Search for toddler ends tragically

A Poplar Bluff toddler, who wandered away from his home, died Saturday after being found unresponsive in a creek.

Butler County Coroner Andy Moore confirmed the child died, but is not releasing any further information about his death out of privacy for the family.

The Butler County Sheriff’s Department was notified just after 5 p.m. Saturday by the parent(s) of a “3-year-old autistic child (who) had disappeared from the residence” in the 200 block of County Road 646, said Chief Deputy Wes Popp. It is not known at this time how the child got out of the home.

The child, he said, had been missing about 20 minutes when authorities were contacted.

“They had seen him on video surveillance outside the house,” Popp said. “ ... They had started looking for him and couldn’t find him.”

Popp said deputies, as well as investigators, responded to assist family members and neighbors in the search for the toddler. Also joining the search were Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers.

The search, he said, was made on foot.

“We couldn’t get anything up in the air because of the weather,” he said.

With it turning dark, “it was a slow process on the search,” said Popp.“ ... They ended up locating him ... in a creek unresponsive.”

The residence had a “couple of houses on either side of it and a lot of woods behind it, and that’s where he headed off to,” said Popp, who indicated the creek was not “that far” from the house.

Once the boy was found at about 7:30 p.m., Popp, who was at the residence, contacted emergency-medical-services personnel.

The boy was taken to Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center.

“They couldn’t bring him back,” Popp said.