Calgary Police say an 11-year-old boy who has been missing since July 16 – and whose disappearance sparked a massive search by officers and community members – has been found dead.
Calgary Police Chief Katie McLellan said the boy, Parker, was discovered on Wednesday afternoon deep in a network of pipes near one of the city’s major expressways after a citizen discovered his shoes at the mouth of a culvert near an industrial park in the city’s northeast.
“For nearly two weeks, so many people woke up hoping it would be the day Parker came home,” Chief McLellan told reporters at a late-afternoon news conference at Calgary Police headquarters.
“Instead, we are here sharing news that is heartbreaking for his family and for everyone who has been carrying that hope.”
Police said they have called off their search.
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The news marked a tragic conclusion to the sweeping search that began when the 11-year-old left what police described as his “day home” and never returned.
Since he disappeared, police had maintained foul play was unlikely and, on Wednesday, they said that they still believe he wandered off on his own volition. Parker was neurodivergent and non-verbal. “Parker experiences the world in his own way,” his family wrote in an unsigned statement previously disseminated by police.
Hundreds of police officers and thousands of Calgary residents had been searching for clues ever since he vanished. Investigators struggled to track down CCTV evidence of his most recent whereabouts and Calgary Police committed more than 400 officers to the search.
The police service had deployed aerial support, canine resources, mountain bike patrols, patrols on horseback and extensive searches of nearby waterways and railways. On the third day after Parker’s disappearance, police cruisers crawled through neighbourhoods playing Disney tracks from movies he loved, such as Frozen’s Let it Go, in their bid to get his attention.
Meanwhile, thousands of residents scoured neighbourhoods, creeks and parks for the boy and any evidence of his whereabouts. In the northeast Calgary neighbourhood where he was last seen, volunteers gathered in parking lots to strategize where they should search, and a group of locals banded together to create an organized effort to find him.
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Chief McLennan said police on Tuesday received a tip from a citizen saying they’d discovered a pair of shoes at the mouth of a culvert on the west side of Deerfoot Trail, a major expressway that runs north to south through Calgary.
The shoes resembled those Parker was last seen wearing, she said.
Calgary Police Sergeant Rich Wall said the clue pushed officers to continue down the pipe, leading them to the other side of Deerfoot Trail. That culvert, about four feet wide, split into a series of smaller pipes – between two and three feet wide – was where the boy was discovered at roughly 2:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, he said.
Sgt. Wall said the body was discovered between 450 and 500 feet into the pipes. The Calgary Fire Department’s aquatic team was pulled in to safely retrieve the body, he said.
“We’re relieved to be able to bring Parker home … we are very deflated in the fact we couldn’t find him alive, but relieved that we found him,” Sgt. Wall said.
Chief McLellan said: “Parker’s family is asking for privacy as they navigate this profound loss.”
She thanked the thousands of Calgary residents who searched for the boy. She said Parker’s family knew they were not alone in the search for their boy.
“Behind every search map, every briefing, every tip and every hour spent looking was a little boy who was deeply loved by his family.”