- AP/New Mexico State PoliceThis image provided by the New Mexico State Police shows 4 year old Samuel Jones in an undated photo.
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
Saturday from his home next door and who was the subject of an Amber
Alert issued late Saturday.
"We have reports of one missing child, and
this child is right next door to the missing child's house," police
spokeswoman Lt. Jennifer Moyers said, while adding that authorities
cannot be positive the body is Samuel's until the body is retrieved.
Efforts to recover the body began Sunday
afternoon, with a large tracked excavator on scene along with metal
shoring typically used in pipeline construction projects.
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 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 the 30
feet where the body was wedged, Moyers said. There are no curbs or
sidewalks in the neighborhood on the city's south side.
Getting the body out will be a long process,
Moyer said. A specialized search and rescue team from Roswell was
headed to Carlsbad at midday to oversee the operations.
"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."
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