HAMPTON, Va. – As police and community members continue to search for Codi Bigsby, local businesses in the Downtown Hampton area are trying to do their part.
Walking down main street in Phoebus, the fliers are hard to miss. They’re posted in widows of small businesses like the coffee house and pub on S. Mallory Street.
“We just want to do anything we can to get the word out,” said 1865 Brewing Co. GM Monet Mickles.
About a block up at Fuller’s Raw Bar, workers are also spreading the word, asking locals if they know and when they’ve last seen 4-year-old Codi and his father, Cory Bigsby, who’s the main person of interest in Codi's disappearance.
“Unfortunately, when anything like this happens, it’s kind of all anybody talks about,” said Benjamin Brummett, who is a waiter at Fuller’s Raw Bar. “Everybody hopes the kid is found. We hurt for the family.”
Codi has been missing since Monday.
The multi-agency search for the little boy has now expanded beyond the one-mile radius of his home in the Buckroe Pointe community where his 43-year-old father said he last saw him.
Cory now sits behind bars. He was charged Thursday with child neglect for his four kids.
“It’s a really tough situation,” said Brummett. “Everybody’s pretty upset about it.”
Brummett is a father himself of two little girls, Ava, 6, and Caroline, 7.
“I absolutely couldn’t imagine having something like this happen; I don’t know what I would do,” Brummett said. “I just hope everything’s okay. I hope he gets found safe.”
Hope is what this tight-knit community is holding onto.
“I guess that’s all you can do is keep the faith and keep hoping until you’re proven otherwise,” said Monet Mickles.
Police have asked anyone, including local business owners, to check their surveillance footage and share any information on where Codi and Cori Bigsby might have last been seen.
Related: Community grows weary, wants answers in Codi Bigsby case
