NEW ORLEANS -- Police stepped up their search efforts Tuesday to find two brothers missing since Sunday.
The boys may have gone swimming in Lake Pontchartrain. Boats, helicopters and ground crews are searching the New Orleans East area where they were last seen.
Police are working in coordination with the fire department and family members as they search the water for any sign of the boys.
Aaronne Mitchell and Aaronne Russell, 13-year-old brothers by the same father, were last seen walking with two dogs on the levee on Hayne Boulevard and Bass Street on Easter Sunday.
They talked about going for a swim, and witnesses said they saw the boys at Lincoln Beach going into the water and then leaving.
On Tuesday, police had seven boats in the water with divers, as well as cadaver dogs searching the scene.
Police also conducted "walk and knocks" in neighborhoods, going door to door asking people if they had scene the boys or the dogs.
Family and friends also continued to canvas the neighborhood with their own fliers. The family held a prayer vigil Tuesday morning, and they planned to hold another one at 7 p.m. Tuesday night, at the intersection of Hayne and Bass.
NEW ORLEANS – Police and search teams are looking for two 13-year-old brothers who haven’t been seen since going out to walk a neighbor’s dogs Easter Sunday in New Orleans East, according to the NOPD.
The two half brothers, Aarone Mitchell and Aarone Russell, were visiting each other for Easter. Mitchell lives in Lafayette while Russell goes to Carver.
Police had boats and helicopters searching the shoreline near Hayne Blvd. and Bass Street where neighbors said they saw the boys walking the dogs. An eyewitness said the boys had gone into the water near Lincoln Beach but then got out and were headed back to the neighborhood.
NOPD spokesman Officer Garry Flot said the father of the children recovered a wet pair of shorts belonging to one of the boys and the dog's collar near where they went missing, and then notified police.
Family members say they are disappointed by the official search so far.
"The police, they searched for an hour, two hours. I love them for that. But it took for me to get out here and get in the water myself and find a dog chain that belongs to the lady and a pair of shorts that belong to my son," said Aarone Simmons, the father of the boys. "I need to know when the diving team is coming out. If the diving team ain't going out, then we going in."
"Parent's just don't know the idea of how you can feel when your child is missing," said Karalynn Russell, Aarone Russell's mother. "You have no clue what is your next step. And right now we're just at a standstill, just waiting on information. So if there's anybody that can help us, we're willing to take it."
Mitchell lives in Lafayette and Russell goes to Carver High School.
New Orleans police are asking the public to help find two 13-year-old boys who have been missing since Sunday morning.
Aaronne "Lil Rony" Mitchell and Aaronne "Baby Rony" Russell were last seen on Easter at 11 a.m. walking a neighbor's dog on the levee near the intersection of Hayne Boulevard and Bass Street, not far from Lincoln Beach, a former amusement park area along Lake Pontchartrain.
The boys are brothers. Their mother reported them missing around 9 a.m. Monday morning, according to a news releases issued Monday morning.
"She says they have not gone missing before," officer Garry Flot wrote in the release.
Officers from the 7th District and the Special Operations Division searched for the boys Monday as well as officers in two boats. The search ended this evening, Flot said. It will resume Tuesday morning. A pair of shorts belonging to one of the boys and a dog collar were found in the area by people not affiliated with law enforcement, Flot said.
Anyone who sees either boy is asked to call the police department at 821-2222.
FOX8
New Orleans - Boats circled near the spot where Paris Road meets Lake Pontchartrain, during the second day searching for two boys and two dogs, all missing since Sunday.
The area is where the last traces of the two 13-year-old half-brothers, Aaronne Russell and Aaronne Mitchell, were located Monday.
“My son swims, he swims,” said Mitchell’s mother, Sharonne. “He’s no excellent swimmer, but he swims.”
“They did find a doo rag and they found a dog chain,” said relative Deshonda Griffin about the search.
Angela Kinler may have been the last person to see the boys, when they came by her Little Woods home near the lake and asked to take her dogs for a walk.
“They asked me if they could take both of them to the beach to go swimming, and I told them yeah,” Kinler said.
While police and firefighters, search dogs, and divers, look for any signs, a mother believes the boys are still alive.
“Call me, let me know, nobody's mad at you,” Mitchell pleaded. “We're not going to stop till we find y’all.”
Family members were relieved by the search effort today, but the boys went missing two days ago, and they wish more was done earlier.
“The search didn't come together fast enough, but today is better than yesterday,” Griffin said.
It's hard for anyone to fathom what could have happened, especially the owner of one of the dogs, named Buddy.
