Xavior Harrelson missing Montezuma Iowa boy, 11, enters one week mark as authorities have yet to locate child who vanished while riding his bike near the family home.
Concern for the whereabout of a missing 11 year old Iowa boy has led to the FBI now joining that state’s effort in trying to locate the child who enters his seventh day of last being seen.
Xavior Harrelson disappeared while riding his bike near his Montezuma family home on May 27, according to the Associated Press. The boy according to reports lives with his ‘disabled’ mother and is considered her caretaker and was unlikely to have ‘run away.’
At the time of his disappearance, Xavier — according to a news release — was wearing a red T-shirt, blue pajama pants and black high-top shoes. The boy is described as being 4 feet, 8 inches tall, weighing 100 pounds and having brown hair and blue eyes. Harrelson was 10 years old when he went missing.
As efforts to find the missing boy ramped up, police over the Memorial Day long weekend asked community members to search their properties and home security systems for any sign of the boy, as dogs, drones and dive teams reportedly aided in the rescue effort, 60 miles east of Des Moines.
‘I won’t stop looking for that little boy. Just hoping that good news is brought and [he is] returned to us safe. He’s such a happy little boy,’ family friend Samantha Rix told via CBS News.
Accident while riding bike?
Harrelson disappeared before his 11th birthday, and his case has become more dire by the day, officials reportedly said.
‘At the end of last week, there’s kind of a cold snap. And when it gets down into the 30s, of course, then you’re thinking hypothermia,’ said Mitch Mortvedt, the assistant director with the division of criminal investigation for the Iowa Department of Public Safety according to CBSNews.
‘We’re holding out hope,’ Mortvedt reiterated. ‘We have nothing to indicate anything other than that.’
Along with searching local neighborhoods and other homes in Montezuma, officials searched Diamond Lake Park. Two dive teams were dispatched to searched the lake, Mortvedt said. Airplanes, drones, all-terrain vehicles, horses and dogs have also been used, he said.
Or foul play?
‘We know that kids often go out there on bikes and trails,’ Mortvedt explained.
An Amber Alert was not issued after Harrelson’s disappearance because it is not believed to be a criminal incident, Mortvedt said. The boy’s disappearance is considered a missing child case, he said.
A candlelight vigil was held in Montezuma for the youth on Sunday, which was his 11th birthday. KCCI reported that dozen of people attended and they prayed for his safe return.
Montezuma in located about 10 miles south of Interstate Highway 80 in Poweshiek County, in eastern Iowa. There are about 1,500 people who live in Montezuma, according to the 2010 census.
Authorities have declined to say if they suspected foul play.
