Who killed Xavior Harrelson? Remains of missing 11-year-old boy found in Iowa farm
The remains of a child that a farmer found in Iowa last month belongs to 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson, who went missing in May, officials have confirmed. In a statement posted on Facebook on Friday, October 15, Poweshiek County Sheriff Thomas E. Kriegel said that the body's identity was confirmed earlier that day by the Iowa State Medical Examiner's office. Assistant director of the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, Mitch Mortvedt said that Harrelson's death is being considered suspicious.
The Mayor of Montezuma, Jacki Bolen, said that the boy "and his kind heart" will never be forgotten. "The Montezuma community is greatly saddened by the news of Xavior's passing," she said. "We express our deepest sympathy to his family and friends."
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When did Xavior Harrelson go missing?
Xavior Harrelson had disappeared on May 27, 2021, near his home in Montezuma, Iowa. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had joined the search for the boy, along with more than 500 volunteers and responders, as well as dogs, drones and dive teams. Law enforcement had reached out to the residents to search their own properties and check their surveillance systems for any sign of Harrelson.
Harrelson was last seen wearing a red t-shirt, blue pajama pants and black high-top shoes. "At the end of last week, there's kind of a cold snap. And when it gets down into the 30s, of course, then you're thinking hypothermia," Mitch Mortvedt had said.
"As the days go on, it's increasingly more suspicious and more concerning," he added. Nearly three years ago, the same Iowa community rallied to search for 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts, who was last seen jogging. A farm worker was found guilty of her murder last week. "To be right back here, you know, working out of the sheriff's office and in the same communities as we were almost three years ago when Molly disappeared, it's frightening," Mortvedt had said. We earlier reported that farmworker, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, has been found guilty of the murder of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts.
Harrelson went missing just days before he was going to celebrate his birthday. Hundreds of people searched the county on his 11th birthday. Teams of 40 boarded buses and made their way to the outskirts of town. Side by side, a sea of yellow vests combed through fields and wooded areas looking for any trace of Xavior. The massive search proved to be futile until his remains were recently found by a farmer.