Alabama authorities are searching for a young autistic boy who vanished days ago.
Phenix Wilkerson, 4, has not been seen since around midday Friday, when his mother, Shyanne Ray, briefly left the family’s camper in Clayton.
Shyanne said she visited her mother’s residence nearby and left her son, who was sleeping at the time, with a friend, according to AL.com. But when Shyanne returned, Phenix was nowhere to be found.
“I came back up here and saw that the door was open. I ran in there, and he wasn’t there so I looked everywhere around the house for him and did not see him,” Shyanne told WTVY-TV.
After searching herself, Shyanne contacted police, prompting the community to come together to look for the boy. Law enforcement and volunteers have teamed up in the search, which has expanded to multiple counties.
***MISSING CHILD*** CLAYTON, AL
An Emergency Missing Child Alert was issued for a 4-year-old boy last seen in Clayton, Alabama. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the Barbour County Sheriff's Office said Phenix Wilkerson was last seen on January 12, 2024, around 12:20 p.m. in… pic.twitter.com/nDPiFQzJiH— The AWARE Foundation (@aware_the) January 13, 2024
“We have done air searches. There are three bodies of water and surrounding properties and behind that property, we have had divers in there. We have people walking the properties all the way around,” Barbour County Sheriff Tyrone Smith told WTVY-TV.
Shyanne said she is heartbroken, distraught and in shock as she endures the agony of not knowing what happened to her son.
“It’s just an empty loss in my stomach that I can’t just help my child. I don’t know where he’s at,” Shyanne told WTVM-TV. “All I can think about even now is just what’s going through his brain. Is he okay? Is he happy because he likes to be outside? He loves outside.”
Phenix is nonverbal, but he does respond to his name. He was last seen wearing gray sweatpants and a blue tie-dye shirt, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which issued an alert Friday about the boy. The child was not believed to be wearing shoes. He is approximately 3-foot-5 and has hazel eyes and auburn or red hair.
Clayton, Alabama, is about 70 miles southeast of Montgomery.
If you have information about his whereabouts, call 911 or the Barbour County Sheriff’s Office at 334-775-3434.
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[Feature Photo: Phenix Wilkerson/Alabama Law Enforcement Agency]
