MACON, Ga. (AP) The body of an autistic 3-year-old boy was pulled from a lake in central Georgia on Sunday after a frantic search for the missing child, authorities said.
Dylan Mark Walsh was found by fire department divers about 12 feet under water in Lake Tobesofkee around 10 a.m. Sunday, Bibb County sheriff's officials said.
Searchers had been scouring the water and nearby land since Saturday night, when the boy and his father were looking at boats on a dock when the child suddenly disappeared.
People keeping vigil with Dylan's distraught father and stepmother during the search said the boy vanished in the time it took his dad to turn and shake hands with a boater letting them have a look at his vessel, The Telegraph newspaper of Macon reported.
Dylan, who would have turned 4 in October, was supposed to start school Monday at Northwoods Academy, the newspaper reported.
His teacher, Carol Gledhill, came out to the lake Sunday morning, figuring the child would be scared if he were lost all night.
Searchers were hoping he might turn up hiding somewhere.
``This is certainly not the outcome that we wanted,'' Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said.
``We were hoping someone would call us and say that he had gone home with them, or that we would find him on the shoreline somewhere OK, but tragically that was not to be in this case,'' Davis added. ``So, it's a sad ending.''
http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/8/326827/boy-3-found-in-lake-after-boat-watching-trip-with-dad