A 12-year-old nonverbal boy, who disappeared from his New Orleans home in mid-August, was found dead following an alligator attack, as per the local authorities. Bryan Vasquez, the young boy, was reported to have drowned after sustaining blunt force trauma during the attack. The announcement was made by New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick during a press conference on Wednesday.
Vasquez was reported missing on August 14 after he was seen climbing out of his bedroom window at 5 a.m. His body was found nearly two weeks later, bearing severe injuries, in a lagoon in the city’s Michoud neighborhood. The discovery has left the community and the boy’s family in deep grief, Kirkpatrick acknowledged.
The police superintendent also revealed that the investigation into the boy’s death is ongoing. She expressed her concern over the fact that the police allegedly did not respond to a 911 call about the missing boy for five hours. This delay has prompted an internal investigation.
While Kirkpatrick admitted that she did not have all the facts, she stated that the five-hour delay seemed inordinate. She also mentioned that the police had obtained a search warrant for the cell phones of the boy’s parents, but she downplayed its significance, stating that it could “mean nothing.”
Less than an hour after Vasquez’s disappearance, he was seen on security footage wandering outside in only a diaper. The United Cajun Navy, a volunteer emergency response group, used a drone team to locate the boy. The search was hampered and complicated by several environmental conditions, according to Todd Terell, president of the group.
The investigation has now shifted from a missing persons case to an unclassified death investigation. In response to the tragic incident, Kirkpatrick has requested the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to exterminate the lagoon of “nuisance alligators” and bring in hunters to control the population.