The parents of a California boy who has been missing for over two weeks were arrested for suspected child abuse, officials said, as the boy’s grandfather said he thinks his grandson is dead.
Noah McIntosh, 8, vanished from Corona in early March, leading police officers to arrest his parents Jillian Marie Godfrey, 36, and Bryce Daniel McIntosh, 32, on suspicion of willful child cruelty.
Arraignment for both suspects, who were arrested on March 13, was postponed on Friday to April 8, reported The Press-Enterprise. McIntosh was being held without bail while Godfrey was being held in lieu of posting $500,000 bail.
Jillian Godfrey’s father Doug Godfrey said that his daughter was living in her car at the apartment complex where McIntosh lived with Noah and other children, hoping to see them, but when she went there on Tuesday for her weekly visit there was no response.
She contacted the police, who were unable to make contact with McIntosh. Officers obtained a search warrant for the apartment and once inside found an 11-year-old girl but Noah was nowhere to be found.
Godfrey told the Orange County Register that he thinks the boy is dead. “I never lost a kid and didn’t know where a kid was,” he said.
“This is a dream you would like to wake up from, but you can’t. We’re simply devastated by this,” he said.
He and his wife were caring for Noah at their Anaheim home for eight years along with Noah’s sister but, according to Godfrey, McIntosh convinced Jillian Godfrey to move to Corona and then “wrestled control” of the children from his daughter.
Godfrey said he thinks McIntosh became violent.
“Did I think he’d kill Noah? I thought at one time he would kill the whole family,” he said.
“I know he has a violent temper,” Doug Godfrey added to KTLA. “I think something maybe got out of hand.”
He said that grandparents should have more rights in cases where parents can’t take care of the children, noting he reported McIntosh in the past for suspected abuse.
“I’m so upset. If I had any right at all, Noah would be alive, he’d be here right now and you guys would be able to see what a great kid he is,” Doug Godfrey said. “But now we’ve lost him. And there is no hope.”
Police, meanwhile, told ABC 7 that more than 10 detectives are assigned to the case.
They’re focusing on finding the boy.
“I know they’re working tirelessly. They’ve been here around the clock almost since Tuesday evening, after we were unable to make contact with Noah,” Corona Sgt. Chad Fountain said.
The grandfather of missing Corona 8-year-old Noah McIntosh said he believes the child is dead. Read what he says about the family. https://t.co/O2SBOxFN6v pic.twitter.com/G1cIzKo2By
— Brian Rokos (@Brian_Rokos) March 16, 2019
Child Abuse
An estimated 674,000 children were determined to be victims of maltreatment in 2017, according to the Department of Health & Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. Of the victims, about 75 percent were neglected, 18 percent were physically abused, and 9 percent were sexually abused.
Nationwide, an estimated 1,720 children died from abuse and neglect, a decline from the 1,750 children who died from the same in the previous year.
Officials said there was an increase in the number of referrals to Child Protective Services for an investigation but that there was a decline in the number of maltreatment cases, a phenomenon they will be probing. Of the abused children, 25 percent were younger than 1 year old. Another 52 percent were between 1 year old and 5 years old.
The children who were killed by abuse or neglect were also overwhelmingly young, with about half of the fatalities being younger than 1 year old. Boys made up 58 percent of the deaths.
Perpetrators of abuse or neglect are most often in the 25 to 34 age range. More than four-fifths (83.4 percent) of the perpetrators were between 18 and 44 years old. Perpetrators were more likely to be female.