“I don't know, I'm lost. How can four bodies disappear,” A.J. Messina. “Two dogs and two boys.”
Though it has been nearly three days now, family remains hopeful. All involved say they are committed to seeing the expanded search through.
are they hiding out?
the police attach no cred on the found shirt/shorts.
police say the water is too shallow, they aren't in the lake. and besides, the dogs wouldn't drown. why haven't the dogs run on home?
there are 107 registered sex offenders in the 'hood.
the names have been corrected:
Dozens searching for missing teens
WWLTV.com
Posted on April 26, 2011
NEW ORLEANS – The search for two missing 13-year-old brothers intensified Tuesday with scores of law enforcement, friends, family and neighbors combing the area where Aaronne Mitchell and Aaronne Russell were last seen on Easter.
The disappearance of two 13-year-old boys from eastern New Orleans remained a mystery Tuesday even though the second day of searching came with more resources, including dozens of volunteers.Well-wishers gathered under a tent near Bass Street and Hayne Boulevard for a candlelit vigil Tuesday afternoon expressing concern about Aaronne 'Lil Rony' Mitchell and Aaronne 'Baby Rony' Russell.
New Orleans police -- who on Tuesday were joined by firefighters, the Louisiana Search and Rescue Dog Team and others -- were no closer to locating the brothers, Aaronne "Lil Rony" Mitchell and Aaronne "Baby Rony" Russell, than the day before.
Relatives fretted. Their father, Aaronne "DJ7" Simmons, scrunched his face and said he prays they are alright. Karalynn Russell, the mother of Aaronne Russell, worried aloud about the terrible things that may have happened to the boys since they were last seen on Easter at 11 a.m. walking an adult mixed-breed pit bull and a pit bull puppy.
Angela Kinler, a former St. Bernard Parish resident who now lives in eastern New Orleans, said the boys told her they were going for a swim at Lincoln Beach, one of the historic swimming areas along Lake Pontchartrain. And they wanted to know if she would allow them to take Buddy, her dog, and the puppy, a dog that once belonged to a relative of the boy's father. She said she said yes in the spirit of trying to be neighborly.
Kinler said she was troubled after the boys failed to return soon and began to seek help. She said their father arrived at her home and told her not to worry because he was going to find the dogs and the boys.
After the sun set Monday, the father of the boys found a pair of shorts that belonged to one of the boys and the chain collar of Buddy in the shallow water of Lake Pontchartrain. He said the spot was not far from the railroad tracks near where the levee and Paris Road intersect, which is east of Lincoln Beach and about six blocks east of Kinler's residence.
"When he showed me the collar he said 'Please don't tell me this was your dog's chain,' " Kinler said.
"It was."
She said she didn't know what to think. One of the stories circulating is that there was a large arranged dogfight in the neighborhood in December, but she did not have any first-hand knowledge of this.
Information from secondary sources has been rampant, authorities said. According to other accounts, a boat was taken from one of the homes on pilings along the beach about a mile east from the Paris Road and Hayne Boulevard intersection. Another story circulating throughout the day had a ladder lowered into the water in same area.
"There's no solid information," said Eddie Selby, commander of the New Orleans Police Department's Special Operations Division.
None of the tales has been confirmed, Selby said.
Efforts by the state's Fish and Wildlife Service, firefighters walking along the shoreline and dogs searching for scents failed to uncover any new information.
The family turned to prayer late Tuesday afternoon. The father and Aaronne's mother spoke to many well-wishers gathered under a tent near Bass Street and Hayne Boulevard for a candlelit vigil.
Karalynn Russell and DJ7 said they did not know what to make of the disappearance of the boys.
Both were living in eastern New Orleans, they said. One had recently moved from Lafayette.
"They were always joined at the hip," said the mother of Aaronne Russell. "They did everything together."
"They are easy-going," said their father. "They like to skateboard. They like basketball, football, talking on the phone."
The boys, he said, had been spending time with him on Emory Road and his mother on Bass Street, two block or so away.
The disappearance is a mystery, they said.
And a private company from Texas may soon take a swing at solving it, said police and Project NOLA, which has been coordinating search efforts among volunteers.
Representatives of Texas Equusearch, which specializes in finding missing people, are en route, Selby said.
The company's Web site notes that Tim Miller, the company's founder and director, will begin searching Wednesday. New Orleans Police and family members asked for Miller's assistance.
NEW ORLEANS -- As the search for two 13-year-old brothers missing since Easter entered its third day, a national search arrived in New Orleans to help find the boys.
