(UPDATED: 4:30 p.m., following press conference by Plymouth County DA Tim Cruz)
State police search teams are scouring wooded areas off Chestnut Street looking possibly for the remains of a missing 5-year-old boy from New Hampshire.
According to multiple sources, the mother of Elijah Lewis told police her son was buried in an area off Chestnut Street.
Multiple law enforcement agencies have been scouring the area all day, focusing on an area around 500 Chestnut Street, as well as the northern edge of Ames Norwell State Park. News helicopters hovering overhead captured shots of multiple State Troopers in the area, including more than a dozen cadets in formation readying to conduct a search.
“A police-related event is taking place in the area of 500 Chestnut Street; there is no public safety concern. Please avoid this area for the time being,” Abington Police wrote in a post on Facebook.
During a Friday afternoon press conference, Plymouth County District Attorney did not say what specifically brought investigators to Abington, just that it was information they received and corroborated. He did not say how the information was corroborated.
“This investigation is early and ongoing and we will go where the facts take us,” Cruz said.
Danielle Dauphinais, the boy’s mother, and Joseph Stapf have been charged with child endangerment and witness tampering.
More than 30 law enforcement officials are actively performing a grid search in the area, which consists largely of mature oak and pine trees, and dense, sometimes thorny, underbrush. Cruz said search teams would continue working until dark, and then the area would remain secured by police over night.
He would not publicly reveal exactly what searchers were looking for.
“Slow and steady wins the race and I’m confident that if that little boy is here, we’re going to find him,” Cruz said.
The N.H Division for Children, Youth, and Families reported Elijah as missing to police earlier this month. Investigators say the boy was last seen about Sept. 1.
Dauphinais and Stapf were arrested Sunday in New York and brought back to New Hampshire, where law enforcement has been looking for the boy for days. Police say the couple both asked people to lie about where the boy was living, knowing that investigators were looking for him.
It is not immediately clear what connection, if any, Dauphinais or Stapf have to the Abington area.
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