Search for missing Delhi boy focuses on canal

A search for a missing 3-year-old boy in Delhi on Sunday focused on a canal near his home.

Andres Tomas was last seen around 4 p.m. Saturday, playing with siblings in the area of Letteau Avenue and Shanks Road, Merced County sheriff’s Sgt. Delray Shelton said.

The family’s home is one of three that backs up to the canal north of Letteau. A rusted barbed wire fence between the homes and the canal is mostly collapsed.

On Sunday, Sgt. Ray Framstad said searchers had found footprints in the fine dirt near the canal that may belong to the little boy. Foul play is not suspected.

Friends and family gathered at the boy’s home on Sunday afternoon. Cousin Jazmin Armenta said Andres is the oldest of three brothers.

She said the family remains hopeful Andres will be found alive and asked the community to pray for his safe return.

Investigators have searched methodically, in a grid pattern, throughout the neighborhood just west of Highway 99. They’ve been speaking with neighbors, looking at surveillance footage from nearby stores, and combing fields and lots.

The main focus of the search, however, has been at the canal, which divers searched with an underwater camera for five hours Saturday night and early Sunday morning. They searched about a mile of it south from the boy’s home.

Authorities have described the possibility of finding the child there as their “biggest concern.”

The water in the canal is swift and measures about 4 1/2 feet deep, Framstad said. Visibility is only about 2 feet.

Deputies and search-and-rescue volunteers walled the banks of the canal Sunday morning as a Sheriff’s Office helicopter buzzed overhead.

By Sunday afternoon, the search had slowed after the Sheriff’s Office arranged with the Turlock Irrigation District, which operates the canal, to slow the flow, a process that takes about 12 hours.

Undersheriff Jason Goins said patrol deputies will continue to search along the banks throughout the night but the dive team will return Monday morning to again search the canal after the current has subsided. With stiller water, Goins said, divers will be able to search more thoroughly.

Crowds of people responded after the news of the missing boy broke, searching neighborhoods and fields. Authorities asked residents to stay out of the area and allow deputies time and space to conduct the search. Additional people coming into the area could potentially interfere and inadvertently hamper the search, authorities said.

“We are extremely appreciative of the community support. We’ve had people bringing us flashlights, drinks, and trying to help,” Shelton said. “It shows what a caring, tight, close community we have. But we do need people to stay away from the immediate area.”

“When something like this happens, it pulls at everyone’s heartstrings, including ours. You never want to see anything like this,” Shelton said. “We will continue to use all the resources of the Sheriff’s Office.”

Maria Cortez was among several residents who went to the canal to pray Sunday.

“There’s a strange calm here,” she said. “It feels so lonely.”

This story was originally published October 23, 2016 at 9:05 AM with the headline "Search for missing Delhi boy focuses on canal."