A search for a missing 5-year-old boy in Tennessee turned into a homicide investigation Saturday after authorities arrested his father.
Joe Clyde Daniels’ parents reported him missing Wednesday, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. It issued an Endangered Child Alert as hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officers frantically searched near Joe’s home in Dickson, Tennessee.
“After a three-day search, it was determined that the child’s father, Joseph Daniels, intentionally killed his son sometime during the night of April 3-4, in their residence and then hid his son’s body,” the TBI said.
The boy’s father confessed to killing his son, Dickson County Sheriff Jeff Bledsoe said.
TBI agents arrested the father Saturday and charged him with one count of criminal homicide. Daniels is being held at the local jail on a $1 million bond. Information on his attorney was not immediately available.
Joe had autism and was nonverbal, according to CNN affiliate WZTV.
Search crews brought in helicopters to draw out the boy, who’s a fan of big machines.
“Driving the roads, we’ve been out on foot … doing everything we can … to try and find this little boy,” search volunteer Amanda Curtis said. “We searched and searched, and unfortunately it come up to a bad ending.”
Details surrounding the boy’s death remain unknown, but authorities said a search for his body is ongoing.
The community will hold a candlelight vigil and prayer service for Joe on Sunday night in Dickson, which is about 40 miles west of Nashville.
