Police in Western New York said that on Tuesday they are investigating the discovery of a deserted 3-year-old boy and a burnt-out car with human remains to determine if they are interconnected. The Buffalo police said that the boy was found on Monday morning around 8 a.m., snoozing on a stranger’s porch. Nearly ten hours later, cops found the vehicle a mile away behind a mini-storage. According to a report, the woman who found the boy said the child kept saying “the car’s on fire!”
When asked about the connection at a news conference on Tuesday, Capt. Jeff Rinaldo said that they are exploring the possibility of a connection.
He said the boy’s grandparents in Florida identified the child and informed that the boy’s parents and a friend of theirs are missing.
The vehicle that the police found was very badly burnt, almost to the point that it cannot be told what type of vehicle it was or what was the contents of the vehicle.
He said that the investigators believed the vehicle caught fire around 3 a.m. Monday and also informed the reporters that the boy was placed with child welfare workers.
Lois Augsburger said she found the child at sleeping in a box that she leaves out on her front porch for stray cats. “It was so traumatizing,” Augsburger told WKBW. “I said what are you doing and I picked him up and hugged him.” Cops took custody of the child.
Augsburger told the station that, “I asked where is your mommy, honey. He says ‘the car’s on fire, the car’s on fire,’ that’s all he kept saying.”
Police had canvassed the neighborhood looking for the boy’s parents on Monday.
Rinaldo reportedly said, “The child is not extremely talkative so it is difficult for us to try to figure out exactly what the circumstances are surrounding the child’s appearance.”
