UPDATED: Missing 4-Year-Old Found Dead, Kidnapping Not Suspected

UPDATE 1 p.m.: The body of a missing 4-year-old boy was found in Mission Bay today, about 120 yards off the beach where he had last been seen, police said.

A San Diego police officer told City News Service that an earlier broadcast of a possible kidnap suspect was ”a bad lead,’’ and that police now suspect Wesley Hilaire simply drowned during a family outing by the bay.

Officer Dan Lasher said police no longer believe a kidnapping had occurred. But it was not clear if action would be taken against the child’s family, who told officers the boy had possibly been abducted, triggering an Amber Alert
across the southern part of California.

The remains were spotted about 15 hours after his tearful family described a strange man who reportedly took the child from a family gathering on eastern shore of Mission Bay Park in San Diego.

The child’s family had reported that he had last been at seen at 7:44 p.m. Saturday walking with an unfamiliar man.

A description of a man was broadcast by police, and an Amber Alert and active search was conducted from the border as far north as Orange and Riverside counties.

The child’s body wasn’t the only one found in San Diego waters today. San Diego lifeguards also found the drowned body of a 21-year-old woman in the kelp beds off Point Loma, as they searched for Hilaire.

The dead woman was found at around 9 a.m. Her name and other details were not immediately released.

UPDATE 11:40 a.m.: The body of a missing 4-year-old boy was found in Mission Bay today, 15 hours after a stranger reportedly took him from a family gathering at Mission Bay Park in San Diego.

San Diego police said Wesley Hilaire’s remains were found in the bay late in the morning.

His family had reported that he had last been at seen at 7:44 p.m. Saturday walking, with an unfamiliar man, near the water on the east side of Mission Bay.

ORIGINAL STORY

A stranger kidnapped a 4-year-old boy from a family gathering at Mission Bay Park in San Diego Saturday night, and police today extended an Amber Alert search into Orange and Riverside counties.

San Diego police said Wesley Hilaire was last seen at 7:44 p.m. Saturday walking near the water on the east side of Mission Bay, in the 2800 block of East Mission Bay Drive near the Hilton Hotel.

He is a black male with a flat top haircut and brown eyes, 4-foot-2- inches and weighing 40 pounds. Wesley was last seen wearing red shorts and no shirt, police said.

A witness told police the boy walked away with a 40-year-old black male, who was described as 6-feet tall, 235 pounds, unshaven with short black hair. The man was last seen wearing a grey T-shirt, dark blue jeans with a hole at the right knee and flip flops.

Police asked anyone with information about the boy’s whereabouts was asked to call San Diego Police at (619) 531-2000.

City News Service