JOSHUA DAVIS - 18 Months (2011) - New Braunfels (NE of San Antonio) TX

Toddler Still Missing Despite Search by Police and Neighbors


**Update: (1:17p) A press conference is coming from NBPD Headquarters at 2p and will continue every 2 hours. Search groups consisting of volunteers and Search & Rescue teams are currently being organized at Klein Road Elementary, 2620 Klein Way, New Braunfels, Texas.
**(12:55p) A press conference is to be held at 2p. We will pass along any new information.
(New Braunfels, TX) -- An 18-month old toddler is still missing, despite the best efforts of New Braunfels Police and nearby neighbors who went out into the cold night searching for the young boy. Police officials say they were first called out to the 26-hundred block of Savannah Hill Circle (which sits off of Klein Road, on the east side of I-35) just before 9 o’clock last night after the mother of the 18-month old buy reported him missing. She had last seen him inside their residence about 20-minutes prior to calling police, and responding officers searched the home multiple times, then added a grid search of the entire neighborhood, with no luck finding the toddler. So a DPS helicopter was called in to search by air, while 24-hundred residents in the surrounding area were notified of the incident through the city’s Emergency Notification System. Dozens of neighbors then poured into the streets, helping New Braunfels Police and Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Officers look for the young boy, but to no avail. The 18-month old remains missing. A photo of the boy and his description has been released. His name is Joshua Davis, 18-months old, 1-feet tall, weighing 30-pounds, last seen wearing a blue and red long sleeve shirt and a grey long sleeve t-shirt, a beige and white onesy and beige jeans, and black and white socks. Anyone locating Joshua or knowing his whereabouts, please contact New Braunfels Police immediately at 830-221-4100.
http://knbt.fm/news/toddler-still-missing-despite-search-police-and-neighbors

NBPD Press Release
http://www.ci.new-braunfels.tx.us/ar...ng%20Child.pdf

(Video) Officials Still Searching for Missing 18-month Old New Braunfels Toddler



New Braunfels, TX) -- The search continues for 18 month old Joshua Davis that went missing last night on the 2600 block of Savanna Place out near Klein Road, east of I-35. At a press conference this afternoon New Braunfels Police Lieutenant Michael Penshorn brought us up to date on the search effort, which includes personnel from the Alamo Area Search and Rescue, Travis County Search and Rescue and Search Dog Rescue from College Station. Overnight searches were conducted on the ground by uniformed officers and in the air with the assistance a Texas DPS helicopter, and today about one hundred volunteers were mobilized at Klein Road Elementary School and added to the professional force. Joshua is two feet tall, weighs 30 pounds, was last seen wearing a blue and red long sleeve shirt and a grey long sleeve t-shirt, a beige and white onesie and beige jeans, and black and white socks. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact New Braunfels Police immediately at 830-221-4100.
For even more details, complete video from the press conference held earlier this afternoon is available below. For updates to this story and more, find us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/kgnbam and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kgnb

http://kgnb.am/news/video-officials-still-searching-missing-18-month-old-new-braunfels-toddler

http://herald-zeitung.com/news/community_alert/article_27b09820-3166-11e0-a076-001cc4c002e0.html
Search party of 100 volunteers looking for missing 18-month-old boy

A search party of 100 volunteers are looking for Joshua Davis,
an 18-month-old missing since Friday night.

Police say child is very mobile and it is conceivable that he
left the house on his own and took off running, covering a short
area in a short period of time.

Throughout the evening, the glass front door was open.

Joshua was last seen in family's double-wide kitchen dining area
with five or six family members.
Front glass door did not latch properly, police said.

Sex offender across the street is not a suspect, but his home
has been searched.

Command post at Klein Road Elementary is open until 7:30 p.m.
tonight (Saturday).

Search teams are focusing on area around residence, wooded area
and fields. Everyone is still optimistic, police said.

Call (830) 221-4570 with any information.Visit this website, follow us on Twitter (@newbraunfelsHZ) or on
the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung Facebook page for regular
updates.



(Red by me) This certainly is a fishy story. On WS they have a pick of the area Joshua went "missing" from, it's very flat and open so, if LE was called 20 minutes after child went missing then there is no doubt in my mind they would've found him. I don't think he ran off at all, 5/6 people and they couldn't keep track of a child? Uh-uh, too fishy. Praying Joshua is found safe.

