Authorities confirm that the body found in the creek is missing



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A body found in a creek last week was identified as that of Maddox Ritch, a 6-year-old boy with special needs who went missing in North Carolina, authorities said Monday.

"We are deeply saddened to learn that the body found by investigators on Thursday would be Maddox Ritch," said Gastonia Police Chief Robert Helton in a statement.

"Hundreds of people have been searching for this child tirelessly and our work continues to answer all questions about his tragic death," he added.

Picture: Maddox Ritch
Maddox Ritch.Gastonia Police Department

Gastonia police said in a statement that the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner's Office had confirmed that the body found in Long Creek, near the park where the boy had last been seen, had been identified as Maddox.

The results of the autopsy were not yet complete and the investigators were still trying to determine Maddox's movements and how he ended up in the creek, the statement said.

"The results of the autopsy and the death certificate have been left unresolved," Fish Fish, an investigator at the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner's Office told Fish.

Maddox, autistic and nonverbal, disappeared at Rankin Lake Park in Gastonia on September 22, police said. He had been last seen by his father and another adult.

The body was found partially submerged in the creek by a member of a team of 15 researchers, authorities said. The stream was about two to three feet deep, according to authorities.

The FBI and a score of agencies had been striving to locate it. Researchers traveled more than 1,400 acres in and around the park on weekends when he was missing.

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