Investigators “strongly believe” they have found the body of a missing California toddler who disappeared from his Madera home on July 14, YourCentralValley.com reports.
The parents of 2-year-old Thaddeus Sran told police they put him to sleep at about 10 p.m. that night, but when they woke the next morning, he was gone, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
Thaddeus was born prematurely and is just now learning to walk, but usually crawls to move around. He uses a feeding tube, is nonverbal, and needs “special care.”
Madera Police Chief Dino Lawson said the body was found at about 9:15 a.m. Thursday in rural Madera County just west of the city. The body cannot be definitively identified until test results come back, he said, but detectives “strongly believe” it is Thaddeus Sran.
The Fresno Bee reported on Tuesday that the boy’s parents had stopped cooperating with police in the investigation, but a family member told YourCentralValley.com that it wasn’t true but that they had hired an attorney.
Neighbor Ermelanto Espinoza told ABC 30 that the family had only been in the neighborhood a few weeks, but he never once saw the child.
“It’s all strange. I don’t think the boy was ever here. I think the alleged abduction was elsewhere because I never saw anything.”
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[Feature Photo: Thaddeus Sran/Police Handout]
