Human remains found by farmer looking for Iowa boy missing since May

The remains of a teenager were discovered Thursday by a farmer in rural Iowa, along with clothing that matched what a boy who lived in the area was last seen before disappearing in May, authorities said.

Xavior Harrelson was last seen on the morning of May 27, days before his 11th birthday, as he left his home in Montezuma for a bike ride, authorities said.

His disappearance sparked a widespread search by police and community volunteers across miles of cornfields, lakes, ravines and wilderness in Poweshiek County.

At around 2 p.m. local time on Thursday, the local sheriff’s office received a call from a farmer working in a field a few miles outside Montezuma who had discovered what they believed to be human remains, authorities said.

The remains were found in a grassy area of ​​a combined field, and the state medical examiner determined they were human and likely those of a teenager, according to Mitch Mortvedt, deputy director of the Criminal Investigation Division. from Iowa.

“We’re not saying it’s Xavior Harrelson right now,” Mortvedt told reporters during a near-stage press briefing on Thursday. “There is still a lot of work to be done on the scene here, and as you can imagine, the state medical examiner’s office and the state anthropologist still have a lot of work ahead of them in the days. and even the weeks to come. “

The remains had likely been on the ground for a “significant time”, Mortvedt said, and documenting the scene will be a “very slow and orderly process”.

The clothes found were “consistent with what we knew Xavior would last wear,” he said.

Xavior was last seen wearing a red T-shirt, blue pajama pants and black high-top shoes, according to the sheriff’s office.

His family has been contacted about the development, Poweshiek County Sheriff Thomas Kriegel told reporters. “Naturally she was upset,” he said of the boy’s mother.

The field where the remains were found had not been searched on foot before as part of the investigation, Kriegel said.

The medical examiner will work to identify the remains, a process that could take weeks, Mortvedt said. The cause and manner of death will be investigated, and “whether or not there has been a criminal act,” he said.

A reward for information in the case rose to $ 36,000.

Anyone with information or advice is urged to call the Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office at 641-623-5679.