The physique of a Virginia Seashore boy reported lacking final week was pulled from a pond Monday, three days after his mother and father acquired 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 stated the boy by no means got here dwelling from a pal’s home, based on CBS 6 Richmond.
Cops investigated the case as a potential abduction after the mother and father acquired a ransom message throughout a Fb Dwell plea they made that night time, and the state police issued an AMBER alert round 7 a.m. the subsequent day.
The household stated it paid the $500 demand however by no means heard again from the alleged kidnappers, Virginia Seashore Police Chief Paul Neudigate stated.
It’s potential that the ransom request was a fraud, the chief stated — an try by unscrupulous actors to make the most of a household throughout their darkest hour.
“This would not be the first time that that type of scam has been perpetuated on a family that is going through difficult circumstances,” the chief stated. “Is {that a} risk? It completely is.
“Unfortunately, because it involved out-of-state transactions, we need search warrants, subpoenas, to try to identify who that individual was who received that money,” the chief stated.
On Monday afternoon, authorities discovered Acevedo’s corpse in a pond close to the Cambria at Cornerstone flats off South Independence Boulevard — not removed from the Mica Avenue deal with the place his mother and father final noticed him, the outlet stated.
It’s too quickly to inform if police will open a murder investigation or rule the loss of life unintended, authorities stated.
“It’s too early for me to speculate,” Neudigate stated. “We just recovered him. As we get more information and we can confirm facts — and not what we believe occurred — we will get that out to the community.”
“We had no specific indication that these ponds were an area of interest, but we did not want to leave any stone unturned.”
The boy’s physique was despatched to the health worker to find out a explanation for loss of life.
