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Regina police say a mix of technology, community tips and a massive search effort helped officers find a missing eight-year-old boy, who had disappeared from school on Tuesday.
The non-verbal boy, identified by police as Carson Laplante, was found cold but physically unharmed near Ross Avenue and Winnipeg Street around 5:48 p.m., more than five hours after the call for service came in.
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“We were all holding our breath and we’re so very grateful he was located,” said Sgt Andree Sieber, missing persons co-ordinator with the Regina Police Service.
Police said the first call came through a school resource officer after the boy went missing from a school area near the 200 block of Hamilton Street and Broad Street.
Sieber said the call for service was entered around 12:20 p.m. Within about 10 minutes, the missing persons unit was aware of the case and by 1 p.m., police were setting up a command post.
“Knowing the area where this little boy had gone missing, it’s quite large, busy traffic in the area,” Sieber said.
A map shown by Regina Police Service illustrates the search zones officers used while searching for a missing eight-year-old boy Tuesday. Police say a lost-person behaviour program helped guide the search effort. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)
By 2 p.m., she said officers had already established a perimeter and were searching the area with multiple units.
Police eventually had about 15 police units and roughly 80 members involved in the search, including officers, civilian members, drone operators and the Air Support Unit.
“We had multiple units. We set up a perimeter in the area, hoping that if our missing person was to go out of that area, that we would notice them,” Sieber shared.
Officers also searched streets, yards, back alleys, sheds, under decks, school grounds and other areas where a child might hide.
“We know that children are known to hide in locations when they get scared,” Sieber said. “They’re scared of getting in trouble and all of those things.”
A major piece of the search involved a lost-person behaviour program, which police used to help determine where officers should look first.
Sieber said once officers entered details about the missing boy – including his age, cognitive abilities, clothing and weather conditions – the program created search zones based on statistical patterns of how missing or vulnerable people may behave.
“It creates your hot zone, if you will,” Sieber said. “Where the person was last seen, and then it expands out from there based on that information within a time frame.”
She said the program was based on researcher Robert Koester, who wrote about lost-person behaviour and how different people may move or reach when they go missing.
“All of that information is taken into account,” Sieber said. “When you plug it in, it’ll show up on the map in different colours of where you should start your search and then move into other areas.”
Video surveillance also played a key role.
Sieber said the surveillance helped police confirm the boy’s description, what he was wearing and his direction of travel.
“In this case, this young gentleman was wearing a T-shirt, pants and runners, so clearly not dressed for the weather,” she said. “It was quite cool yesterday, so that’s important to know, because priority levels go up.”
Police also used Regina’s community camera registry program, going to homes with registered cameras to review video and identify the direction of travel.
“Hopefully, this will encourage more people to register for our camera registry,” Sieber said. “We actually viewed their video surveillance, which is super helpful when you have vulnerable persons.”
Police said tips from the public also helped guide the search, including information that suggested the boy had been in the area where he was eventually found.
“Sometimes we don’t receive tips until much later in the day, when people are done work or they’re checking their socials or media,” Sieber said. “But every single tip we received is taken into consideration.”
Police also contacted cab companies, Regina Transit and other community partners.
“Bus drivers have been amazing in helping us locate vulnerable persons and youth that go missing,” Sieber said. “I can’t thank our community partners enough, because without them, our job would be that much harder.”
The boy was found in a ditch area near Ross Avenue and Winnipeg Street. Sieber said he was very cold when officers found him and was taken to the hospital to be checked out before being released.
“It was getting cold by the end of the day,” she said. “We were very happy that we had located him.”
