VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Various community members gathered Monday night to mourn the loss of Juan Sebastian Mejia Acevedo, a missing boy whose body was recovered from a pond by a Virginia Beach apartment earlier in the day.
A vigil for Acevedo was held at 6 p.m., hours after police confirmed they recovered the 12-year-old's body while searching for him around 1 p.m. They had been searching for the boy for over 72 hours.
Police say they recovered Acevedo's body from a pond near the Cambria at Cornerstone apartments off South Independence Boulevard. The pond is near the 200 block of Mica Avenue — the address where police say Acevedo was last seen by his parents Friday morning.
Watch: Body recovered in pond is missing 12-year-old boy
Police didn't elaborate further on the circumstances surrounding Acevedo's death, but VBPD Chief Neudigate said he thinks the ice that formed during the recent cold weather "played a big role."
VBPD says for roughly 72 hours, they deployed "every possible resource" including hundreds of officers, bloodhounds and drones in their search for the boy.
Acevedo was first reported missing Friday night, police say. His parents believed he was at a friend's house, but they called police around 9 p.m. when he hadn't returned home.
No cause of death was provided, but police said they are investigating the circumstances.
Police started investigating Acevedo's disappearance as a possible abduction after his parents received a troubling message: News 3 learned that while his parents were on Facebook Live spreading awareness about their son's disappearance, they received a ransom request for their child via WhatsApp. After learning of this, VBPD treated the case as an abduction and contacted state police to send an AMBER Alert, which was issued on Saturday around 7 a.m.
Chief Neudigate said while it's possible the ransom was a scam, not treating it as an actual threat or kidnapping would be negligent. He added that the ransom is still part of VBPD's investigation.
Police say it's too early to tell if they'll open a homicide investigation or if Acevedo's death will be ruled accidental. His body is being sent to the medical examiner’s office to determine a cause of death.
“It’s too early for me to speculate… We just recovered him. As we get more information and we can confirm facts and not what we believe occurred, we will get that out to the community," Neudigate said.
News 3 has a crew at tonight's vigil. This article will be updated accordingly.
