A nonverbal child of New Orleans who disappeared earlier this month was found dead on Tuesday and seems to have died in part for a crocodile attack, authorities said.
The New Orleans Police Superintendent, Anne Kirkpatrick, said Wednesday that Bryan Vásquez, 12, drowned after suffering a blunt force of force of a crocodile.
His body was found in a lagoon in the city’s neighborhood of the city, Kirkpatrick said.
An investigation into the death of the child, which Kirkpatrick said he is considered “not classified,” is ongoing.
The disappearance of August 14 by Vásquez caused a frantic search and scrutiny in the police department after the revelations that the authorities did not respond to a 911 call about the child for five hours.
Kirkpatrick said Tuesday that it was not clear what caused the delay, but said he immediately requested an internal affairs investigation.
“Something is not right here,” he said about the answer.
A spokesman for Vásquez’s family told the NBC WDSU affiliate in New Orleans that the authorities obtained a search warrant of cell phones that belong to the child’s parents.
It is not clear why. Kirkpatrick said it is not “an unusual step for us to take a look at everything.”
“It can’t mean anything,” he said.
Vásquez, who had a condition of neurological development and did not understand English or Spanish, was last seen on the morning of August 14.
The child’s family told WDSU that he left the window of his room around 5 in the morning less than an hour later and is blocked from his family’s house, the security video obtained by the station showed him wandering with just an adult diaper.
Kirkpatrick said the United Cajun Marina, the voluntary emergency response group, helped lead the search team found by the child’s body.
An official of the group told him to a local television departure that the child was found by a team of drones after days of challenging conditions they stopped their efforts.
Despite the gloomy circumstances of the child’s recovery, he said: “We could bring Bryan home.”
