HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — Hampton’s police chief provided an update Wednesday regarding the search for a 2-year-old boy who disappeared from the Buckroe Beach area.
The search for Noah Tomlin is expanding to other parts of the city more than 48 hours after the boy was last seen at his home. Police said they’ve exhausted all reasonable efforts to find Noah in the area near Buckroe Beach.
Hampton police stated on Twitter that Chief Terry Sult briefed members of the media on the efforts to locate Tomlin in a news conference on Wednesday.
There was a lot of social media chatter about police presence at the Hampton landfill. Police said they are not ruling out any scenario.
Sult addressed that aspect of the search on Wednesday. “There is nothing specific that lead us to the landfil. The landfill was always in the plan to search,” he said.
VIDEO: Hampton police chief discusses missing 2-year-old
Officials have said they are determined to the 2-year-old home. Meanwhile the community is anxiously awaiting for that to happen.
Tomlin was last seen at 1 a.m. Monday morning when his mother put him down for bed. Noah’s mother reported him missing later that same morning around 11:30.
The family’s home has been closed off with police tape. Sult said the child’s parents are cooporating with the investigation.
“What our residents can do is be vigilant in looking out for Noah,” Sult said Wednesday. “If you hear of anyone seeing him, call police. If you have pictures or video in the time frame in the area where Noah went missing from 1 a.m. to today, police would like to see it.”
From drones to boats and everything in between, search parties are working around the clock. On Tuesday, dozens of people from Hampton fire, Poquoson, York County, and the state Department of Emergency Management went back out into neighborhoods and along the shorelines.
One neighbor said, “They looked in cars, trashcans, they looked anywhere to where a little one can get down and get into to hide or go to sleep.”
Referring to the search parties, Williams said, “Their hearts and minds are – weigh heavily on the fact that this is something we don’t want to happen to anyone of our children or any children that we know.”
Meanwhile, neighbors living in Bayside Mobile Home Village said the last 48 hours have been nerve racking.
Trash pickup in the area was suspended on Tuesday as police searched the area. That service resumed Wednesday morning.
“Just everything that’s going on, not knowing and everything happening right outside your window,” the neighbor said.
Police said they’re not giving up hope that Noah will be found.
“We are still hopeful we will find him safe and sound in some location, but we are looking at all potential aspects that this case could lead us to,” Sult said.
If you have any information, call Hampton Police or the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.