Fw: Not up to the minute, but the latest I've heard...

[Guest guest]

Not up to the minute, but the latest I've heard...

> ,

>

> Can you pass this on to your chat group for the woman requesting info:

>

>

> Autistic Boy's Mother Pleads For His Return

>

> [by Bo sen of The Post and Courier, South Carolina.]

> http://www.charleston.net/pub/news/local/search0306.htm

>

> ST. GEORGE-A pair of his father's sneakers remained the only sign of

a

> missing autistic child after searchers combed the Texas community here for

> the third day.

> The agonizing search was re-focused as fear for the child grew. The

> temperature was expected to drop below freezing Monday night, and half the

> area being searched is covered with water.

> Woods and fields extending some three miles around the Alonzo Road

> home of 6-year-old Britt have been thoroughly checked and

rechecked,

> said Dorchester County Sheriff's Maj. Mike .

> Searchers on Monday afternoon " fine-tuned " the effort, working with

> helicopters to mark all buildings in the area, to make sure each had been

> checked. Rural homes and vacant and abandoned sheds are spread through the

> area.

> And police talked again to the boy's family.

> But none of the 100-150 searchers found any trace of . Search

> dogs working wooded fields where the sneakers were found didn't pick up a

> scent. is said to wear his father's sneakers. said a

> rainstorm soaked the field before the dogs arrived.

> The shoes were found about a quarter-mile from each other in the

> wooded areas across the road from 's home.

> No calls reporting a sighting of the child had come into the

sheriff's

> department as of Monday afternoon - something said was unusual.

> Britt, 's mother, pleaded for the return of her son

> during an afternoon press conference, as she held a photo for the cameras.

> She spoke in the yard in front of the family's home, where Christmas

icicle

> lights hung.

> " Please you, if you have my son, please give him up, " she said.

> " Please let him go. I know it in my heart, someone's holding my baby out

> there. He has to be out there. He's still alive. "

> said police have no indication that anything criminal

happened

> to the child.

> Britt said disappeared Saturday morning wearing a blue

> T-shirt and red shorts. He is 3 1/2 feet tall and weighs 70 pounds. The

> family is uncertain if he would respond to searchers.

> Autism is a severe brain disorder characterized by profound social

> withdrawal, repetitive behavior and inability to communicate.

> " Just making it, " Britt said Monday when asked how she was

> managing the wait. She said her belief in the Lord was carrying her.

> Nearly 300 searchers worked Sunday, and more than 100 Saturday

looked

> for the child.

> Monday's searchers represented some 30 municipal, county, state or

> military agencies and included four helicopters, all-terrain vehicles,

> heat-sensing equipment, horseback and foot searchers.

> Searchers said they waded knee-deep in the water that covered about

> half the search area. Divers waded and dove as deep as 16 feet in the

deeper

> patches and ponds.

> " I didn't even sleep last night. This is tragic. This is something

you

> can't live down. Go home and there still won't be any peace, " said Cpl.

> Leroy Scarborough of the S.C. National Guard in Sumter, one of the

> searchers.

> The search was expected to resume this morning.

> Volunteers from the community asked to help in the search, but

police

> said managing volunteers along with the number of professional searchers

was

> too difficult.

> " Just thinking about it being my child makes me want to go look, "

said

> Tanja Kester of St. as she held the hand of her 3-year-old son

> Dallas.

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