Home News Community Alert .6:30 P.M. UPDATE: Search for Joshua continues; NBPD interviews sex offender

snipped....
Sex offender lives in neighborhood
Although police officials have questioned Joshua's parents, Sabrina Benitez, 21, and Josh Davis, 23, other family members present at the time of Joshua's disappearance and residents in the Savannah Hill Circle neighborhood, family friends are suspicious of the next-door neighbor.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety's sex offender list, that neighbor, Guillermo Morales, 77, was convicted of child sexual contact in 1994. He has been a registered sex offender since October 1999,
"There was one of his toy balls found at the end of the block," said Lee Jackson, family friend. "It was on top of some mailboxes. There's no way he got it up there by himself."
"The sex offender has been interviewed, and we have also conducted searches on his residence and vehicle," Penshorn said. "As of right now, we have nothing to believe he's involved in this case."
Parents, friends speak out
Joshua was last seen wearing a blue and red long sleeve shirt, a gray long sleeve T-shirt, a beige and white onesy, beige jeans and black and white socks. NBPD does not believe he was wearing shoes.
"Someone took him," said Michelle Griffin, family friend. "He needs medical attention immediately. He has asthma and other medical conditions."
Both of Joshua's parents were present Saturday afternoon at the Klein Road Elementary search and rescue command site.
"I last saw my son around 8 last night," said Josh Davis, Joshua's father. "He was pulling on my beanie trying to take it off. He was behind my chair. When I told him to stop, he looked at me and smiled.
"That was the last time I saw him."
Davis described Joshua as a cheerful, playful and loving boy.
"They have no leads," said Sabrina Benitez, Joshua's mother, through tears. "I last saw him around 7:40 p.m. in my room watching ‘Toy Story.' When I realized he hadn't come back to watch with me, I realized he was missing."
Benitez is expecting her second child, a boy, next month.
NBPD officials do not suspect alcohol or drugs played a factor in the family's awareness of Joshua's disappearance.
Search continues tonight
The Klein Road Elementary School search and rescue command site stopped volunteer searches at 6 p.m. Saturday. Police and fire personnel will continue the search throughout the night.
"This is not in the middle of nowhere," volunteer Mandy Lorance said. "There's got to be somebody that knows something."
The volunteer search and rescue will resume around 7:30 a.m. Sunday.
"Please bring my baby home," Benitez said. "Please let him be OK."
HAVE A TIP?
Anyone who finds 18-month-old Joshua Davis or knows of his whereabouts is urged to call NBPD at (830) 221-4570. He was last seen around 8 p.m. Friday at the family residence on the 2600 block of Savannah Hill Circle.

http://herald-zeitung.com/news/community_alert/article_f3907074-3188-11e0-a507-001cc4c03286.html

9:30 P.M. UPDATE Officers and K-9s will search all night for Joshua

NEW BRAUNFELS — Officers and bloodhounds will continue to search overnight for 18-month-old Joshua Davis, who’s been missing since Friday evening, New Braunfels Police Department Lt. Michael Penshorn said at an 8 p.m. Saturday press briefing.
Penshorn said searchers are trying to stay upbeat.
“We’re not losing hope. We’re looking at this optimistically and we’re really hoping and praying that he ends up safe,” he said.
The use of civilian volunteer searchers was suspended at 6 p.m., he said, adding that authorities were concerned about darkness and other hazards facing the volunteers.
“We have to be concerned for their safety. We had well over 100 volunteers who came in and assisted today.”
Additional K-9 units and search-and-rescue teams will be brought in early Sunday morning to aid in the search, he said.
“But we will not be utilizing any more volunteers from the public. We will just be using the specialized search-and-rescue teams. We do ask that any civilian volunteers who were wanting to assist in this case to stay home and monitor the situation in case things do change,” Penshorn said.
The vast majority of the areas surrounding Joshua’s southeast New Braunfels home, in the 2600 block of Savannah Hill Circle, where the child was last seen, have been searched, Penshorn said. “Primarily most of the areas were searched on foot.”
The one- to two-square-mile area searched on foot included small creeks, heavy woods and many fenced areas.
“It was an organized search in which areas were organized into specific grids using maps, and each grid had a specific group which was searching just that area. That involved individuals and several K-9 teams.”
He said there is one unsearched section. “We’re coordinating with the property owner and should be covering it tomorrow.”
He said the search plan for tomorrow is to concentrate on the more difficult areas to access. “Tomorrow is going to be more of a targeted search rather than the broad grid search that we’ve been conducting for the past day.”
A Department of Public Safety helicopter has been assisting in the search, he said.
He said officers also went door-to-door in the neighborhood. “We’ve made contact with every single homeowner in that entire area.”
He said officials are looking at the case as one in which Joshua simply wandered off. “Our best course of action is to just continue with the search process, presuming that he just wandered off from the residence.”
“We don’t have anything right now that would indicate to us that it is an abduction.
The next press briefing is scheduled for 8 a.m. Sunday.

