CARTHAGE, Mo. — The FBI, members of the Missouri Highway Patrol and numerous local officers are assisting Carthage police in the search for an eight-month old Carthage child who was abducted from his home at 227 E. Mound St. in Carthage at 11:30 p.m. Thursday.
Carthage Police Chief Dagnan said an Amber Alert has been issued in the Four-State Area and police have been in touch with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
A Highway Patrol spokesman said the child was dressed only in a blue “onesy” and there is extreme concern about the child’s exposure to the weather conditions today.
Police say the child, Eddie Salazar, was taken after two men broke into the family home in north Carthage, ransacked the house and assaulted the father. The father was knocked unconscious, according to Carthage Police Capt. Randee Kaiser. Dagnan later said that the father, whose name is not being released, was not hospitalized.
Police are not releasing the names of either parent, but did say that several adults were home at the time of the abduction. Dagnan said he did not think that drugs were involved. Two men wearing ski masks entered the home.
“Weapons were displayed. At least one weapon was a knife,” Dagnan said.
Dagnan said it was not known if the intruders came to the house to take the child, or if that was done as an afterthought.
“Something that looks random is rarely random,” Dagnan said.
Police have mobilized a large area in their search for the child. Students in the Missouri Southern State University are also searching the area.
“The search started right after the call came in, an hour later, around 1 a.m., we organized another search party, it expanded after that and has expanded again now that daylight’s here,” Kaiser said about 9:30 a.m.
The child is described at 3 feet tall, weighting 20 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes, and wearing a blue short-sleeved body suit and white socks.
Officers say the entire focus of the investigation is to find the child and his abductors.
Officers have no description on the suspects, or information about their direction or mode of travel, Kaiser said.
Anyone with information should contact the Carthage Police Department at 237-7200.
