A child went missing from his home in the middle of the night in an Oklahoma neighborhood on September 11. Two-year-old Ares Muse has been found dead half a mile from his house on September 12, per DailyMail.
His father said Ares was last seen at his house situated on tribal land at around 1.30 am after he got in bed with his parents. When they woke up at 6.30 am and didn’t see Ares anywhere, Nikita, Ares’ father, filed a missing person report. According to Jason Salsman, a representative for the Muscogee Nation, little Ares apparently managed to go through three closed doors to leave his house.
A multi-agency search was launched, and it took 12 hours for everyone involved, including drones, boats, personnel on horseback, and personnel with dogs, to thoroughly explore the nearby woodland region around Cromwell. According to Eric Foster of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the search and investigation engaged several agencies from the tribal, local, state, and federal levels.
Around 6.30 pm, the boy’s body was discovered half a mile away from their home. “We talked all day long about wanting a good outcome, and we didn’t get that,” Salsman said about the unfortunate incident. He added that nothing takes away “from the effort and from how we need to be there in our hearts and minds for this family.” Foster echoed the thoughts and said that “a lot of citizens reach out as well wanting to help, and that’s just Oklahoma and we are proud to be a part of that. Although the death has not yet been classified as a crime, a formal investigation is ongoing, and the boy’s family is working with law enforcement officials.
Calling him as the “pride and joy” of the family, Ares’ grandmother Brandi Gaither said “He enjoyed painting Easter eggs and working with his father.” In the GoFundMe started by her, which is not accepting donations anymore, she said that her “beloved grandson” was “a sweet boy” adding: “Just short of his 3rd birthday. He loved his mom, dad and sister very much and was a second son to his aunt. The hole that is left in all our hearts will never be filled,” the page reads.
On a Facebbok page called Bringing Home Missing People and Those Who Are Unidentified, the admin expressed her condolences in a post. “My condolences to all who knew angel areas. Fly high angel,” she wrote. Funeral services for the child were held on September 19, according to an announcement made on Parks Brother’s Funeral Homes’ website. According to the obituary, the child “loved comic books and especially Spiderman” and “playing with balls, bath time and riding bikes.”