'So happy I can't stop crying': Mom of autistic boy reacts after son is found 2 months after he was kidnapped
MONCTON, CANADA: A 6-year-old Florida boy with autism, who was reported missing, has been found two months later in a city in Canada. Jorge Jojo Morales was discovered unharmed on Sunday, October 30, in Moncton, New Brunswick, as confirmed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police via Twitter.
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children confirmed that the boy was spotted with his father Jorge Gabriel Morales at a Walmart in Moncton by a tipster who recognized the child's face from the media reports. According to Fox 5 Vegas, an Amber alert was issued after young Jorge went missing on August 27 from his Miami home.
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On October 30, 2022, the 6-year-old boy from Miami, Florida, who was reported missing to the Miami-Dade Police Department on August 27, 2022, has been located safe and sound in Moncton, N.B.
— RCMP New Brunswick (@RCMPNB) October 30, 2022
"I’m just so happy because my son is OK, I feared the worst," Yanet Leal Concepcion, Jojo’s mother, told news station Local10. Authorities say that Concepcion reported her child missing to the cops as soon as Jorge 'Jojo' Morales was not returned by his father, which violated their custody agreement. She then took a tour of her ex-husband's apartment to check up on her son and found everything gone.
"Everything was gone. Everything was gone from his apartment. His phones were off. His mom’s phone was off," she told 6 South Florida. Concepcion revealed that she was living a nightmare for the past two months. "I thought it is really good or really bad," said the mother. She was delighted to receive an unexpected call from the FBI confirming that her son was safe and sound. "Every mother fears the worst and I’m just... I can’t, my body is like leaving my soul. I’m just so happy I can’t stop crying."
"All I said was, ‘Hey, baby! I missed you!’ and he says, ‘It’s mommy, it’s mommy!'" she said after talking to Jojo after the long wait. "I am glad my son is not aware of what is going on because this is a trauma. I got to speak to him and I told him I was waiting for you to come back from vacation baby! He was just like yes momma," she said.
Investigators believe that the boy could have been in eastern Canada or Maine after Jorge’s ride 2006 Ford Expedition truck was found in Maine on September 26. The FBI also released surveillance footage from a Walgreens in Houston which confirmed Jorges' stay in the state of Maine during his travels. The cops also retrieved the boy's belongings from the vehicle.
Jojo’s father, 45, and grandmother Lillian, 68, have been taken into custody “without incident” in relation to the case after being found at a business on Plaza Boulevard and Village-Des-Cormier Road in Saint-Paul, respectively.