Coroner: Missing Allentown boy found dead

The Lehigh County coroner has confirmed that 5-year-old Jayliel Vega Batista was found dead, according to published reports

The Lehigh County coroner arrived at about 2:45 p.m. at Canal Park in east Allentown, where an electronic tablet that 5-year-old Jayliel Vega Batista was carrying when he went missing Thursday night may have been found, according to eyewitnesses at the scene.

At 3:15 p.m., an ambulance arrived on the scene, followed by several police cars. At 3:45 p.m., the coroner left, along with a white SUV that had a police escort. Most of the police and rescue crews that had spent nearly two days in the east Allentown neighborhood where the boy was last seen had left by 4 p.m. Saturday. A news conference has been called for 5:30 p.m. with Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, Police Chief Keith Morris and Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim. .

The long search for Jayliel continued through two nights and two days without turning up any evidence of the child until about 1 p.m. Saturday, when a red and white tablet was fished from the water at Canal Park by Thurman Clark, 25, of Northampton. Police and family members had said Jayliel was playing with a kid's tablet that was white with a red cover when he wandered from a New Year's eve in East Allentown barefoot and coatless around 11 p.m. Thursday.

Clark, who had just joined the search, said he spotted something red or orange in the water and waded in to check it out.

"I really hope it's not his, " he said.

Police have not confirmed the finding or commented on it. But they did send divers to the canal after the tablet was found.

Police and family members hoped the child happened upon a warm spot, hidden from view. With that in mind, police, in the Lehigh County alert, called Allentown residents, making sure they were aware of the boy's disappearance and the possibility that he had sought shelter in the area.

"He's so strong," Yeltiza Batista said of Jayliel, her second youngest son. "I have five children and he's the strongest."

As she and other family members met with search and rescue crews looking for Jayliel Saturday morning, Batista clung to that thought. "I know he's out there and I know he's finding a way," she said. "He's a survivor. "

Batista, who lives in south Allentown with her husband, Gilberto Vega, said the family was at a party at her aunt's home on the 200 block of East Union Street on New Year's eve and Jayliel was playing in an upstairs bedroom. She described the dark-haired, dark-eyed boy as a ball of energy, with a wide smile and a fascination for hiding, running and climbing. He's afraid of most people, but that rarely stopped him from running circles around them.

"He doesn't speak, but he smiles a lot," Batista said. "He loves music and loves to climb. He's an adventurer. We watch him so close. I don't know how he got past us."

Saturday's plan had police and fire officials conducting another door-to-door search similar to the one they did Friday, while search and rescue crews with more than 20 dogs combs the woods, rail yard and Lehigh River banks. At least a few of the dogs were put in boats to help scan the Lehigh River, Mayor Ed Pawlowski said.

Priscilla Reyes of Allentown does not know the boy or his family, but felt compelled to help. She organized a search party that looked in cars and behind buildings in the area where the boy was last seen.

"He's a 5-year-old. If it was my child I would want people to help," she said.

Brothers Curt and Craig Jones arrived at the search scene late Friday and we're still searching Saturday morning.

"As a father, it's hard to think of him out here," said Craig Jones, who has three children. "I figure they need as many people as possible to help."

Curt Jones said searching in the dark was difficult.

"It's spooky out here especially near the train tracks. I really hope they find him soon," he said.

The search for Jayliel, which was scaled back at 1 a.m. Saturday, beefed up at 7 a.m. in the Keck Park neighborhood, where woods abound and the Lehigh River cuts through.

"It's a large, wooded area and it's rugged," Allentown Assistant Chief Bill Lake said. "There's a lot of water as well, not just the Lehigh River, but small ponds and canals."

At about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, a dozen of the boy's relatives and their friends had gathered near the intersection of South Aubrey and East South streets where Jayliel was last seen when someone said they spotted a child's face in an upstairs window of a home there. Soon, flashlights were aimed at the second floor of the house and police were knocking on the door. The resident allowed police to search the home but officers did not find Jayliel or signs that he had been there.

Throughout the night police, cars drove through the area, while volunteers cruised the neighborhood with flashlights shining out car windows.

With dawn approaching and the temperature below freezing as it had been for most of the night, search and rescue crews from as far off as Long Island began pouring into the staging area at the end of South Aubrey Street, where police set up a command post. Joining the mayor at the news briefing were representatives from numerous Lehigh Valley first responder organizations, as well as from Pa K-9 Search and Rescue, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

As police and civilian crews mapped out a search plan for the day, ordinary people touched by the child's story arrived on the scene.

"You guys need anymore help to look for that little boy?" asked Tony Chickily of Catasauqua, through the window of his minivan. "I've been praying all night. I have a 4-year-old grandson. I'd like to help."

Police know from a private surveillance camera in the area that at 11:02 p.m. Thursday, Jayliel was at South Aubrey and East South streets, a few blocks from the party he and his family attended on the 200 block of East Union Street. Six minutes later, police received a call from a neighbor who saw the child running into the woods that begin at the end of Aubrey Street.

A bloodhound that Allentown police were using to find Jayliel tracked a scent Friday from the Keck Park neighborhood, across the Hamilton Street Bridge to Front and Chew streets, police Chief Keith Morris said.

He couldn't say for sure, however, if the scent was that of Jayliel.

It was unlike Jayliel to wander, his sister said Friday. He did so clothed in gray sweatpants and a green-and-camouflage long-sleeve shirt, and carrying a white electronic tablet with a red cover, according to an alert that Lehigh County sent to Allentown residents Friday afternoon.

Jayliel's family clung to that hope as searchers scoured the Keck Park woods and firefighters scanned the Lehigh River in a boat. After the bloodhound picked up a possible clue, the search spilled into the area around the America on Wheels museum and Buck Boyle Park.

Jayliel is said to be fearful of strangers and police have asked anyone who encounters him to not call out his name or approach him but to call 911.

Because the child likes lullabies and nursery-type music, police tried unsuccessfully to lure him out of hiding with such music playing on a truck through the neighborhood Friday, Morris said.

John Nemec, team consultant for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children joined the search Saturday, but said there is no reason to thing the boy had been abducted.

"There's been no indication of foul play whatsoever," Morris said.

Jayliel, who is from south Allentown, had been playing upstairs at the party with a kid's tablet, while adults were downstairs, his mother said. He then "left out of nowhere," said his 16-year-old sister, Tayritza Molina. It was unusual for Jayliel, the fourth of five siblings, to run off, she added. His parents, she said, were among those searching for him Friday.

"We're scared but we're trying to keep positive thoughts in our head," Tayritza said through tears Friday.

"I haven't slept at all, I haven't ate nothing, we just keep searching for him," she said.

Dozens of people with no connection to the boy tried to help the family and police. Sharon Falk of South Whitehall Township arrived at the command post when it was still dark Saturday morning, bringing coffee and doughnuts for volunteers.

"I have kids myself and I've been following this since it began," Falk said. "I just felt like I had to do something."

Morris said the full-scale search would continue late into the evening Saturday.

"Then we'll get together and re-evaluate how we want to proceed," Morris said.

"All we can do is pray for the family and pray for this boy," Pawlowski said. "He's been out in the cold for a period of time. We can only hope for the best."