More than 40 FBI agents and personnel are on the ground in Georgia assisting in the search for 20-month-old Quinton Simon, who has been missing since last week, according to police.
The toddler was reported missing Wednesday morning from his home in an unincorporated part of Chatham County near Savannah.
The Chatham County Police Department requested the FBI's help the day the toddler was reported missing, Chief Jeffrey Hadley said at a news conference on Monday.
"We do believe with the continued assistance of the FBI, we'll have a resolution in this case," he said. "We understand that people far beyond Chatham County have become emotionally invested in this incident and the search for Quinton and they want answers. We're committed to finding those answers and we are committed to finding Quinton."
Although officials initially said no foul play was suspected, Hadley said it's possible the toddler's disappearance could become a criminal investigation.
"We don’t have anything confirmed so we can’t say anything absolute, but it is fair to say that in our efforts — and the cooperation with the FBI and them providing an abundance of resource to us — that we are looking at the criminal investigation aspect of it as well," he said.
Hadley went on to say that "everybody is being looked at, everybody is being interviewed," including anyone who had contact with the young child ahead of his disappearance.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Hadley said Quinton’s mother’s boyfriend woke up at 6 a.m. and reported seeing him at that time.
“Mother woke up at some other time later and reported the child missing at 9:39,” the chief said last week. The boy’s biological father, who was not named, “was not near him during the time of his disappearance."
The child’s mother and her boyfriend have been working with detectives, Hadley said Wednesday.
No suspects or persons of interest have been named as of Monday and there’s no evidence to suggest Quinton didn’t walk off, police said. Exhaustive searches of a geographic area within wandering distance — including a pond, drainage pipes, dumpsters, nearby woods — have turned up nothing.
