Investigators in Zion, Illinois, have spent the last three days searching tirelessly through landfill garbage in search of a missing baby that some police officers say might have already died.
According to the Chicago Tribune, more than 50 police officers and two search dogs sifted through trash on Friday looking for Joshua Summeries, a 5-month-old child that went missing on Wednesday at around 8 a.m.
During Friday's search, construction vehicles sifted through trash at the 330-acre wide Advanced Disposal facility on Green Bay Road in Zion, started out at around 7:30 in the morning.
Chief of Police Wayne Brooks wrote on Facebook that picking through the landfill was "tremendously overwhelming and demanding."
"We remain steadfast in our mission to find Joshua and are more determined than ever to give that small infant a voice in our justice system," Brooks wrote online.
But the difficulties with the puzzling Zion baby case were, without question, getting to search parties, who have also requested that Zion residents check their trash cans.
At about 12 p.m. on Thursday, Brooks expressed listlessly that baby Joshua was still missing, and that he could have been "harmed, or worse."
Summeries' mother first reported the baby missing, informing police officers that her boyfriend had also disappeared. Authorities have since labeled her boyfriend a "person of interest," and are looking to get in touch with him.
Joshua's mother's boyfriend is not the child's biological father. Police told the Chicago Tribune that they have spoken to the birth father.
Brooks acknowledged both sides of the coin when speaking about baby Joshua.
"My hope is that the baby's still alive," he said. "My fear is no."
