Police are looking into whether a body recovered from the Harlem River Thursday could be connected to the case of two missing boys, an 11-year-old from the Bronx and a 13-year-old from Manhattan, who haven’t been seen in nearly a week, according to a senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the case.
The body was pulled from the river around 10:15 a.m. near the Madison Avenue Bridge, which is where the NYPD had been searching the water earlier this week for Alfa Barrie and Garrett Warren. The senior law enforcement official said it was being transported to Randall’s Island to determine whether an identification could be made.
The potentially heartbreaking discovery comes nearly a week after the NYPD said its detectives had been “working around the clock” to find the boys and asked the public for help bringing them home.
Barrie and Warren were last seen together at a fish market on 145th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem Friday night, witnesses said. A worker at Ana’s Fish Market said he saw the boys in the store, where they bought a few items. He said they come to the shop frequently.
Police believe the boys were together when they vanished.
According to his sister, Alfa went to school on Friday and left just after noon because the school had a half day. He was supposed to meet up with his 14-year-old sister, who attends the same school, and walk home together — but he never showed. That was the first indication something was wrong.
“This is something he has never done. This is all new to us. We have no idea what’s going on, he’s a sweet little boy,” said Alfa’s sister, Fatima Diallo. “Everything that’s happening right now, I can’t comprehend what’s going on.”
The boys do not attend the same school, according to Alfa’s sister, but they became neighborhood friends. Their families didn’t know they knew each other. Family members and volunteers were passing out flyers Tuesday evening near Colonel Charles Young Playground — where the two missing boys were spotted on surveillance video at one point.
NYPD officials say they’re trying to identify all the other kids who were with them and want to speak with their classmates. They say they’ve been “working around the clock” to find them and now need the public to lend eyes.
Police say Alfa was last seen wearing a navy sweater with a “Democracy Prep Harlem Middle School” logo, gray pants and gray sneakers, police say. He was reported missing on Mother’s Day.
Garrett was reported missing Monday. He was wearing a tan hooded sweatshirt with a white T-shirt underneath, black jeans and blue or black Jordan sneakers at the time he was last seen.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-57-7-TIPS.
0 Comments