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The last time Ian Ritch saw his six-year-old son, he ran and laughed at Rankin Lake Park, Ritch told Good Morning America in a recorded interview on Tuesday.
Maddox Ritch has not been seen since Saturday noon, when he disappeared during a visit to Gastonia Park with his father and another adult, according to the Gastonia police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
"I just want my son to be home," Ian Ritch told a press conference Wednesday afternoon, according to a press release from Gastonia's police. "It's torture."
Ritch thanked the hundreds of volunteers who helped find his son.
Maddox's mother, father, and friend who visited the park with Ian Ritch "fully cooperate with the investigation," according to a Gastonia Police press release released Wednesday night.
Just after 2:30 pm on Saturday, a park employee called 911 to say that a child had been missing for nearly an hour. Park employees, the boy's father and the other adult had searched unsuccessfully during this time, said the employee.
In the 911 call, which was issued Wednesday morning by the Gastonia police, the employee said that Maddox's father had last seen him near the park's jetty. According to the Gastonia Parks and Recreation website, the park has two fishing wharves and an "observation pier" in Rankin Lake.
Officials announced that the park had been closed on Sunday due to the search and that it had been closed ever since.
At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Ian Ritch said Maddox had started running after spotting a jogger on the trail around the lake. Usually, he said, Maddox would slow down and give his father time to catch up, but this time he became out of sight.
Ritch said he had a little trouble running because of diabetes and neuropathy, and was running after Maddox but did not find him.
Maddox, who suffers from autism, reads and talks all the time at home, his father said "Good Morning America".
Maddox goes to school in Concord, said his father at the press conference.
Gastonia Police Chief Robert Helton said the officials still wanted to talk to anyone who was going to the park on Saturday. He said he was particularly interested in talking with a male jogger and with a man wearing a camouflage hat who was loading a silver kayak into a newer white four-door pickup truck. The truck had oversized tires and running boards on the side, and the man was talking on the phone, the police said.
"He can be a valuable witness and we need him to call us," Helton said in a Gastonia Police press release on Wednesday night.
On Tuesday, Helton asked a professional photographer to introduce himself and on Wednesday, he said that this person had spoken with investigators.
On Wednesday, 150 researchers in teams of 15, including the FBI response team, walked the area near the park, Gastonia police said. Qualified researchers have entered sewers, drainage ditches, outbuildings and neighboring homes, police said.
Police said extreme weather could hamper searches Wednesday night.
Sixty-seven other investigators, agents, analysts and other law enforcement agents joined the search on Wednesday, bringing the total to 330, police said. Police said they follow nearly 250 tracks.
But "we are missing a very important part of our investigation," police chief Robert Helton said in Wednesday's press release. "There are people who were in the park on Saturday and for some reason who did not call us. There is an exit sheet for renting boats in the park. We got these lists and unfortunately no one who rented a boat that day has contacted us.
"Now we have to waste precious time to find them all," said Helton. "Please, call us if you were at the park on Saturday."
The FBI diving team used equipment Wednesday that was different from what had been used before to search the lake, the Gastonia police said, without detailing the new equipment.
"We want to make sure we use all the tools available to do extensive research on the lake," the police press release said. "It is still emptying, which will soon make impossible the launching of large boats."
The city of Gastonia held candlelight vigil for Maddox Wednesday evening.
The Gastonia police asked everyone who came to Rankin Lake Park Saturday to call 704-869-1075.
Jane Wester: 704-358-5128, @janewester
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