Hundreds of officers and volunteers have combed through fields and woods.
May 31, 2021, 10:34 PM
• 4 min read
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleHundreds of police and community volunteers combed through miles of wilderness in Iowa during a weekend-long search for a missing 11-year-old boy.
Xavior Harrelson was last seen on Thursday morning in Montezuma, Iowa, according to the Poweshiek County Sheriff's Office.
Over 100 police officers looked around the boy's home and a nearby lake on Saturday, officials said.
Missing Xavior Harrelson, 11, in a photo released by police.
On Sunday, Xavior's birthday, the search expanded, with over 500 residents volunteering to look throughout the area. Teams of 40 volunteers boarded buses and made their way to the outskirts of the tiny town during the search, according to Des Moines ABC affiliate KCCI.
"It's so close to home, it makes it hard. And I can't imagine what his parents are going through," Jennifer Alardin, one of the search volunteers, told ABC News.
Authorities search for missing Xavior Harrelson in Montezuma, Iowa, May 29, 2021.
The search continued on Monday, but there was no sign of the boy as of evening, officials said.
The search was scheduled to continue Tuesday, according to the sheriff's office.
Xavior was last ween wearing a red T-shirt, blue pajama pants and black high-top shoes. He is described as approximately 4 feet, 8 inches tall and 100 pounds and has brown hair and blue eyes, the sheriff's office said.
Anyone with information or tips is urged to call the Poweshiek County Sheriff's Office at 641-623-5679.
Authorities search for missing Xavior Harrelson in Montezuma, Iowa, May 29, 2021.
Rural Poweshiek County, about halfway between Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, is the same place Mollie Tibbetts went missing three years ago. Tibbetts was later found killed in a corn field. Cristhian Bahena Rivera was convicted of her murder on Friday.
"It's small towns around here, so everybody comes together," Clayton Van Wyk, of Newton, told KCCI of the search for Xavior. "It was the same thing when it happened with Mollie and everything."
