Texas tragedy: Missing toddler found dead near home

Update Saturday, March 31:

"It is with extremely heavy hearts that we have to report that little Devon Davis’ body was located Saturday in a lake near his home," reads the message from Texas Equusearch. "Please keep Devon’s families and friends in your prayers during their time of grief."

And so the tragic life of a little boy from Earlysville, Virginia, ends near his new home in Texas. According to a news source quoting the Sheriff’s spokesman for Liberty County, the death “appears accidental.”

News sources indicate that the grim discovery was made after a volunteer launched a camera-equipped, radio-controlled airplane that captured images of red– like the red of the shirt the missing boy was wearing– in the corner of a pond. The body was recovered around 1:50pm.

Update Friday, March 30, 2012:

April Davis, the mother of missing two-year-old Devon Davis, spoke to reporters and pleaded for her son's return on Friday morning, March 30 outside the Liberty County, Texas home where she, her husband Michael Davis, and their two children had been staying since relocating from Earlysville last week.

Searchers had continued searching the wooded, swampy, and alligator-infested area with no sign of the child, who disappeared after his mother reportedly put him and his one-year-old sister down for a nap, then fell asleep herself. According to news reports, an upstairs window was open, and two doors to Davis' Jeep were ajar. The front door, which she reported deadbolting before falling asleep, had also been opened.

According to the Houston Chronicle, FBI agents, using personality profilers, also re-interviewed Davis on Friday.

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Original post:

A two-year-old boy who went missing on Tuesday from his home near an alligator-infested swamp in Liberty County, Texas had lived there only a few days after moving with his parents, April and Michael Davis, from the Charlottesville area last week.

According to reports on the Cleveland Advocate website, Devon Davis, a red-haired, blue-eyed toddler, was reported missing on Tuesday afternoon by his mother, who, according to news accounts, awakened from a brief nap to find the older of her two children, who'd also been napping, missing. She reportedly told police the front door, which had been deadbolted, was found unlocked and her car doors open.

Journalist Scott Jengle with the Montgomery County Police Reporter says that investigators told him the family had just relocated from Earlysville after a friend offered the unemployed Michael Davis, reportedly a former member of Army Airborne, a job as a welder and a place to stay.

An Amber Alert was initiated March 27, with the Texas Rangers and the FBI mobilized to assist the search and investigation. Despite the high-profile help, some searchers in bayou country are not optimistic.

"If I was honest with myself right now, I'd say we're in recovery," said Tim Miller, the founder of a mounted team called Texas EquuSearch.

Miller was quoted in a local TV station's news story suggesting that hopes have dimmed over the prospect that a two-year-old could survive two nights in rough conditions that include heavy underbrush, deep water, and– in addition to the alligators– dangerous wildlife including snakes and wild boars. Searchers aren't, however, giving up hope.

"We're holding onto that miracle," Miller told the Houston NBC-affliate KPRC.

Note: Original headline: 'Texas tragedy: Missing toddler from Central Virginia