By Jason M. Rodriguez
The Sun News
LITTLE RIVER, S.C. — A somber silence fell upon a community of more than 200 volunteers Friday at 11 a.m. as word spread that Jayden Morrison’s body had been found in a nearby pond.
The humming of an Horry County Mobile Command Center and a Brunswick County (N.C.) Mobile Command Center stopped. The buzzing of search drones ceased. The splashing of a fountain in the retention pond ended. With that, the hopes of search crews who traveled from North Carolina and as far as Columbia were silenced.
The 4-year-old autistic boy, known only to his White Plains, N.Y., family, yet cared for in recent days by hundreds of Grand Strand volunteers who trekked through yards and undeveloped areas in the Hidden Lakes subdivision, was found, but not the way anyone wanted. His trip with family to visit his grandmother for the holidays turned into a nightmare.
“It wasn’t the outcome we were hoping for,” said Lt. Jamie DeBari, deputy commander of the central precinct for Horry County police, to a group of volunteers. “Please keep Jayden and his family in your prayers.”
Carolyn Sumpter, Jayden’s grandmother, said very little after the discovery.
“We’re just distraught,” Sumpter told the New York Daily News. “We lost our baby.”
Horry County Coroner Robert Edge said Friday’s autopsy determined Jayden died from drowning, which is a leading cause of death for a child or adult who has autism, according to Autism Speaks, an autism advocacy group.
The search and discovery
Jayden was noticed missing shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday night. Sumpter noticed the front door was open and Jayden was missing. Search crews scoured a half-mile radius around Sumpter’s house on Christmas Day.
Those crews included Randy Searls, handler for his 20-month-old Dutch shepherd cadaver search dog Jorga. The two are with Wilmington, N.C.-based I & I International K9 Search and Rescue Team, and walked with Andre Morrison, Jayden’s father, on Christmas night as Morrison searched for his son.
As the sun barely peeked above homes Friday morning near Sultana Drive, around Secondary Highway 111 and Horseshoe Road off of U.S. 17, Searls walked Jorga around the perimeter of a fog-covered pond behind the homes, across the street from Sumpter’s house.
Jorga hopped in and out of the pond water, often going belly deep, alerting Searls to a scent near the edge of the pond.
“She directed them to the area where they needed to search,” Searls said. “She had a change in behavior. She didn’t actually indicate because the water hadn’t been stirred yet, but she knew there was a difference of odor.”
Watch Jorga in action here.
Nearly two dozen police officers strolled the edge of the pond Friday with high-powered flashlights at 7 a.m. searching for clues that might lead to the missing boy.
A drone took to the sky and hummed above homes as daylight lit an otherwise quiet neighborhood. It was on a pre-mapped route and relayed images back to a laptop in an Horry County vehicle. More than two dozen Horry County police vehicles lined the winding main road of the subdivision. Patrolmen rotated in and out of the county’s mobile command unit as area assignments were issued Friday.
At 7:35 a.m., the first two passenger vans filled with volunteer searchers were dropped off at the county’s command center. The next two vans arrived at 7:50 a.m.
Volunteers were separated into groups of between five and 10 people and led by Horry County officers. They were given specific neighborhood areas to search with the officers. The volunteers were to search the perimeters of homes as officers knocked on doors asking to search homes with a one-mile radius of Sumpter’s home.
“You have to think like a child,” county police officers reminded each volunteer group.
Law enforcement came Friday from the State Law Enforcement Division, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, as well as from Darlington County, and even Brunswick County, N.C., which provided another mobile command unit and a heat-censored helicopter.
Divers indicated Thursday there was no sign of Jayden in the ponds surrounding Sumpter’s house after various types of equipment was used.
Lt. Raul Denis of the Horry County Police Department said it wasn’t until the water level of the pond, which is equipped with drainage ability, was lowered that they were able to find Jayden.
“We had all different kinds of equipment used on the pond, but sometimes things don’t go as easily as you would think they would,” Raul said.
‘Behind the 8 ball’
Deaths at retention ponds occur sporadically in subdivisions. In August 2012, a 55-year-old Myrtle Beach man was found in a pond off U.S. 501. In August 2013, a 51-year-old Murrells Inlet woman was found in a pond at Salters Cover in Murrells Inlet.
Raul said the department started Jayden’s investigation “behind the 8 ball” because of the weather and its impact on the retention pond.
“The weather was particularly bad the night the child went missing,” Raul said. “We started without a trail to follow, basically.”
He said police knew Jayden couldn’t have gone far.
“The way we understand, autistic children don’t tend to travel far,” Raul said.
Jayden was found about 10 homes down from his grandmother’s house.
At around noon, Andre Morrison was surrounded by a few family members and friends as he patted and rubbed the calm waters where his son was found.
Searls is a licensed investigator, a certified anti-terrorism specialist, Homeland Security certified and trained with the U.S. Department of Justice. He and Jorga helped with the Angie Pipkin case, a 32-year-old mother found in Florence County in May, and with the Brittanee Drexel case, who disappeared from the area nearly six years ago.
“This is what we live for. This is what we do,” Searls said. “We try to do it quietly.
“I would have preferred to have done this search with five or six people, not 100. I think it would have been done much cleaner, much quicker and less disturbance to the neighborhood.”
But there was no denying the support of the community, including the American Red Cross and others. Hundreds of search team members as well as businesses such as Eagle Chase Golf Club, Gymnastics & More, Mama Jeans Restaurant, and Gary’s Pumping Service reached out to help.
No matter how many helped, it’s the outcome Searls wished was most different.
“We’re always happier when people come to help,” Searls said. “It would have been much better if the outcome was different.”
©2014 The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)