Lt. Ray Spencer of LVMPD’s homicide section releases a sketch of the unidentified 10-year-old Hispanic boy, 4 ft 11inches and 123 pounds, who’s body was found earlier today in the desert between Las Vegas and Pahrump Friday May 28, 2021.
Published Saturday, May 29, 2021 | 12:03 p.m.
Updated Saturday, May 29, 2021 | 4:31 p.m.
A Las Vegas woman incorrectly identified a slaying victim found Friday morning in a desert on the outskirts of Las Vegas as her 8-year-old son, officials said.
The boy and his 11-year-old half brother were found safe in central Utah this afternoon with their father, about four hours after Metro Police asked for the public’s help in locating them in a multi-state search, officials said.
A panicked woman, who saw the sketch rendition of the victim, contacted police early this morning, telling them the boy who was found dead was her 8-year-old son, Lt. Ray Spencer said this afternoon.
She confirmed his identity through autopsy images, which also was purportedly reinforced when officers looked at pictures of her son, Spencer said.
“There is a very, very close resemblance when you look at these photographs,” Spencer said.
Around the time the mother filled out an affidavit with the Clark County Coroner’s Office confirming the dead boy was her son, another woman — the mother of his half brother — contacted police to say that she was worried about her 11-year-old son’s well-being because the sketch looked like his half-brother, Spencer said.
The boys shared the same father, who they left with on Thursday to spent the weekend together and were unreachable.
Spencer held a briefing this morning to share details, saying that a rare multi-state Amber Alert was being sent out. A Facebook post this morning from the 11-year-old boys mother went viral, stating that her son and his father were missing, linking both boys and their father to the homicide investigation.
But the alert was canceled after police received information that the man’s pickup truck they had been searching for was spotted in Utah, Spencer said.
Eventually, though, the boys’ father, who had spotty cell phone reception, was reached by phone and later by Utah authorities. His sons were safe with him, he said.
Asked if the misidentification development harmed the homicide investigation of the yet-to-be identified slaying victim — a Hispanic boy between the ages of 8 and 10, who stood about 4 feet, 11 inches, and weighed about 120 pounds — Spencer said that investigators didn’t stop looking for leads in that case.
“The investigation never stops,” he added.
The boy was further described as having “dark black hair.”
Metro has received hundreds of tips in that case and are working around the clock, Spencer said.
The boy’s body was found by a hiker in a “forest area” about 7:30 a.m. Friday in the community of Mountain Springs, off state Route 160, the road that connects Las Vegas to Pahrump, Spencer said.
Detectives believe he was placed there within 24 hours of when he was killed, said Spencer, who hasn’t revealed how he died, only that he “was clearly the victim of a homicide.”
