Sheriff asks public to help in 'emergency search' for missing 3-year-old boy in North Carolina

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Chalabala/iStock(CRAVEN COUNTY, N.C.) — Authorities are urging people to help them in “an emergency search” for a missing 3-year-old boy in North Carolina.

“We are doing everything we can to find this child,” Craven County Sheriff Chip Hughes told reporters Tuesday night. “We are utilizing all resources at our disposal.”

Casey Lynn Hathaway went missing from the backyard of his grandmother’s home Tuesday afternoon, Hughes said, according to ABC New Bern affiliate WCTI.

Casey was playing with two other children, and when those kids came inside without Casey, the grandmother and others spent 45 minutes searching before calling 911, authorities said, according to WCTI.

Authorities are asking people to check their property, cars and storage sheds for Casey, the sheriff’s office said.

“We want these folks in the community — the Cayton community, the Ernul community — to certainly keep an ear out,” the sheriff told reporters. “We’ve got well over 100 volunteers that have come here and we don’t want to utilize all of these resources at one time if come tomorrow we’re still having this search and rescue effort and we’ve run out of resources.”

Casey has blonde hair and brown eyes. He stands at 28 inches tall and weighs 25 pounds, the sheriff’s office said.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Craven County Sheriff’s Office at 252-633-0498 or the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation at 919-662-4500.

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