DOSWELL -- A total of 940 volunteers helped authorities conduct 74 search missions so far today but 9-year-old Robert Wood Jr. still hasn’t been found.
“We are working under the assumption that he is still alive,” Hanover sheriff’s Capt. Michael Trice said at a 3:30 p.m. news briefing. “We’re looking to give him the aid that he needs.”
Trice said 940 volunteers were deployed today, and between 200 and 250 of those returned from helping Tuesday. The sheriff’s office is asking for more volunteer help on Thursday.
“We want to be prepared to cover as much ground tomorrow as we did today,” Trice said. “We want to get as many returning volunteers as possible.”
Teams searched 30 search zones from early this morning until mid-afternoon in and around the 80-acre North Anna Battlefield Park in Doswell, Trice said.
Some of the volunteers have had to be treated for minor medical issues but no one has been seriously hurt, Trice said.
Trice also disclosed that authorities placed several “survival packs” containing food, water and blankets at various locations in the woods, but none have been touched.
Several searches have produced “articles of interest,” but Trice said none of those items can be directly tied to Robert.
Noon update:
Hanover County authorities are calling for hundreds of additional volunteers to help in the search for a missing 9-year-old autistic boy.
County sheriff's Capt. Mike Trice this morning said about 700 volunteers turned up to help look for Robbie Wood Jr., who disappeared Sunday during a walk with family in the North Anna Battlefield Park.
Trice said another 500 searchers could be used today. Volunteers can report to the parking area at the Kings Dominion theme park.
(This has been a breaking news update. Stay with TimesDispatch.com for the latest developments in this story and other news events.)
11:21 a.m.
Hundreds of volunteers turned out again this morning to search in thick Hanover County woods for a lost autistic boy.
Nine-year-old Robbie Wood Jr. of Caroline County disappeared Sunday afternoon during a walk with family in the North Anna Battlefield Park in north-central Hanover.
Authorities hope to put 1,200 volunteers on the search today with 300 professional searchers from localities across the state.
“We are going to continue this until we find him,” said Hanover Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Trice.
Volunteers began showing up before daybreak, and the first team headed into the woods about 8 a.m.
“I don’t know what I can do, but I’ve got two hands and two feet,” said volunteer Garrett Grubbs, 34, of Chesterfield County.
(This has been a breaking news update. Stay with TimesDispatch.com for the latest developments in this story and other news events.)
10:24 a.m.
The search for a 9-year-old autistic boy missing in Hanover County since Sunday continued into this morning without success.
Robbie Wood Jr. vanished while on a walk with family in the 80-acre North Anna Battlefield Park on Sunday afternoon.
Hundreds of volunteers joined the search Tuesday, and authorities will again accept volunteers beginning today at 9 a.m. in the main parking lot of Kings Dominion. They must have photo identification and be capable of walking several miles in thick woods.
(This has been a breaking news update. Stay with TimesDispatch.com for the latest developments in this story and other news events.)
6:06 a.m.
Nearly 900 volunteers walked through the Hanover County woods side-by-side Tuesday, methodically looking for a lost autistic boy.
They stepped over downed trees, pushed back briars and poked piles of brush with sticks in hopes they'd find 9-year-old Robbie Wood Jr.
"It's everybody's worst nightmare," said Waverly Bamman, 35, whose son attends the Faison School for Autism school with Robbie.
But on Tuesday, as the search entered its third day, the volunteers and more than 300 trained professionals didn't come up with anything.
"Right now, we're determined to do it until we find Robbie," Hanover Sheriff David Hines said during an afternoon news briefing on the search.
The Caroline County boy disappeared while on a walk with family in the 80-acre North Anna Battlefield Park on Sunday afternoon. His father, Robert Wood, his brother and a female friend of Wood's had stopped to take a break when the severely autistic boy wandered off.
Hundreds of volunteers turned out Tuesday morning at Kings Dominion, where a line snaked through the parking lot. Some had to be turned away because they couldn't stay all afternoon, while others simply left after standing in line for hours, waiting to be processed.
Hines said 889 volunteers were registered, trained and deployed to join the search that was expanded to more than 2,000 acres in and around the park.
"Like everyone here today, our hearts are burdened with the reality that a 9-year-old boy has been left alone in the woods for the last 48 hours," Hines said.
Taken to the site on buses, the volunteer searchers walked the approximately 1½ miles from Verdon Road to the North Anna River. Coordinators had mapped out grids for volunteers to walk to cover the entire 3-square-mile area around the park.
As the volunteers stood in line, many realized they had something in common. A number of them were connected to someone else autistic — a son, a nephew, a neighbor, a child at school.
"I have two autistic kids at home, so this hit really close to home for me," said Tammy Rogers of Powhatan, who was on the first bus of volunteers sent into the woods to look for Robbie. "As a mother, you ache."
Rogers, whose sons are both non-verbal like Robbie, said she was so upset by Robbie's disappearance that she spent much of Monday crying.
"This is the best medicine, just to get out here," she said as she prepared to board the bus.
But later in the afternoon, as she got on the bus to go back to her car after spending all day in the woods, she was disappointed that they hadn't been able to locate Robbie.
"You feel like you're walking out empty handed," she said.
She said traversing the "thick, thick terrain" was difficult, and her fellow searchers had cuts in their hands and holes in their clothes to prove it, she said, adding that she is convinced a little child could not have covered the same ground.
Jeremy Lawhorn of Mechanicsville said it was his first time participating in a rescue mission, and he was surprised at the density of the forest vegetation. Lawhorn has two sons, one of whom is the same age as Robbie.
"I just figured the more people we have, the better chance we'll find him quicker," he said, stepping over tree branches and brush as he walked through the woods surrounded by other volunteers in blaze orange vests.
The possibility that they might find Robbie dead hung in the air, but most preferred to hold out hope that the boy could survive the cold nighttime conditions without food. "I hope we find him. I hope he's OK," said Chris Southall, 24, of New Kent County.
Hines said authorities will again accept volunteers beginning today at 9 a.m. in the main parking lot of Kings Dominion. They must have photo identification and be capable of walking several miles in thick woods.
"I hope most (of Tuesday's volunteers) will show back up, because they've already been through the training and we can deploy them quicker," he said.
The volunteer search is to resume today after personnel from Virginia Department of Emergency Management conducted ground searches Tuesday night, Hines said.
Battalion Chief William E. Jones with Hanover Fire and EMS said he appreciated the outpouring of support from the community, adding that volunteers came from as far away as Myrtle Beach, S.C.
"It is an opportunity for a regular person to come out here and do something," he said. "It's worth every minute of it," he said.
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