Police say a missing 11-year-old Hamilton, Ont. boy with disabilities, whose body was found submerged in a culvert close to his home Sunday, drowned after likely crawling inside to hide.
Hamilton police acting Det.-Sgt. Dave Brady said Finnigan Danne, who suffered from a neuromuscular disorder and had limited mobility, wandered from his home around 10:15 a.m. Saturday.
“He left the home without his mother being aware,” Brady said during a news conference Monday.
“And how he ended up in the culvert, it would seem that he probably crawled in there as a young boy who likes to hide.”
READ MORE: Hamilton police confirm missing boy that spurred Amber Alert found dead
An Amber Alert was called shortly after 3:00 p.m. Sunday and Danne’s body was located in the roadside drain near his home soon after.
An autopsy was conducted Monday and Brady said the cause of death was determined to be drowning.
He added it was likely Danne drowned shortly after going missing Saturday morning and no foul play is suspected, but the investigation is ongoing.
WATCH: Police say missing Hamilton boy tragically drowned in culvert near home
Despite several attempts to search the culvert in the Hamilton community of Dundas Sunday afternoon, police said it was a member of the public who alerted them to the location of the deceased boy.
“We had a number of occasions where the officers did search the culvert,” said Staff Sgt. Marty Schulenberg, a ground search manager with Hamilton police.
“They did not enter into the depths of the culvert and the reason for that is quite simply we were into a rescue tactic and not into a recovery tactic.”
Schulenberg said investigators believe the boy was submerged underwater until he was detected by the community member Sunday, which prevented search parties from finding Danne’s body sooner.
He added that the depth of the water in the culvert, up to a metre deep at certain points, and its location under a roadway further complicated the search.
“There is information that came out that suggests he did like to hide or if he got scared he would hide,” Brady said.
“There was a prior incident that police were not involved with where he was just hiding and they actually located him hiding.”
Police said they suspect Danne’s numerous medical conditions may have contributed to his death.
Brady said the Amber Alert system has “very specific” requirements, which is why it was issued 29 hours after Danne’s disappearance, and police initially believed they could locate the boy nearby.
“After a period of time when that wasn’t what we were able to do, we had to consider other possibilities,” he said, adding that police then suspected the boy may have been abducted.
Police said they utilized all resources available to search the area in attempt to find Danne, including a K9 unit, ATVs and mounted unit.
“I thought for sure they’d find him … it’s such a tragedy of course, and who would think that he would wander and be so close to his home,” said local resident Bonnie Taylor.
“I’m a mum. I’m heartbroken. I just can’t imagine.”
Schulenberg said the K9 unit did not search the culvert and the body was found by the volunteer after “natural processes” made it visible in the culvert Sunday.
“It was shocking. Shocking. I stood in front of that culvert yesterday and thought ‘But the dogs were here; they didn’t say anything,’ and everyone had moved up the street,” said neighbour Ilene O’Connor.
“There was no indication that that’s where he was. There was nothing. The shrubbery wasn’t broken or anything. They had the dogs, the cops, they had everybody out here. They had hundreds of people on the street, all over the neighbourhood.
“We’ve lived here for 43 years and there’s never been anything like this. It’s heartbreaking and it’s shocking.”
With files from Veronica Tang, Mark Carcasole and Mike Drolet