Aaronne Simmons, the father of Aaronne Mitchell and Aaronne Russell, said he was more optimistic now that Texas EquuSearch has joined local authorities YES!!! in the search for his boys along Lake Pontchartrain.
Simmons informed the volunteers from Texas that he found dog leash and a pair shorts he believes belong to one of his sons. The boys were last seen walking two dogs along the lakefront levee.
“I am very positive about this morning,” said Simmons. “We got the professional people out here. We gonna find them.”
Around 7 a.m., Wildlife and Fisheries began using a search plane to patrol the area on the lake near Hayne Boulevard and Bayou Sauvage.
Tim Miller, from Equusearch, said high winds were a concern and could possibly delay the use of a boat and sonar equipment to search for the teens.
“We know every minute is very, very important,” said Miller. “We’re on Day 4. We are certainly going to hold to that hope. We certainly believe in miracles.”
Tim Miller, The director and founder of Texas Equusearch, which specializes in finding missing people, has joined the effort to find two 13-year-old eastern New Orleans boys who have been missing since Easter.
Officer Shereese Harper said at this point she does not know the scope of Miller's involvement.
Eddie Selby, commander of the New Orleans Police Department's Special Operations Division, has said today's high winds likely will keep divers and boats out of the water.
On land, trained dogs -- Nola, a Belgian Malinois and Tracker, a chocolate Labrador -- scoured the former Lincoln Beach amusement park area along Lake Pontchartrain near Hayne Boulevard and Vincent Road Wednesday morning.
"We started about 10 a.m. and finished about 11:30 a.m.," said Denise Liset, a member of the Louisiana Search & Rescue Dog Team and Nola's handler. "All we found was a lot of trash and a lot of disappointment."
Liset and Gary Lea, Tracker's handler, were accompanied by New Orleans firefighters and three armed escorts, who were requested after someone speculated an alligator might be on the property.
NOLA
NEW ORLEANS -- A body has been found in Lake Pontchartrain near Lake Catherine Marina by New Orleans police and Wildlife and Fisheries agents.
Officials have not confirmed the identity of the body.
The body found was found, according to a Wildlife and Fisheries official, about 20 miles from the location from where two 13-year-old brothers, Aaronne Mitchell or Aaronne Russell, who went missing in New Orleans East on Sunday.
Around 2 p.m., the family of the missing boys arrived at the at scene.
(04-28-2011, 04:40 PM)trixie Wrote: 3 of the missing people we have been following turned up dead within a week..
Krista. and Phylicia on the 21st. one body in NOLO has been found, not IDed yet.
it probably is one of the boys, but in New Orleans it could be anyone. how the hell could they drown in that shallow water? IF he/they drowned.
NEW ORLEANS – The search for a couple of missing teenaged brothers has shifted about twenty miles after fishermen made the discovery of a body in the eastern end of Lake Pontchartrain Thursday afternoon.
The body was badly decomposed and has not yet been identified as one of the missing teens, but was the first discovery in nearly four days of searching.
“He does appear to be an African-American male,” said Deputy Superintendent Marlon Defillo. “We don’t have an age. We are still in the stage of trying to identify the victim and the cause of death as well.”
Defillo said experts have told him that it is possible for a body to have made its way from the area where the boys were last seen to the area near Lake Catherine.
“Given the wind condition, the weather over the past 4-5 days and based on the information I’ve gotten from the experts, it’s a possibility that they traveled this far.”
Crews began searching the area where the body was found, though the search was called off for the night due to windy conditions that made the search hazardous.
The word of the discovery spread quickly, with family and friends of Aaronne Russell and Aaronne Mitchell making the quick trip around the lake.
“A lot of us haven’t been sleeping, a lot of us haven’t ate,” said Vernell Edwards. “So we just out here.”
The father of Aaronne Mitchell and Aaronne Russell, insists the body is not one of his sons. "My sons are alive," Aaronne "DJ7" Simmons declared after learning of the Thursday afternoon discovery. He said he has not seen the body but instinctively knows it is not one of his boys.
Mary Simmons-Phillips, the paternal grandmother of the boys, had the same reaction. "We have a belief in the Lord God, and we prayed," she said. "They probably did something foolishly and are afraid to come back home because they did something wrong."
She has not seen the body that John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish Coroner's office, said had decomposed to the point that it's difficult to tell the age of the person found wearing only underwear, briefs.
Gagliano said Thursday that the Coroner's Office may need dental records to identify the body.
An autopsy has been scheduled for Friday to determine the cause of death, he said.
Meanwhile, the grandmother's heart beats with hope. "We will find them," said Simmons-Phillips.