http://herald-zeitung.com/news/community_alert/article_8d3e2aa6-31a0-11e0-8e42-001cc4c03286.html

**Sunday morning UPDATE: The volunteer search for a missing New Braunfels toddler was suspended last night at 6. Uniform officers and professional Search and Rescue teams continued throughout the night. Volunteer efforts will not be utilized on Sunday.

http://kgnb.am/news/joshua-davis-still-missing-volunteer-search-suspended-uniform-search-continues

Day 3 of Search for Missing Boy - Now a Recovery Operation

(New Braunfels, TX) -- For the 3rd straight day, New Braunfels Police and search teams from across the state are continuing the search for an 18-month old missing boy in the area off of Walnut and Klein Road, and now police officials say the search is transitioning from a Search and Rescue operation into a recovery operation.
Joshua Davis Jr. went missing Friday night a little after 8:30 after presumably wandering out of his home on Savannah Hill Circle and out into the freezing cold night. Searchers combed the neighborhood and immediate area that night, then expanded their search to the surrounding 1-square mile that surrounds that neighborhood on Saturday. Over 100 volunteers from the community turned out to help in that search, along with professional search teams from Travis County Search and Rescue, the Alamo Area Search and Rescue Team, a dog search team from Texas A&M, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. But despite combing the area throughout the day, there has still been no sign of the missing boy, and now New Braunfels Police officials are calling the search a recovery operation, with the presumption that the boy may have died after 2 very cold nights in rough terrain.
At a press conference held Sunday morning at police headquarters, police officials also reiterated that they have checked extensively into other options, like abduction, even going so far as to check-in with sex offenders in the immediate area, all with no indication that the boy was abducted. That's why an Amber Alert has not been issued, and although K-9 search teams continue to comb the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods, police officials believe this is simply a case of a very mobile toddler wandering out into the night and getting lost.
Today, police have asked volunteers to stay at home, to make room for specialized K-9 search teams that need more space and less people in order to catch the scent of the boy. They will also be utilizing some new tools, like ATV's for ground searches, and an aerial drone to search from the sky. There is also one large piece of property in that area that they have not yet searched because the property owner wanted to be present during the search, and that area will be combed over today. Other searchers will concentrate on other areas that may not have been searched as thoroughly, with dive teams being called in to search several ponds and stock tanks in that area.
The Red Cross has also been lending a hand, providing food and hot beverages for the search teams and police officers, which are now using the Police Department headquarters as their main base, instead of Klein Road Elementary School.
Another press conference is scheduled for this afternoon. Stay tuned to AM 1420 KGNB and keep checking back at kgnb.am for more developments. For even more updates as they arrive, follow KGNB on Facebook at http://facebook.com/kgnbam and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kgnb.

http://kgnb.am/news/day-3-search-missing-boy-now-recovery-operation

For Sabrina Benitez, the child's mother, the anxiety was clear.
“I just want my baby back,” she said between sobs.
The 23-year-old, due to deliver a baby boy in three weeks, said she has not slept since the baby went missing.

---It would seem to me that DCFS should keep a close watch on the soon-to-be born boy. Perhaps even take custody until he case with Joshua is resolved.
I am totally with AB on this. With that many adults present, somebody should have noticed something.
According to my analysis, Joshua's stride was about a foot each step and moving fast he could cover up to 100 feet per minute. But, at that age, how long could he have kept up that pace...in the cold...
You are right Ab, something is not being told here.

TomTerrific0420 wrote:

For Sabrina Benitez, the child's mother, the anxiety was clear.
“I just want my baby back,” she said between sobs.
The 23-year-old, due to deliver a baby boy in three weeks, said she has not slept since the baby went missing.

