Search for missing 3-year-old boy in Lowell expands

LOWELL – A desperate search for a missing 3-year-old boy in Lowell expanded as it entered a second day Wednesday.

The boy, who police have only identified as Harry K. from Lowell, went missing from his babysitter’s house on Freda Lane in the Pawtucketville section of the city Tuesday.

Investigators said the boy was dropped off at the home in the morning. A neighbor saw him playing in the yard around 9:15 a.m. About 15 minutes later, the babysitter called 911 to report Harry was missing.

“We have a very narrow window of when he went missing,” Carlisle Police Chief John Fisher, the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council control chief, told reporters Wednesday morning. Fisher said this was Harry’s fifth visit with the babysitter and that it appears he walked out the door on his own. The babysitter was also watching one other child at the time, Fisher said.

Two different police dogs picked up Harry’s scent, both heading in the same direction towards the woods behind the house. Harry was last seen wearing a long-sleeve maroon shirt and gray pants with a white stripe on them.

“Every minute he’s missing is a concern, to me, to us, to everybody involved,” Fisher said. “But we’re not going to stop. There’s just no reason to believe we should slow down or stop.”

Police do not suspect foul play and are treating it as a search for a lost child. Fisher said they started the search at the home and expanded it out in all directions Wednesday into a nearby state forest and Tyngsboro. About 200 people are involved and Fisher added that the FBI’s Boston office has offered to help as well.

“The reason there’s no Amber alert is there’s no reason to believe there’s a crime,” Fisher said, adding that the family has been very cooperative.

About 180 officers from several police departments searched the entire area all day Tuesday. People who live in the neighborhood were asked to check their surveillance video, doorbell cameras, property and cars.

“We don’t have him on video,” Fisher said Wednesday, noting that the boy’s size might not set off a doorbell camera. “We have the footage, we don’t have him on it.”

No new leads were reported overnight. Multiple police K-9 units from Lowell, the Middlesex Sheriff’s Department, Billerica and Wakefield joined in the search just after sunrise Wednesday.

Massachusetts State Police tweeted that 11 of their K-9 teams were involved, along with a drone unit, 20 troopers from their search and rescue unit, four mounted patrols and three divers to go through wetlands and swamps.

Police have been searching the trunks of every car that comes down Freda Lane, which is a dead end street, and talking with the drivers. They’ve also drained pools in the neighborhood.

Anyone who believes they have seen him is urged to call 911 or Lowell Police at (978) 937-3200.