Dominick Arceneaux; Missing since 2/10/09

[lorettalockhorn]

Investigation into Missing Boy Slows

Little Rock - Investigators searching for a missing 3-year-old boy have exhausted almost all their leads.

FBI (web) special agent Thomas Browne said Monday authorities are asking the public to come forward with any information that could be related to the case. Dominick Arceneaux went missing from his home in Ouachita County a week ago.

Investigators told the media at a news conference at the FBI office in Little Rock that the focus of the investigation has moved from searching a nearby lake to the possibility of an abduction.

The investigation slowed significantly after a thorough search of the surrounding area and interviews of residents and registered sex offenders.


http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0209/595427.html

[lorettalockhorn]

Investigators searching for a missing 3-year-old boy have exhausted almost all their leads.

http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0209/595427_video.html?ref=newsstory

[lorettalockhorn]

DOJ Missing Person poster:

http://static.katv.com/news/missing.pdf

[lorettalockhorn]

AMW file:

http://www.amw.com/missing_children/case.cfm?id=63282

[lorettalockhorn]

http://i39.tinypic.com/8y57is.jpg

[RaVeN71806]

yeah I can't find anymore updates on this little guy...I really hope they find him...:rose:

[lorettalockhorn]

Raven, not sure, but I wonder if the fact that Chidester is so remote hampers the update process.

[lorettalockhorn]

Arkansas newslinks:

http://arkansasmatters.com/

http://www.katv.com/

http://www.todaysthv.com/

http://www.fox16.com/default.aspx

http://www2.arkansasonline.com/

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/

[lighthousedazy]

Raven, not sure, but I wonder if the fact that Chidester is so remote hampers the update process.

http://katfishponders.blogspot.com/2009/02/missing-3-year-old-dominick-arceneaux.html

Missing 3 Year Old Dominick Arceneaux Case Deserves Media Airtime
update:
This is a link to a page on CNN that has a form to fill out for news tips and story ideas, it might be a good idea to fill out the form here as well as sending the e-mails to the addresses below:

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form11b.html?1

Katfishponders is frustrated that the case of 3 year old Dominick Arceneaux has not recieved any airtime other than local media. Dominick has been gone for 6 days now. If you would like to help Dominick, e-mail the following media outlets and ask that they give some airtime to Dominick. I will post here the message that I sent, feel free to copy and paste it into an e-mail or write your own message, beneath that I will place the e-mail addresses of some media organizations. These can be copy and pasted into the address box of your e-mail for a mass e-mail if you prefer :

I am writing to ask that you give some air time to this missing 3 year old Arkansas boy, Dominick Arceneaux. He went missing on Tuesday Feb. 10 and after a water search by divers and sonar by Texas Equusearch and Arkansas Game and Fish ; land search by 60+ National Gaurd soldiers, many volunteers along with bloodhounds and horses; and an air search by the Arkansa State Police helicopter for the 5th day there have been no signs of Dominick. The FBI is involved with this case as well. A kidnapping has not been ruled out, therefore I ask that you please give this little boy's story some airtime on the chance he has been taken out of his local area.

Media Outlets:
LarryKingLive@cnn.com, weekend@foxnews.com,FoxReport@foxnews.com, studiob@foxnews.com, AtLarge@foxnews.com,ontherecord@foxnews.com, nancygrace@cnn.com, mailto:Jamie@foxnews.com,Heartland@foxnews.com FNS@foxnews.com,Hannity@foxnews.com, Special@foxnews.com, hardball@msnbc.com, joe@msnbc.com, nightly@nbc.com, today@nbc.com,evening@cbsnews.com, 48hours@cbsnews.com, ftn@cbsnews.com, netaudr@abc.com, nightline@abcnews.com,2020@abc.com, LouDobbs@cnn.com


Here is a link to a thread in Dominick's name on a website called "Help For The Missing". They have been keeping up to date on this case as much as possible. This is where I learned about Dominick.:

http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=163 Sphere: Related Content

[One2Snoop]

What's the family situation? Mom and dad?

