By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-09-23 17:22:54 | Updated at 2024-09-30 13:35:07
6 days ago
A little boy who wandered unnoticed out of a school breakfast club into the Canadian wilderness has been found dead after a four-day search.
A security camera caught Johnson Redhead pushing open a door of his school in the fly-in community of Shamattawa, north-east Manitoba at 9am on Wednesday.
But the alarm was not raised until 12.30pm when the non-verbal six-year-old failed to arrive for a class at Kisemattawa Kiskinwahamakewikamik School
Hundreds of people joined a round-the-clock search, including his uncle Rusty Redhead before the boy was found dead in a marshy area nearly three miles away on Sunday evening.
'Thanks everyone for praying for my nephew Johnson,' he wrote on Sunday night. 'We are so lost and hurt I can't even sleep.'
Johnson Redhead was found dead in the woods on Sunday night, four days after he vanished
Johnson's uncle, Rusty Redhead, was one of hundreds of volunteers to took part in the search
Members the Canadian Rangers flew in to assist with the search for the boy from the Shamattawa First Nation community along with officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and volunteers from Winnipeg Volunteer Search and Rescue.
Part of the search focused around a gravel pit to the west of the village where the the boy had previously been seen and where footprints were found soon after he disappeared.
RCMP Sergeant Paul Manaigre said the door he pushed through 'kind of leads him in the direction of the nursing station, which is just to the west'.
Manaigre became emotional as he spoke of meeting the boy's parents on Friday.
'She was hopeful that we're going to have some results. That was hard seeing her,' he told CBC.ca.
'It puts the human side of it. It's a six-year-old boy. You got to find him.'
Cree Nation search teams joined the hunt as drones equipped with infrared cameras and a police helicopter flew overhead.
Searchers concentrated on examining vehicles, equipment and 'anything he could fit into' in case the boy was hiding or trapped inside.
'Family is not giving up and they just wanna be out there,' wrote Johnson's aunt Sheila Reigns in a Facebook post on Saturday night.
'They won't come home yet, until they found him. Let's not give up. I know it's getting exhausting and tiring.'
Johnson, center, with his young relatives before his disappearance on Wednesday
The six-year-old disappeared after pushing open a door of his school in the fly-in community of Shamattawa, north-east Manitoba at 9am on Wednesday
Volunteers camped out in the woods as the four-day search continued around the clock
'It's a six-year-old boy,' said Sgt Paul Manaigre of the RCMP. 'You got to find him.'
'Only god knows where you are,' wrote another aunt Olivia Wallen.
'I could still hear you crying from two days ago inside the woods.
'Me and everyone are not gonna give up on you till you are found. Baby boy I love you so much my nephew. Please lord help us️.'
But on Sunday night came the news everybody had been dreading as the body of the little boy was found, still wearing the blue hoodie with a grey hood he had disappeared in.
'It is with great sadness that we share the following information on the search for Johnson Redhead,' the RCMP revealed in a Sunday night post on their Facebook page.
'Earlier this evening, at 7.45pm, searchers located 6-year-old Johnson deceased. His body was found in a marshy area, approximately 3.5km from the school where he was last seen.
'We extend our deepest condolences to his family, the community of Shamattawa First Nation, and to everyone grieving his loss.'
Family members who took part in the search revealed they came within feet of covering the place where he was finally found.
'My heart is shattered to pieces,' wrote Wallen.
'I was close to finding him but I'm so sorry I couldn't find you baby nephew.'
