Amber Alert Canceled as Body of Missing Child Is Found

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.

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

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.

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.

City News Service