Physique of lacking Virginia Seashore boy pulled from pond as thriller deepens
The physique of a Virginia Seashore boy reported lacking final week was pulled from a pond Monday, three days after his mother and father received a ransom demand which will have been only a twisted cash seize.
Juan Sebastian Mejia Acevedo, 12, was discovered lifeless within the native pond Monday afternoon, after his mother and father known as police Friday night time and mentioned the boy by no means got here dwelling from a good friend’s home, in line with CBS 6 Richmond.
Cops investigated the case as a attainable abduction after the mother and father received a ransom message throughout a Fb Reside plea they made that night time, and the state police issued an AMBER alert round 7 a.m. the following day.
The household mentioned it paid the $500 demand however by no means heard again from the alleged kidnappers, Virginia Seashore Police Chief Paul Neudigate mentioned.
It’s attainable that the ransom request was a fraud, the chief mentioned — an try by unscrupulous actors to benefit from a household throughout their darkest hour.
“This may not be the primary time that that kind of rip-off has been perpetuated on a household that’s going via troublesome circumstances,” the chief mentioned. “Is {that a} chance? It completely is.
“Sadly, as a result of it concerned out-of-state transactions, we want search warrants, subpoenas, to attempt to establish who that particular person was who obtained that cash,” the chief mentioned.
On Monday afternoon, authorities discovered Acevedo’s corpse in a pond close to the Cambria at Cornerstone residences off South Independence Boulevard — not removed from the Mica Avenue handle the place his mother and father final noticed him, the outlet mentioned.
It’s too quickly to inform if police will open a murder investigation or rule the dying unintended, authorities mentioned.
“It’s too early for me to take a position,” Neudigate mentioned. “We simply recovered him. As we get extra info and we are able to verify info — and never what we consider occurred — we’ll get that out to the group.”
“We had no particular indication that these ponds had been an space of curiosity, however we didn’t wish to depart any stone unturned.”
The boy’s physique was despatched to the health worker to find out a reason behind dying.
