy was abducted.
“I'm not giving up until my baby comes home,” she said. “I feel my baby is still out there. I don't think he's going to give up, like we're not going to give up.”
The boy's parents made comments, some to media and some in the earshot of media, that indicated there might be leads in a criminal investigation.
Lt. Michael Penshorn, the department's spokesman, said he knew nothing of those rumors.
“We're not naming anyone of interest,” he said. “We still have people searching, but we're operating a parallel investigation.”
Texas Rangers and FBI agents are helping New Braunfels investigators pore over interviews and data collected from the scene just to make sure all angles are pursued and all possible leads discovered and exhausted.
Said Penshorn: “We're keeping our options open.”
Snyder's team continued its work, hoping to finish canvassing the neighborhood by sundown.
“They want closure. We want closure. The town wants closure.”
mysanantonio.com
The high-profile task has been the macabre search for a tiny, lifeless body hiding somewhere in plain sight. The other part involves investigators back at the police station poring over witness statements and trying to find any evidence of an abduction.
New Braunfels Police continued their door-to-door, inch-by-inch search for the boy in his neighborhood, a mobile home community on the town's south side.
An eight-officer team led by Sgt. Chris Snyder was knocking on doors and combing through yards.
“We're leaving nothing untouched or unsearched,” he said.
The boy disappeared from his parents' home Friday night, mother Sabrina Benitez said. Nine people were in the house at the time.
“We were watching ‘Toy Story,' and usually he comes in and grabs a toy and watches,” she said. “I noticed he wasn't there, so I went looking for him and couldn't find him.”
If the boy slipped out on his own, police say, he's small, frail and wasn't dressed for the temperature in the 20s. He may have curled up for warmth against the cold.
“We're looking for a tiny object,” Snyder said in explaining that the search is now an act of recovery rather than rescue.
Inside, they poked through closets and hampers, under furniture, and in attics and crawl spaces. Outside, they looked in garbage cans, playground equipment and storage sheds and crawled under and into any structure they came upon.
“The neighbors here have been great and helpful,” Snyder said. “They let us in and let us search anything. They're very cooperative. Some of them have been leaving to go to work or on errands, and they'll say, ‘Here, take my house keys and search.'”
The boy's parents have spent their time handing out fliers, doing interviews, and suffering.
“It's been hard,” Benitez said. “We should have been getting somewhere by now.”
While eternally grateful for the support from police and the community, the family is frustrated that so much effort has been spent on searching.
Cadaver dogs could not pick up the boy's scent in the yard, Benitez said, which she interpreted as another indication the boy was abducted.
“I'm not giving up until my baby comes home,” she said. “I feel my baby is still out there. I don't think he's going to give up, like we're not going to give up.”
The boy's parents made comments, some to media and some in the earshot of media, that indicated there might be leads in a criminal investigation.
Lt. Michael Penshorn, the department's spokesman, said he knew nothing of those rumors.
“We're not naming anyone of interest,” he said. “We still have people searching, but we're operating a parallel investigation.”
Texas Rangers and FBI agents are helping New Braunfels investigators pore over interviews and data collected from the scene just to make sure all angles are pursued and all possible leads discovered and exhausted.
Said Penshorn: “We're keeping our options open.”
Snyder's team continued its work, hoping to finish canvassing the neighborhood by sundown.
“They want closure. We want closure. The town wants closure.”
mysanantonio.com