[lorettalockhorn]

I've read that the parents are separated(but not sure where); mom-Amber lives in Chidester on White Oak Lake, her aunt and uncle own the bar nearby/next door. Amber's mother lives in Louisiana. Dominick's father-Andre is in the military in Georgia. I believe the reward money was pledged by his unit.

[One2Snoop]

I've read that the parents are separated(but not sure where); mom-Amber lives in Chidester on White Oak Lake, her aunt and uncle own the bar nearby/next door. Amber's mother lives in Louisiana. Dominick's father-Andre is in the military in Georgia. I believe the reward money was pledged by his unit.

So LE thinks this is a stranger abduction and doesn't involve a custody issue? Thanks for the info.

[lorettalockhorn]

So LE thinks this is a stranger abduction and doesn't involve a custody issue? Thanks for the info.

That's the presumption since yesterday according to reports.

[lorettalockhorn]

‘We’ve got nothing,’ FBI says, calling lost boy likely abducted

LITTLE ROCK — It appears someone abducted a missing south Arkansas boy, authorities said for the first time Monday, after a weekend search of a lake and woods near the child’s home turned up no new clues.

Thomas J. Browne, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Little Rock field office, said the huntfor 3-year-old Dominick Wesley Arceneaux has stalled and called for the public’s help.

Browne urged anyone with a tip - no matter how insignificant - to contact 1-800-CALLFBI immediately. A $15,000 reward has been offered in the case.

“We are grasping at straws, to be honest,” Browne said at a news conference at FBI headquarters in west Little Rock onMonday. “We’ve got nothing.”

Dominick disappeared from outside his home near Chidester in Ouachita County a week ago.

His mother, Amber Arceneaux, said Dominick vanished after she left him alone outdoors for about five minutes. The property sits in a rural, wooded area on the shore of White Oak Lake, about 10 miles northwestof Camden.

Dominick is 3 feet tall and weighs 38 pounds. He has olive skin, brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing denim shorts with red stitching on the pockets when he vanished.

Investigators initially thought Dominick wandered into the lake and drowned, Browne said. There is no fencing, and the bank drops off steeply into the water.

But a weekend search of the 1,700-acre lake using divers and sonar turned up nothing.

Capt. Fred Harrod of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Camden office ruled out an alligator attack because of the time of year and lack of activity in the area.

Investigators, with help from the Arkansas National Guard, completed an unsuccessful search of the woods within a one-mile radius of the boy’s home.

Browne said rescuers Sunday thought the boy might be at the bottom of a well but found nothing after draining it and rappelling to the bottom.

A small command post will remain near Dominick’s home, but ground and water searching is largely finished.

“When you search and you don’t find, then you have to assume they’ve been abducted,” Browne said. “So, obviously, the investigation is moving in that direction.”

That theory is troublesome, however, because the FBI has no promising local suspects.

Interviews with family, neighbors and registered sex offenders who live within 50 miles of Dominick’s home yielded no hints at the boy’s whereabouts.

There is a bar nearby from which a stranger could have spotted Dominick, but so far, investigators don’t know of any newcomers who visited recently. Dominick’s home is so remote that few outsiders visit the area.

Browne asked anyone who lives or passes through the Chidester area to report unusual vehicles seen there last week, neighbors who abruptly left or newcomers who just came to town.

If Dominick was taken by a stranger, his odds of returning home safely are slim, according to national studies on youth kidnappings.

Forty percent of children abducted in “stereotypical kidnappings” are killed, and 4 percent are never found, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report from 2002. Stereotypical kidnappings involve a stranger or slight acquaintance who takes a child with the intent of keeping him, holding him for ransom or killing him.

Time is of the essence in such cases.

Among abducted children who are ultimately murdered, 74 percent are dead within three hours of going missing, according to an oft-referenced report from 1997 by the Washington state attorney general.

“When it comes to abductions, to be honest, the first couple of days are absolutely critical,” Browne said. “The timeline for recovering kids, it’s a sad kind of timeline.”

