1:05
- ABC News
- September 26, 2018
Dad calls search for missing boy, 6, 'torture'
Maddox Ritch, who has autism and does not talk, went missing in a park Saturday.
1:05
Investigators have checked dozens of dumpsters, searched the park's lake using sonar and divers and scanned the area with helicopters and drones, police said.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/gaston-county-drone3a-ht-ml-180925_hpEmbed_4x3_384.jpg\")
The search for 6-year old Maddox Ritch is leaving no place unchecked. Gaston County Police went down a man-hole just to be sure. #FindMaddox. Call the tip line! We desperately need to hear from those in the park on Saturday. 704-869-1075. pic.twitter.com/BiIUHfoftn
— FBI Charlotte (@FBICharlotte) September 26, 2018
A search dog from the @MissingKids inside drainage pipes. We are searching everywhere possible to #FindMaddox. Call the @GPDNC tip line! We desperately need to hear from those in the park on Saturday. 704-869-1075. pic.twitter.com/A66XksUEhC
— FBI Charlotte (@FBICharlotte) September 26, 2018
We are searching all around the Rankin lake Park for 6-year-old Maddox Ritch. The @GPDNC SWAT team hand searched through dumpsters in the area. pic.twitter.com/ZCGuLJCBDz
— FBI Charlotte (@FBICharlotte) September 24, 2018
Authorities have also recorded messages from Maddox's parents and are playing those messages in the woods in the hopes that their voices will persuade him to come out if he's there, the FBI said.
Anyone who was at Rankin Lake Park on Saturday is asked to call the tip line at 704-869-1075. A $10,000 reward is being offered.
\"We have spoken to many people who were there, but we want to make sure we talk to them all,\" Gastonia Police Chief Robert Helton said in a statement released by police Monday. \"No piece of information is too small. Something you may think is insignificant could be helpful to our case.\"
Maddox has blond hair and blue eyes, weighs 45 pounds and is 4 feet tall, police said. He was wearing black shorts, closed-toe sandals and an orange T-shirt that reads \"I am the Man\" at the time he went missing, according to police.
A candlelight vigil will be held Wednesday night.
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