DNA match to missing boy in case of toddler found dismembered
CHICAGO --The DNA of a toddler found dismembered in a Chicago lagoon in September matches missing boy Kyrian Knox, reports CBS Chicago.
DNA was taken from the mother of the two-year-old Rockford boy, and police announced Wednesday that it matched DNA taken from the child's remains, reports the Chicago Tribune. Knox was reported missing in mid-September, but Rockford police said at the time they believed the the boy hadn't been seen since mid-August, reports the paper. Rockford Police said at the time they did not believe that Knox was abducted and was last seen in the care of a family friend, the station reports.
The department had no immediate comment Wednesday, reports the paper.
The FBI lab in Quantico confirmed the DNA match, Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. The Cook County medical examiner's office will make an official identification once it receives the DNA results and reviews them, reports the paper.
"What'll happen now is, we will communicate these results to the medical examiner's office," Guglielmi told the station. "This will be formally classified as a death investigation and we will work very hard to determine how Kyrian died and how he became dismembered and put into a lagoon in Chicago."
The badly decomposed remains were found in a lagoon in Chicago's Garfield Park over Labor Day weekend. Police reportedly drained the lagoon and discovered the head, hands, and feet of the child, but not the torso.
Rockford investigators contacted Chicago police about a possible connection to Knox in late September, reports the paper.
"My heart is hurting right now," the child's grandmother Cameshia Harris told the paper Wednesday evening. "We're processing the information as a family that we were given today. The family is together and we are trying to wrap our minds over it."