---It would seem to me that DCFS should keep a close watch on the soon-to-be born boy. Perhaps even take custody until he case with Joshua is resolved.
I am totally with AB on this. With that many adults present, somebody should have noticed something.
According to my analysis, Joshua's stride was about a foot each step and moving fast he could cover up to 100 feet per minute. But, at that age, how long could he have kept up that pace...in the cold...
You are right Ab, something is not being told here.

Another question I have is, why doesn't LE bring the K-9's in immediately? If they were called 20 minutes after the child was missing then it seems K9 would have a much much better chance of catching a scent--a FRESH scent. Another thing is, who the hell care's what a land owner wants when you have a missing child? LE should've been checking that area and not waiting--what a crock.
Something is very wrong with this whole situation, right from the get go.

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas
— Frigid cold and rugged terrain have dimmed hopes dramatically for
an 18-month-old child missing for two nights from his family's home in
the Texas Hill Country.
A police spokesman says the search for Joshua Davis of New
Braunfels was switched to a "recovery effort" Sunday morning. New
Braunfels police Lt. Michael Penshorn says that means "cadaver dog"
crews have been brought in to assist the efforts to find the child.
Since two nights of temperatures as low as 20 degrees have
passed, "if he was exposed in the wooded area around his family's home,
there's little chance that he could have survived those conditions,"
Penshorn said.
Penshorn says all signs suggest that the child wandered from the house Friday evening.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7415674.html

On Sunday, a mother and father prepare to go to bed with their
toddler missing for a third straight night.
It was an emotional day for the parents of Joshua Davis, Jr. First,
authorities reported that their missing son might be dead. Then rumors
surfaced that the boy was found. However, this ended up being false news.
“I went to sleep and all I could hear was my baby crying and calling for mommy,” Sabrina Benitez said.
Benitez has not experienced a good night’s rest in days since the
mysterious disappearance of her 18-month-old son, Joshua.
Authorities believe the toddler wandered away from his Savannah Hill Circle home Friday night.
“I just want to know he’s OK and that he’s still alive,” Benitez said.
Sunday proved to be an emotional roller coaster ride for the family.
After 36-hours that spanned two evenings of sub-freezing temperatures,
New Braunfels Police transitioned their search and rescue operation to a
recovery effort. They fear the child could not withstand such harsh elements.
“As a response to that, we did bring in additional K9 search teams
particularly ones that were specifically looking at cadaver dogs that
search for a deceased person,” New Braunfels Police Lt. Michael Penshorn said.
Later that day, the family rushed to police headquarters after
receiving word that someone posted a message on Facebook indicating
someone found Davis. The message falsely reported Davis was found alive
and doing well in a trailer about 10 miles away from his home on Hunter Road.
“They had my hopes up and then I came to find out this was all a
joke. Whoever started that rumor, it was wrong of you,” Benitez said.
Benitez, who is expecting her next child in three weeks, believes hear baby boy
was abducted and now pleads for his safe return.
“He’s still out there; don’t give up looking for him. If you don’t
want us to show your face, drop him off somewhere… so he could be back
at home with us,” Benitez said.
Police are trying to track down the person responsible for posting
the false Facebook messages. In the mean time the search for baby Joshua continues.
Joshua is 2-feet tall and weighs 30 pounds. He was last seen wearing a
blue and red long sleeve shirt, beige jeans and black and white socks.
If you have any information on Davis’ whereabouts, give New Braunfels Police a call at 830-221-4570.

http://www.kens5.com/news/False-hope-and-sadness-Missing-18-month-old-toddler-remains-missing-115457694.html

Cadaver dogs will help search for missing New Braunfels boy

SAN ANTONIO -- Family members have been encouraged to abandon hope in finding missing 18-month-old Joshua Davis, Jr. But the child's mother and father are hoping for a miracle.

Joshua went missing Friday night around 8 p.m. New Braunfels police said this is now a search and recovery effort.

Police are bringing in cadaver dogs in an effort to locate the child. And some blood hounds from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will arrive today.

Family members are posting fliers around town and say they're not giving up. Authorities said they think the child simply wandered off from the family's mobile home.

The parents say they believe their son was kidnapped.

Meanwhile, the community has come together to help the family. Denny's, the workplace of Joshua's mother, Sabrina Benitez, is collecting donations. KENS 5 also saw neighbors helping the family during this time.

The Texas Rangers are also helping in this investigation.

http://www.kens5.com/news/local/Cadaver-dogs-will-help-search-for-missing-New-Braunfels-boy-115491449.html