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is starting to distribute fliers with a description of the boy across Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, where the Arceneaux family moved from in December.

Dennis Weaver, a retired FBI agent who works for the center, said there’s hope for Dominick because quality investigators are working the case.

“You see these gray hairs up here? That’s a wealth of experience. We’ve earned every one of them,” he said.

Telephone calls to the boy’s mother went unanswered Monday.

She’s “heartbroken,” Ouachita County Sheriff David Norwood said.

There were no words of consolation he could offer her.

“If you’ve got children ... you know how she feels,” he said.

http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2009/feb/17/weve-got-nothing-fbi-says-calling-lost-bo-20090217/

(Subscription required for complete article.)

[lorettalockhorn]

Alert for Ouachita County boy called off after a body found in lake

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas State Police called off a Morgan Nick AMBER alert for a missing Ouachita County toddler after authorities reported finding a body Wednesday morning in White Oak Lake.

Officials would not confirm early Wednesday afternoon if the body found was that of 3-year-old Dominick Arceneaux.

Chief Deputy Joe Strickland of the Ouachita County Sheriff’s Office told The Associated Press that searchers recovered a child’s body from a “body of water” near where 3-year-old Dominick Arceneaux disappeared Feb. 10. Strickland said the body has yet to be positively identified, but deputies have called off a Morgan Nick Amber Alert for the child.

Dominick disappeared from outside his family’s home along the lake near Chidester around 2 p.m. Feb. 10 while his mother, Amber Arceneaux, and her aunt were inside.

http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2009/feb/18/ouachita-county-boy/?subscriber/national

[lorettalockhorn]

Sheriff: Body found identified as missing Ark. boy





Associated Press - February 18, 2009 4:44 PM ET

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The Ouachita County sheriff says a body found Wednesday morning has been identified as a 3-year-old Chidester boy who had been missing for more than a week.

Sheriff David Norwood told The Associated Press that they found the body of Dominick Arceneaux floating in White Oak Lake around 11:45 a.m. Norwood says the boy's body was about 300 feet down the shoreline from his mother's trailer on the southwestern Arkansas lake.

Norwood says deputies don't suspect foul play in Dominick's death, but "nothing's been ruled out." Norwood says the boy's body had been taken to the state Crime Laboratory for an autopsy.

Police and FBI agents had been interviewing neighbors, family members and passers-by for days about the boy's disappearance.

http://www.wxvt.com/Global/story.asp?S=9866961&nav=menu1344_2

[old_soul]

Sheriff: Body found identified as missing Ark. boy





Associated Press - February 18, 2009 4:44 PM ET

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The Ouachita County sheriff says a body found Wednesday morning has been identified as a 3-year-old Chidester boy who had been missing for more than a week.

Sheriff David Norwood told The Associated Press that they found the body of Dominick Arceneaux floating in White Oak Lake around 11:45 a.m. Norwood says the boy's body was about 300 feet down the shoreline from his mother's trailer on the southwestern Arkansas lake.

Norwood says deputies don't suspect foul play in Dominick's death, but "nothing's been ruled out." Norwood says the boy's body had been taken to the state Crime Laboratory for an autopsy.

Police and FBI agents had been interviewing neighbors, family members and passers-by for days about the boy's disappearance.

http://www.wxvt.com/Global/story.asp?S=9866961&nav=menu1344_2


Oh dear God.

I heard this on HLN (body found) while I was reading the doc dumps. So it is him.

Prayers for little Dom and his family. Much rather he drowned accidentally (sadly) than foul play......too much of that going around.

RIP little guy :rose: Love to you and Caylee. and hoping Haleigh is not with you two.

thought I read in the above post, that as soon as he went missing, they checked with sonar and the water was check also ~ showing nothing. Sonar didn't catch him, practically in back of his own house?

[lorettalockhorn]

I'm so amazed that he just floated up now; they've had divers in the lake and had dragged several times. Maybe the ME will have some answers.

RIP Dominick Wesley Arceneaux

[dan_uk]

R.I.P Dominick

[lorettalockhorn]

Five o'clock news on Fox reported that experts had said that if Dominick had drowned it would take a week to ten days for his body to surface.

