Authorities say a 3-year-old Missouri boy who was found dead hours after he was reported missing likely died of hypothermia.
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A person, who lives at the home where the van was found, spotted the child’s body around 11 a.m and called police.
Iron County Sheriff Roger Medley said police sent two dogs into the wooded area before sending in a search party of about 50 people.
Authorities had searched overnight for Titus after his family told police they feared he had gotten outside and wandered away from the home near Lake Killarney, east of Ironton.
Drew Cole said the ex-boyfriend’s father was in the house when the boy was last seen. His mom says she dropped him off at the house but when she returned, the door of the house was open and the boy was missing. His body was covered by a blanket.
Julie Hurst told us she is cousins with Titus Tackett’s mother. “He’s very intelligent, he knows how to start four wheelers so we are looking anywhere and everywhere”.
Though police said no initial indications point to foul play, there are rumors spreading online that Titus Tackett may have been murdered.
“We found him sitting in the passenger seat of my ’92 Chevy S-10 truck”, Rulo said. K9 units and Federal Bureau of Investigation helicopters were dispatched, but it was a homeowner who found Titus mid-morning on Wednesday.
Temperatures have hovered in the teens since Titus Greyson Tackett disappeared near Ironton. Officers and volunteers in the area searched for the boy.
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Other volunteers who were there along Highway 72, just outside Arcadia, when officials found the child in the van, say they can not imagine what his family is going through. Initial results from the toddler’s autopsy are expected soon after it is completed on Thursday.
