Detective Inspector Victoria Short, who is leading the investigation, said: “We deployed our full resources with officers searching throughout the night to find Conley and we are deeply saddened by this tragic development”.
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Mrs Fraser went to the construction site where his body was found to pay tribute to her grandson.
This morning his school had made a public appeal for information about his disappearance.
“He played with all the kids in the area”.
Relatives said they believed the youngster had slipped into a plastic pipe in a trench and become trapped. I’m telling you they should have found that bairn [boy] last night.
Police said: ‘Conley is white and has very short mousey brown coloured hair and blue eyes.
John Wright, a neighbour, said that he had spoken to police looking for the seven-year-old and told them to search the building site and the schoolboy had previously been warned about playing there.
“I just can’t believe it, it’s so sad”.
He is believed to have left the park at 8pm to return home but never arrived.
“People have been writing things on Facebook like “Rest In Peace”.
Peter Taylor, manager of Security Guards UK, said the company was no longer employed on the site at Bank End Road in Worsbrough near Barnsley although its signs remained. “I hate to think what his little mind was going through”, Deborah Fraser told BBC News.
“I often see him playing about on the street”.
“How can someone not be there then suddenly be there”.
Derek Mann, a 50-year-old local resident, said: “Kids around here have been playing on the construction site during the summer holidays”.
“His family have been informed and they are being supported by specialist officers”. You know it was raining, he slipped and went straight down.
He went on: “The construction site, where Conley was sadly discovered by construction workers this morning, was checked by officers during the hours of darkness and found to be securely locked with a large perimeter fence”.
“We were employed on the site until July 16”.
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South Yorkshire Police said they are increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of the boy, who is believed to have left the park at around 8pm.