[lighthousedazy]

R.I.P. Dominick. :rose:

[One2Snoop]

Very Sad. :( RIP little angel. :rose:

[FDInLaw]

Saw this on our local news last night. :( Rest in Peace, Sweet Little One. . . :rose:

[lorettalockhorn]

Death of 3-year-old boy ruled accidental drowning

LITTLE ROCK — A south Arkansas boy whose body was discovered floating in White Oak Lake eight days after his mother reported him missing was found to have drowned and his death was ruled accidental, authorities said Friday.

The state Crime Laboratory’s autopsy of 3-year-old Dominick Arceneaux revealed no evidence of abuse, and there is no indication a crime occurred, Ouachita County Sheriff David Norwood said.

A volunteer firefighter found the boy’s body floating in the lake Wednesday, ending an extensive search that included questioning area sex offenders and stopping drivers on a nearby highway.

From the beginning, authorities said they didn’t have evidence of foul play but were exploring the possibility of a kidnapping since the child didn’t turn up after days of searching.

The autopsy findings did little to convince the boy’s mother, Amber Arceneaux, that her son’s death was an accident, said Sheree Mitchell, Dominick’s great-aunt.

“We still don’t believe he went into that lake,” Mitchell said Friday from the Hog Wild Saloon on the family’s lakeside property northwest of Chidester. “We still don’t believe that.”

The sheriff said no strangers were reported in the area Feb. 10, when Dominick vanished from the yard.

The family’s dogs never barked, and neither Arceneaux nor Mitchell - who were both home with Dominick - reported seeing or hearing anything suspicious, he said.

Dominick was alone outside for about five minutes when Arceneaux checked on him and he was gone.

“They did tell us it was very fast,” Mitchell said of the drowning.

Norwood said he expects the case to be closed upon the prosecutor’s review of the file.

This article was published Saturday, February 21, 2009.

http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2009/feb/21/death-3-year-old-boy-ruled-accidental-dro-20090221/

(Subscription required.)

[javahog]

Death of 3-year-old boy ruled accidental drowning

LITTLE ROCK — A south Arkansas boy whose body was discovered floating in White Oak Lake eight days after his mother reported him missing was found to have drowned and his death was ruled accidental, authorities said Friday.

The state Crime Laboratory’s autopsy of 3-year-old Dominick Arceneaux revealed no evidence of abuse, and there is no indication a crime occurred, Ouachita County Sheriff David Norwood said.

A volunteer firefighter found the boy’s body floating in the lake Wednesday, ending an extensive search that included questioning area sex offenders and stopping drivers on a nearby highway.

From the beginning, authorities said they didn’t have evidence of foul play but were exploring the possibility of a kidnapping since the child didn’t turn up after days of searching.

The autopsy findings did little to convince the boy’s mother, Amber Arceneaux, that her son’s death was an accident, said Sheree Mitchell, Dominick’s great-aunt.

“We still don’t believe he went into that lake,” Mitchell said Friday from the Hog Wild Saloon on the family’s lakeside property northwest of Chidester. “We still don’t believe that.”

The sheriff said no strangers were reported in the area Feb. 10, when Dominick vanished from the yard.

The family’s dogs never barked, and neither Arceneaux nor Mitchell - who were both home with Dominick - reported seeing or hearing anything suspicious, he said.

Dominick was alone outside for about five minutes when Arceneaux checked on him and he was gone.

“They did tell us it was very fast,” Mitchell said of the drowning.

Norwood said he expects the case to be closed upon the prosecutor’s review of the file.

This article was published Saturday, February 21, 2009.

http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2009/feb/21/death-3-year-old-boy-ruled-accidental-dro-20090221/

(Subscription required.)

So sad. Poor little guy. Poor mom, too.

It would be so easy to depend on a child's fear of water to keep him away, but you just can't...kid fears go away with no warning. One day my son was terrified of the bathtub, and the next he was bending into it trying to turn it on. Just poof!