1-Year-Old Toddler found dead after he disappeared while playing in family's backyard: "Preventable tragedy"
By Mike-Ross
1-year-old Jose Lara, a Florida boy, vanished while he was playing in the family's backyard on Sunday afternoon. Cops have now made a tragic discovery. They have found a body that they believe belongs to the toddler. During a news conference on Monday, Sheriff Gator DeLoach revealed that searchers found the child's body in the septic area of the property.
Per reports, he was not immediately found as weeds, plywood, and dirt covered the opening of the septic tank. "It's not an uncommon practice in a situation like this when there's a child missing to search the septic tank as well," shared Sheriff DeLoach said per News4Jax.com.
"Actually one of our leadership team members that made the call to drain the septic tank. At that point, it was unfortunately when we discovered the child's body," added DeLoach. As for how Jose ended up inside the tank, authorities believe that the boy had stepped onto the plywood which had become rotten. This caused the child to fall into the septic tank and die.
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The toddler was last seen outside his home in Crescent City, which is situated approximately an hour from Daytona Beach. That day he was playing with his sister when his mother briefly took the girl inside to clean her up. But when she returned to the backyard, her son was nowhere to be found according to the Putnam County Sheriff's Office,
The toy truck the boy has been playing with was also present in the yard but the child was gone. On Monday, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office confirmed that they had been tirelessly searching for the boy. They had employed drones, night-vision tools, bloodhounds, and helicopters to this end. Ultimately when he was found in the septic tank, the Sheriff's Office said that they did not suspect any foul play but shared that the investigation was still open, reports PEOPLE.
"We were praying for him," said Albert Gutierrez who is the pastor of Iglesia Internacional JesuCristo Es El Senor. "Church was praying, hoping everything was okay but they thought maybe it was a kidnapping, but it didn’t happen." Pastor Gutierrez revealed that Jose's mother had recently moved to Florida from Central America before the tragedy happened.
"She came from Honduras a little over a year ago I guess. Because she got pregnant, her husband was here. She had a baby. So it was roughly about a year. Horrible for this family. Yes. There’s no words," he shared. Meanwhile, Attorney Kay Harper Williams, who represented the family of a 3-year-old boy who died after drowning in an unsecured septic tank back in 2017, in Jacksonville park said, "This is another completely preventable tragedy."
Williams explained how simple actions can prevent such deaths from happening across the country. "If it is true that the septic tank opening was covered with plywood, that would not meet any standards and it should have minimally had a high-density plastic cover and those covers are less than 50 bucks," she noted.
Cover image source: YouTube Screenshot | News4JAX
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