Search For Missing 3-Year-Old Leads Police To 11 Starving Children

Police officials searching a rural northern New Mexico compound for a missing three-year-old discovered 11 starving children living in extremely poor conditions instead, a sheriff said.

According to Fox News, the children were found after a Georgia detective forwarded a message to Taos County Sherrif Jerry Hogrefe’s office. The message, which was initially sent to a third party, said, “We are starving and need food and water.”

“I’ve been working this job for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Hogrefe said describing the compound as “Third World” worthy. “People live off the grid, but man, not like this.”

The children were promptly removed from the compound, situated in an isolated high-desert area near the New Mexico-Colorado border, in the small community of Amalia, 145 miles northeast of the city of Albuquerque. The 11 children, aged 1 to 15, were taken into custody by child-welfare workers.

Two men were arrested during the search. Thirty-nine-year-old Siraj Wahhaj was taken into custody on a Georgia warrant alleging child abduction. The other man, Lucas Morten, whose other details were not specified, was arrested for allegedly harboring a fugitive, Hogrefe said. Reports said currently there were no attorneys who could speak for the detained men.

Hogrefe said three women were also initially detained at the compound. Two of them, who were suspected to be mothers of at least some of the children who were rescued, were released pending further investigation.

The search came as part of a two-month investigation of a 3-year-old missing boy involving the Taos County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and Clayton County authorities, Hogrefe said adding FBI agents had surveilled the area a couple of weeks ago while looking for the missing boy. They couldn’t find a probable cause to search the property.

When a Georgia detective forwarded a message to Hogrefe’s office Thursday stating that someone at the compound had told another person that people at the compound were starving and were in urgent need of water, he decided to get a search warrant to inspect the compound.

"I absolutely knew that we couldn't wait on another agency to step up and we had to go check this out as soon as possible," Hogrefe said.

Though the officials didn’t find the missing boy, identified as AG Wahhaj, there was reason enough to believe he had been at the compound recently, Hogrefe said. It’s not clear whether the boy and Wahhaj are related.

The compound was made up of a small travel trailer buried in the ground, covered by a plastic sheet.

“The only food we saw were a few potatoes and a box of rice in the filthy trailer,” Hogrefe said adding that the compound had no water supply, plumbing and electricity. They also discovered high-powered weapons at the site.

He said both adults and children at the compound "looked like Third World country refugees,” wearing dirty rags for clothing, with no shoes covering their feet. “We all gave the kids our water and what snacks we had — it was the saddest living conditions and poverty I have seen.”

How or why the group, who appeared to have been living at the compound for at least a few months, ended up living in a compound in New Mexico remains unclear, according to the sheriff.

"The children are in our custody and our number one priority right now is their health and safety," New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department Secretary Monique Jacobsons said. "We will continue to work closely with law enforcement on this investigation."