It's been 29 hours since 7 year old Michael Kingbury disappeared from the backyard of his home in the 1700 block of West Virginia Ave.
Kingsbury is 7 years old, 4'3" tall,weighs about 60 lbs, and has dreadlocks. He's autistic, and doesn't speak. He was last seen (around 9-9:30am Sunday)wearing a red pull-up (disposable training pants). MPD has gone door to door on some streets, and they have been interviewing all registered sex offendors in the surrounding neighborhoods (there is no indication that Michael has met with foul play). As you can see from the map, Michael's home (oh, he's also new to the neighborhood)is kind of on the Trinidad border, but also very near Ivy City, and the Gallaudet campus. Plus, there's that weird sort of no man's land as you head towards Home Depot. Bottom line, there are a ton of places a scared kid might be hiding. Do your part (and please remind your neighbors to do the same): check your backyard, check your garage, check your shed, check your alley. Just look any place a kid like Michael might be able to climb into. Got an old car parked in the backyard? Check that too. Michael is likely in need of medical attention, and he's likely scared and hungry by this point. It's super important that everyone do what they can to help locate him quickly. I'll update if there are other ways residents can get involved in efforts to help find Michael. In the meantime, please call 911 if you think you've spotted him.
13 comments:
something suspicious about this.
I for one would be more than willing to join a canvasing group to help look for him, if that would help. I'm sure I get round up some other friends to help too.
If anyone is canvassing this evening, I will join you. Post a proposed meetup place and time here. I think meeting in the Joe Cole soccer field at Montello and Morse around 6:30 sounds fair. Anyone in?
I've never canvassed before. I have no idea how this should be done effectively.
Would we just be duplicating the efforts of police? I want to help somehow.
I would think he would be too afraid to cross Mt Olivet road, so I think he is somewhere south of there. And the family should give information about where he usually goes in the neighborhood. Does he go to church, school, a friend house? I would think that information is vital in a search effort.
This tweet went out earlier: "Anybody that would like to help the community pass out flyers and knock on door to help #FindMichaelDC meet at 6pm on W VA Ave&Mt Olivet NE." I'll embed the tweet in the updated post. You might also check in at West Virginia & Raum. Maybe they will need help later.
@Alan, I had the same questions. I would hate for a bunch of us to just show up and start looking and end up either duplicating what the police have done or somehow making it worse. I would suspect anything like that should be coordinated with the police for efficiency and safety's sake.
If any MPD reps are reading this and have ideas, please let us know how we can help out.
You might check in with MPD's temp compand center at West Virginia & Raum. They might be able to give some direction on where to flyer.
Police have it blocked off from corcoran to raum and the word on the street is they found him in a parked car. News out there etc. Hope he is ok...
not good.
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2013/07/7-year-old-michael-kingsbury-of-dc-is-missing-91065.html
NBC Washington: Body of Missing 7-Year-Old Recovered from Car
Damnit. That poor kid.
Lesson learned. We have to act on our own in the future and not wait on the police for "coordination" "efficiency" or worry about "duplicating efforts". Sad to think someone has a situation handled when they don't.
What a tragedy. Agree with pp - in the future our community needs to organize our own efforts and if we duplicate efforts of MPD - at least we will know for sure that we were thorough!!!!
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