In Vance County, authorities have ended their search with the heartbreaking discovery of a 2-year-old boy's body retrieved from Kerr Lake. The young child was pronounced dead after being reported missing from a property near the lake. The initial call to the Vance County Sheriff’s Office came shortly after 2 p.m. yesterday, alerting them to a potentially missing child in the area of the 90 block of Water Front Drive in Henderson, as reported by CBS 17.
Family members disclosed to deputies that they had last seen the child playing in the yard before he vanished, prompting a call to the sheriff’s office about 20 minutes later. Having conducted an extensive search of the house and surrounding premises without success, law enforcement officials and first responders expanded their efforts to the waters of Kerr Lake, approximately 100 yards from where the child had been seen last. According to information from ABC11, the ensuing operation drew support from multiple agencies, utilizing underwater drones and water rescue technologies.
The grim discovery was made around 5:18 p.m. when the submerged body of a the child was located by rescue teams. The effort to recover the young boy from the lake was eventually successful, with units on site able to retrieve his body from the water. The Vance County Sheriff's Office, while withholding the identity of the child pending family notification, offered their "most sincere condolences and prayers for the family," in a news release obtained by WRAL.
The tragic incident unified a host of local and state agencies in the search, including the Henderson Police Department, Vance County Rescue, and the Fire, EMS departments, as well as the sheriff’s offices from the neighboring counties of Granville, Franklin, and Warren. The North Carolina State Highway Patrol, State Parks, Wake Forest Fire Department, and the REDS Team from Garner also played a roles in the operation.
