KEY POINTS

  • Several boats, K9s, drones and a helicopter were used to find the boy
  • The child was found unresponsive in a pond and was later pronounced dead
  • The sheriff's office said the boy was attracted to water but could not swim

The body of a 5-year-old child was found in a pond in Florida on Sunday morning, just hours after he was reported missing.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO) launched a search for the non-verbal boy with autism after his parents said he was missing. Authorities said Mohamad Nour most likely unlatched the lock of the front door of his home and walked outside.

Police early on Sunday described the missing child as 4 feet tall, weighing about 65 pounds. He had brown eyes and brown hair. He was last seen wearing a blue and yellow shirt and a pull-up diaper.

Several units from the police department and the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department assisted in the search, Action News Jax reported. A door-to-door search for the boy was also conducted in the neighborhood. The sheriff's office used K9s, several boats, drones and a helicopter to find the boy.

The fire and rescue team later found the boy's body in the pond just east of his neighborhood. Police are trying to find out how the boy died, Kiro7 News reported.

"We cared about him, her, [and] her whole family. It's a devastating loss that you can't imagine it. [It's] every parents' worst nightmare," one neighbor told Action News Jax.

JSO Assistant Chief Brian Kee said the boy was attracted to water but could not swim.

"There's a lot of ponds around here," Kee told First Coast News. "It's one of the ponds east of the neighborhood... We know from our training these children are often attracted to bodies of water, which is very concerning for us."

police car
A representational image of a police car. pixabay
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